How can I switch the translation and the rotation axes for the handles in the viewport from local to global space?

quite a tricky subject depending on the context….

just a stab in the dark, have you tried changing the pivot( in your translation sop to $CEX,$CEY,$CEZ ).

Assuming that you're using H7, you right-click on the handle and turn on/off “Handle aligned to world”.

ah yes…. good call.

Do what edward says!

And in 6.1? Would be nice to have a world, object and component mode for the transformations. Seems not up to date to rotate the pivot for this sort of operation.

What exactly do you want to do with the pivot?

Are you trying to translate at the object or geometry level?

edward
What exactly do you want to do with the pivot?

The center of geometry doesn't matter for me. I simply want to rotate the center of my current selection. Sometimes I want for example translate or extrude a polygon or vertex into a specific direction. So I need a way to change the direction of the translation axis. Switching between world, object and normal mode is one thing, but it is also very helpy if I can align the center to another object or component. Isn't there a way to do all this in Houdini?

@Henster
At the geometry level.

If you're using the Edit (or Transform) SOPs, then the handle is already aligned to the centre of the selection. For PolyExtrude, you can right-click on the handle to turn on/off Local Mode. For everything else, I think orientation picking might be the answer.

edward
If you're using the Edit (or Transform) SOPs, then the handle is already aligned to the centre of the selection. For PolyExtrude, you can right-click on the handle to turn on/off Local Mode. For everything else, I think orientation picking might be the answer.

Where can I find the toggle ‘Local Mode’ in 6.1? The handle for the Edit SOP is always in the world matrix. The only way I found in 6.1 is to rotate the handle manually but that's too imprecise. And when I transform or rotate the handle and switch back to ‘Align with world axes’ the poly/edge/vertex switches also back not only the handle! What's what? I only want to modify the handle not the corresponding component. How can you model in Houdini? I need some tips.

for the edit sop there is no local
transform mode, you have to unbind the
handle, select start orientation picking
and pick some points to align the handle to.
this has to be done for every edit so its
pretty useless if you haven't much time
or patience.

-cpb

You have never enough time in production. Maybe I will stay with XSI for poly/subd modeling. But I will not give up so soon.
Would be interesting to know how you guys thing about modeling in Houdini. Do most of you model in Houdini or do you prefer other packages like Studio, Maya, Lightwave or XSI for modeling?

Heya Sascha,

I've had a bit of a revalation in the recent past.

To date my favourite poly modeller was XSI. It just made sense. The controls were where I expected them to be, there wasn't much fiddling. It just worked. It also stayed out of my way for the most part, which is great.

On a particular occassion I was trying to show something modelling related to a friend of mine who is trying to familiarize himself with CG, and much to my surprise (it only dawned on me after the fact), I fired up Houdini - and at the time, I had a choice between maya PLE, the XSI2.0 demo CD (That came with a kick ass mouse pad!), and Apprentice.

Not sure what that means, but I suppose it's a nod toward all the hard work that the SESI crew has been doing in this area.

Cheers,

Gene

Of course most Houdini users model in Houdini - you're defeating the power of proceduralism if you just import data all the time. Of course there's exceptions, especially in large production pipelines, but the modeler in Houdini is very powerful. The problem is likely that you're trying to approach modelling like you do in another package - every single package out there has it's own approaches to doing things.

Have you tried the tutorials? I don't know what you mean by the edit handle is always in “world” - it centres around your selection. How is that “world”? It certainly doesn't default to 0,0,0. Also, if I'm dead wrong and it does do this in 6.1(I'm quite certain not), then any reason you can't use v7?

Cheers,

J.C.

You're absolutely right! I think most users who are sitting in front of a new package are trying to approach modeling like in their familiar package. And I'm very eager to get familiar how to think in Houdini because I like the software somehow even if I can do everything faster in XSI or Maya for the moment. Hope this will change very soon.

Yeah, I tried the first batch of tutorials at www.3dbuzz.com. Very good videos for the beginning. I also started with the 5.5 tutorial guide from Side Effects. I would like to get first familiar with modeling in Houdini but unfortunately all modeling tutorials are not very deep in terms of modeling operators. So if someone knows a good poly modeling tutorial…

For the handles: Yes, the handle is always centered around the selected component, but the axes are oriented with the world coordinates in the Edit SOP not with the component normal. How can I toggle it to the normal direction? Nobody wants to translate a poly, edge or vertex in the normal direction in Houdini? Or I am misconceiving something? With the PolyExtrude SOP the handle is oriented along the component normal fortunately. But there is also the problem I cannot switch the handle back into the world system. Also the “Local Control” option in Houdini 7 for the extrusion does not change this. To be honest I cannot find out what this option does. Also if I align the PolyExtrude SOP handle back to the world mode, it does not only affects the handle but also the component unfortunately.

Cheers,
Sascha

To move along the normal in Edit/Transform, right-click on the handle and choose “Peak”. The shortcut key is y. To change back, try the e, r, or t hotkeys.

For PolyExtrude, I think you have to toggle the mode before you extrude.

edward
To move along the normal in Edit/Transform, right-click on the handle and choose “Peak”. The shortcut key is y. To change back, try the e, r, or t hotkeys.

For PolyExtrude, I think you have to toggle the mode before you extrude.

Better than nothing but I have to say it's still disappointing. In Peak mode I have only one translation direction, the direction of the normal. But where are the other axes? And why can I not rotate the component in normal space? And by the way, where is the object space? I wish Side Effects would integrate these basic standard functions into Houdini.

I agree 100% with sascha…for a good and fast poly modeling the axis should be oriented by default with the component selected, not only centered on this. Not to mention the fact, the worst thing, that even if you align the handle , the scale operation is always performed on world coordinates (just try to make a cube, rotate it so it's not aligned with the world axis and then try to scale a face with the handle aligned and positioned with one of the box vertex…it just doesn't work…while the rotate and translate do).
I hope SideFX look at these problems because with this enhancement and some little addition houdini could be the best poly modeler (and with better rounding and blending tools the best surface modeler too).
Anyway the software is an order of magnitude better than anything else :wink:

First time I have the feeling someone can reproduce the issue.
I think it is such a simple thing the development guys could integrate this very quickly, but I know that's never the problem. However, I hope Side Effects will make a step forward in this case.

I suspect that this sort of thing was
never developed as a result of a general
disuse of houdini for modelling, fast
'manual' poly-modelling anyway. However
there have been some excellent improvements
in this area since version 5 and I'd be
surprised if development stopped here.

-cpb