So im trying to create an explosion with dust at the bottom spreading out. I wanted to use particles to create the dust effect. My problem is i cant figure out how to make the particles spread out equally along the ground plane at a fast pace once i start editing the velocity. Once i mess with those numbers they only go in one direction. Im very new to Houdini so im sorry if this is a very easy fix.

it is hard to tell what are you doing wrong without any example file

Yes ,you should show us an example file ,But if you Just wanna make a ground dust (Explosion wave) that emitted from center of explosion ,my suggestion is to use dust effect with pyro and finally use this pyro to advect particles !

You can find too many Tutorial or topic about “Advects Particles by Volume”
on the NET !

Yes a dust shock wave effect is what im trying to achieve. I was thinking id create the motion with particles and then just attach smoke to them. Ive included a few examples this time. There are two files. One is the particles moving equally on all sides of the grid but they are too slow, so i tried to up the velocity settings in the location pops under attributes and the other movie is what i got. Now i understand that by punching in 2,0,3 for example is gonna make the particles move in only the positive 2 and 3 sides of the grid, i guess im asking is there an expression that i can use to make it go on both sides giving the look that its equally spread out. I like how it moves when everything is 0, its just too slow.

I understand what you are trying to achieve but we don't know what you might be “punching” wrong

if it is a pop sim, there is an option to add randomisation in every axis on source node.

The velocity in the location pop is the only thing ive tried adjusting this far.