Hi there!
I've recently installed Houdini 16 Apprentice. And when i launch the programm i see the following errors in the console:




Error while populating shelf with shelf tool assets.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “<stdin>”, line 1, in <module>
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\shelfutils.py”, line 183, in populateShelfFromJSON
_ensure_toolbar_dir_exists()
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\shelfutils.py”, line 271, in _ensure_toolbar_dir_exists
toolbar_dir = hou.homeHoudiniDirectory() + “/toolbar”
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py”, line 55363, in homeHoudiniDirectory
return _hou.homeHoudiniDirectory(*args)
UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf8’ codec can't decode byte 0xc5 in position 9: invalid continuation byte

Exception in thread Thread-2:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “C:\PROGRA~1\SIDEEF~1\HOUDIN~1.557\python27\lib\threading.py”, line 808, in __bootstrap_inner
self.run()
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py”, line 55857, in __threadRun
self.__run()
File “C:\PROGRA~1\SIDEEF~1\HOUDIN~1.557\python27\lib\threading.py”, line 761, in run
self.__target(*self.__args, **self.__kwargs)
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\hdefereval.py”, line 141, in <lambda>
thread = threading.Thread(target=lambda: function(*args, **kwargs))
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\hdefereval.py”, line 161, in thread_code
it.next()
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\sas\localassets.py”, line 372, in check_for_shelf_tool_assets
tool)
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\sas\localassets.py”, line 702, in _shelf_tool_assets_icon_file
hou.homeHoudiniDirectory() + “/config/Icons/”,
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py”, line 55363, in homeHoudiniDirectory
return _hou.homeHoudiniDirectory(*args)
UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf8’ codec can't decode byte 0xc5 in position 9: invalid continuation byte

Error while checking for updates
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “<stdin>”, line 1, in <module>
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\sas\localassets.py”, line 84, in wrapper
return decorated_function(*args, **kwargs)
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\hdefereval.py”, line 193, in wrapper
_run_main_thread_worker_thread_code(it)
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\hdefereval.py”, line 152, in _run_main_thread_worker_thread_code
it.next()
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\sas\localassets.py”, line 265, in check_for_asset_updates
installed_assets_info = _read_installed_assets_info()
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\sas\localassets.py”, line 653, in _read_installed_assets_info
_ensure_asset_store_dir_exists()
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\sas\localassets.py”, line 663, in _ensure_asset_store_dir_exists
if not os.path.exists(_installed_assets_info_file()):
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\sas\localassets.py”, line 727, in _installed_assets_info_file
return asset_store_dir() + “/” + _current_user_dir() + “/installed_assets.json”
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\sas\localassets.py”, line 731, in asset_store_dir
hou.homeHoudiniDirectory() + “/asset_store”)
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.557/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py”, line 55363, in homeHoudiniDirectory
return _hou.homeHoudiniDirectory(*args)
UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf8’ codec can't decode byte 0xc5 in position 9: invalid continuation byte



Could someone help me to fix it?

This sounds like you have a utf8 character in your user name. Someone else ran into this: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/37746/ [sidefx.com]