How to select linked parented Object nodes by just picking the Master ?

not sure if what you want, but in network view you can do RMB/Outputs/Select Outputs or make a hotkey for it

Use ‘9’ and ‘0’ for chain/tree selections
Not as straight forward as in XSI, but… it's there

McNistor
Use ‘9’ and ‘0’ for chain/tree selections
Not as straight forward as in XSI, but… it's there

How does XSI do it?

Cristin

Say you have three objects, 1,2 and 3 parented in this sequence, 1 being the parent of 2 and 2 parent of 3.
1->2->3
RMB on any of them and you branch select the whole tree, the root being active and the rest “semi-active”
MMB anywhere in the middle, 2 in this case, and you select from that point “down” until the last leafs, 2 and 1 in this case.

Problem is, Houdini sits with its ass on the “alt” key doing nothing with it, while XSI uses it for various menus, commands, etc. thus enabling the user to use RMB in many contexts w/o popping out a menu everytime. In some contexts RMB pops a menu in others it doesn't.

You can use “alt navigation” as in Maya if you set it in prefs, but not ‘S’ and alt simultaneously as Houdini does with space and alt. Keeping the alt key occupied even when you disable it in prefs has to be one of the worst decisions as far as UI/interaction goes.
Now you have two options:
a)space
or
b)space and alt
As a Maya/Max user I'd go with b. but as Softimage/Houdini user which would rather use alt for other stuff, I get no reward for going with a. so I'm not sure why this choice even exists. I'm hopeful that it's a placeholder for when the time comes to set alt free. That's a good title for a petition: set alt free in Houdini!

alt was added at the (very vocal) request of Maya users who wanted to have a more comfortable transition to Houdini. This was at a time when XSI users were not vocal at all when it came to Houdini.

And before that what was Houdini doing with the alt key?
I hope still nothing, because if it was used for something and it was ditched for Maya style navigation, that would be a hard kick in the something to interaction easiness and versatility.

Again, there's a Maya style interaction in Softimage too (created when the 3d gods decided to throw it in Autodesk's hands) which allows you to navigate with alt and adds a lot of other Maya hotkeys all over the keyboard, remapping the ‘S’ key as well (the default nav. key in XSI) and you get no overlapping.
Of course, the default Softimage keymap (the one that uses alt as a modifier and ‘S’ for navigation) is much better than the Maya one and by opting to navigate with alt you lose the advantages that comes with that.

Let's have a keymap profile for Houdini users, with space for navigation and alt for various things (imagine having three modifier keys, not just two) and all other familiar hotkeys and a Maya profile with alt for navigation, space for maximizing/minimizing viewports, F8-F10 for point, edges, etc. and other hotkeys they're used to.

That would be the best for everyone, making the user solely responsible for their decisions, like whether to go with the overall well-thought Houdini style or with the silly Maya one.

the alt key is used to rotate the view in one axis when holding space. I kind of use it from time to time since i prefer the classic houdini tumbling.

I personally dont care what change sidefx makes but I hope they will make some.
overall i think the whole shortcut system should be remade from scratch.

there seems to be no unification or standards with shortcuts. it all seems rather random. For example at obj level ctrl a selects all objects and N selects none. but when you want to select all polygons you must press N…

It just makes not much sense at all.

NNois
How to select linked parented Object nodes by just picking the Master ?

Hello,

I was wondering what is behind the desire to select parented object nodes? To move them together? Delete them?

I'm looking for the broader use-case for this functionality.

Cheers,
Scott

sakeating
I was wondering what is behind the desire to select parented object nodes? To move them together? Delete them?

@sakeating Hi, I was making subnets from big hierarchies, hard to box select, coming from a big fbx import. (but you're right this could be usefull too for deletion)

@McNistor 0 or 9 doesn't work, i'm sorry but i use an international keyboard and each numerical shortcuts are dead because on my keyboard the numbers are accessible with the shift key modifier and because of that this just don't work…
I've already discussed this here but the main problem is houdini use keys literally, while others simply stick with the english key location, hard to remember but every key just works when you know the location, while on the houdini model the keys are just dead.

sakeating
Hello,

I was wondering what is behind the desire to select parented object nodes? To move them together? Delete them?

I'm looking for the broader use-case for this functionality.

Cheers,
Scott

Hi Scott,

Branch selecting (as is called in XSI) is useful for some operations you do on the parent and want to propagate down. For example setting a key, or applying a material and many others that are suited for this kind of property sharing/inheriting.

Okay, so in both cases described above you're specifically talking about object level hierarchies? ( rigs, objects parented to other objects, etc )

Well, yes. Doesn't parenting in Houdini apply at the OBJ level only? At SOP level having data flow, based on what I've been told as well as my observation.

sakeating
Okay, so in both cases described above you're specifically talking about object level hierarchies? ( rigs, objects parented to other objects, etc )

Hi,
Yes , exactly

Great, thanks for the clarifications!

Cheers,
Scott

Hello,

Just to add to the discussion, if it can help, here is a list of custom functions complementary to “Select Tree” and “Branch Select” that I constantly use to navigate and work with my hierarchies while rigging.

I use two sets of functions:

• “Getters” that are used while scripting (they do not change the selection)
  
• “Selectors” that are mainly intended to call from a GUI (they call the getters internally and then they select the returned lists of nodes)
  

All these functions work in single or mutli selection.

Getters:
GetAncestors
GetChildren
GetCousins
GetDescendants
GetFirstChildren
GetForkPreceding
GetLeaves
GetLineage
GetLineageDown (same as GetDescendants but also returns the input argument objects)
GetLineageUp (same as GetAncestors but also returns the input argument objects)
GetNodesInBetween
GetParent
GetRoot
GetSiblingPreceding
GetSiblingSucceeding
GetSiblings
GetTree

Selectors:
SelectAncestors
SelectChildren
SelectCousins
SelectDescendants
SelectFirstChildren
SelectForkPreceding
SelectLeaves
SelectLineage
SelectLineageDown
SelectLineageUp
SelectParent
SelectRoot
SelectSiblingPreceding
SelectSiblingSucceeding
SelectSiblings
SelectTree

These functions really help to rig faster since box selection is difficult due to the network editor automatic layouting that does not line up siblings and cousins nodes at the same height. They also foster multi selection workflows.

I think it would be great to have those functions available in Houdini “out of the box”, maybe through a contextual menu or some nice GUI.

I will log an RFE for it

Any other hierarchy navigation functions you guys think that should be included by default?