hello guys,

yes im spamming up these forums but houdini is so complicated to get started with.

anyways, im a little confused as when i try exporting as fbx in the student version it is greyed out. however, in the following thread:

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&p=91190&sid=8747a225659ef94752c26d2cd5fb2404 [sidefx.com]

it says that fbx export from the student version is possible.

now let me explain what i am trying to do so you can all put it in context.

What i want to do i import a mesh, from maya, shatter and destroy it, and then get this animation into UDK.

Now untill now what i have tried to do is to create the desired effect in houdini. then export a sequence of OBJ's into maya, turn these into a blendshape, contrain joints to the chunks, bake the animation on these joints, delete the constraints and then skin the chunks to their corresponding joints. then exporting this into UDK using the actorX plugin.

this is a huge amount of work for a simple object with 20 chunks, and impossible to use for a complicated model being fractured into 100s of pieces. this is the reason that a direct export as FBX from houdini to UDK would be a fantastic solution for me. but i dont have the cash to shell out for a license.

any help?

thanks a ton.

You can only import fbx with apprentice.

there might be some confusion here on what version you have.
The apprentice license does not allow for fbx exporting.
If however you are in a school where they have the educational license you are able to export fbx.
Its quite easy to know what version you have. It's displayed when you startup and in pretty much every single pane of the user interface.
So if it says: apprentice you can't export, if it says educational you can.