I've imported a hierarchy of geometry using the alembic format. This has created several Sub-Network inputs. Can I move all the geometry into houdini and quit referencing the outside .abc file?

Thanks!

you can use the shelf tool Combine on the Modify shelf
you'll get a single geometry object with object_merges pointing to your files
then you can:
1 - save this geometry to disk - RMB > Save > Geometry
2 - lock the node - RMB > Flags > lock - this will save the geometry into the hip file

1 is better than 2.

Do I then lose all the individual objects? The meshes would all become part of the same geometry group?

Maybe I need to import in a different method? I'd just like to bring in an object made up of other objects that no longer reference outside geometry.

Thanks,
Mark

then you can go into the SOP level of each of the pieces imported from the alembic and lock the last node…

is there a reason you need to have the geometry in the hip file and not referencing geometry on disk?

Thanks. Honestly, there probably isn't a reason that I have to have the geometry in the hip file. Habit I guess. Moving to new software requires a lot of retraining perspectives. Other than alembic, what would be your recommendation for bringing in assemblies? We have always used .stp files which were great for bringing in our cad data and keeping mostly quads, but I don't think that Houdini accepts them.

most people bring geometry in via the file node (or alembic/FBX) and leave the reference.
I don't think Houdini supports stp, but you could make an RFE to support it. We do support stl if that helps