I have been using Houdini as my main 3D app for about 2 years now. My only regret is that I didn't get into Houdini sooner.

So here are my biggest frustrations and they are interaction issues. Wondering if others have similar experiences and maybe can offer a good suggestion or at least condolences.

#1 I am constantly accidentally overwriting settings in my parameter/property windows with the space bar when I am switching from text/value input to navigating with the camera in my scene - ie space bar mouse. The problem is that I fail to hit enter or click outside of the input area after setting values/expression. Sometimes it just seems to happen even if I do things correctly and deliberately.


#2 Nodes sometimes don't refresh as expected. Still working my way through this but I cant tell how many times I have been working with what is technically a correct setup but I don't see results because the network is not properly refreshing. To me this most often happens with materials. I think much of this non refresh issue is self inflicted by doing things incorrectly at first and confusing the node but this isn't always easily apparent to a newer user.

#3 The preview frame/window can very difficult to close sometimes. It is difficult because the close click area is so small and sometimes gets hidden behind other interface things on the screen such as the group and attribute list or the camera selection area.

#4 the component selection tool seems to want to default to edges (or whatever I don't want) all of the time. I think I just need to learn the shortcuts better but it seems that I am always needing to re select the desired component type when selecting and manipulating geometry components.

#5 last but not least manipulation handles are just too small/thin for my taste. I very often miss them when trying to translate and end up deselecting my geometry. Couple this with item#4 and the issue compounds.

Has anyone else struggled with these issues? Am I overlooking some obvious solutions?

You a former XSI user?

jammer
#1 I am constantly accidentally overwriting settings in my parameter/property windows with the space bar when I am switching from text/value input to navigating with the camera in my scene - ie space bar mouse. The problem is that I fail to hit enter or click outside of the input area after setting values/expression. Sometimes it just seems to happen even if I do things correctly and deliberately.

If you fail/forget to hit Enter then it's kinda your fault, so no one can do anything about that, except you
If it happens even when you commit the value by pressing Enter or click outsite, then it's a bug and you should try to see how it can be reproduced and file a RFE.

jammer
#4 the component selection tool seems to want to default to edges (or whatever I don't want) all of the time. I think I just need to learn the shortcuts better but it seems that I am always needing to re select the desired component type when selecting and manipulating geometry components.

I haven't observed this behavior of defaulting to edges. Having to switch back to selection or one of the transform tools (T,R,S) is happening, is annoying AF and it's part of the Houdini's neurotic behavior I've described on these forums after the very first minutes in Houdini. The main offenders are the Y tool and cam/view tool in my experience. Depending on what you're doing, you end up with one of these two active and as such often an undo command follows because you screw something up by mistake.

jammer
#5 last but not least manipulation handles are just too small/thin for my taste. I very often miss them when trying to translate and end up deselecting my geometry. Couple this with item#4 and the issue compounds.

Has anyone else struggled with these issues? Am I overlooking some obvious solutions?

I've attached a screen-shot with my suggested setting to you or anyone having those issues you've described. There's a handle scale there, but you probably know about it and you're referring more to the thickness.

Unfortunately SideFX, due to a popular request from users coming from Maya, decided to implement (and set it as default mind you) a type of handle that is worse than the previous one in all regards. I think it's objectively worse and of course I can be wrong about that, but in order to be proved so, one has to show:
1- how is crap shooting a small square for plane translation better, i.e. faster, more effortlessly, than loosely pointing the cursor between two axes
2- how is not having the negative part of the axis an improvement to being able to grab an axis from any orientation of the view.

And of course there's the glow used for axis mouse over, which doesn't offer a good visual cue, it's not something hard to change to a simple solid color (white, yellow) from a programing stand point, but no one cares enough it seems. Or I'm in the minority to think that that's not a good way to show a mouse over.

edit: Forgot to add that you can MMB in the general direction of an axis to translate along it. I think it alleviates the deselecting issue.

jammer
#2 Nodes sometimes don't refresh as expected. Still working my way through this but I cant tell how many times I have been working with what is technically a correct setup but I don't see results because the network is not properly refreshing. To me this most often happens with materials. I think much of this non refresh issue is self inflicted by doing things incorrectly at first and confusing the node but this isn't always easily apparent to a newer user.

There could be lots of reasons for this, ranging from specific bugs in particular nodes to not understanding how simulation refreshes work, to creating dependency loops. I think it's best to post (or log) as these situations come up. However, I understand that these things never occur unless under tight production deadlines and trying to get something out the door yesterday.

#3 The preview frame/window can very difficult to close sometimes. It is difficult because the close click area is so small and sometimes gets hidden behind other interface things on the screen such as the group and attribute list or the camera selection area.

I'm not sure which window you're referring to here. Is this partially you're in high dpi mode? A screenshot here might be useful. It's been somewhat of a slow process as the UI is tweaked to handle high dpi monitors as lots of developers don't use them on a day to day basis. It's best to log any issues you find in this area.

#5 last but not least manipulation handles are just too small/thin for my taste. I very often miss them when trying to translate and end up deselecting my geometry. Couple this with item#4 and the issue compounds.

In the next major release, there's a new “Pick Distance” handles preference which can be used to help alleviate this. Again, this is one of those things that isn't obviously a problem until one uses a high dpi monitor.

edward
In the next major release, there's a new “Pick Distance” handles preference which can be used to help alleviate this. Again, this is one of those things that isn't obviously a problem until one uses a high dpi monitor.

I use high dpi display and I don't see a problem with the pick distance for the handles in the current version. But, it's good that you'll add an option to tweak it.

jammer
I very often miss them when trying to translate and end up deselecting my geometry.

Maybe this might help you:
turn on Secure Selection so it does not allow selecting when in translate/rotate/scale mode

Doudini
Maybe this might help you:
turn on Secure Selection so it does not allow selecting when in translate/rotate/scale mode

That's a good a feature, but unfortunately, upon activating it, it turns any manipulator limp regarding mouser over axis - you don't see anything highlighting even though if you click close enough to an axis you'll be able to pick it. Clearly a bug, will file a RFE.

I am indeed working on a high DPI monitor and I suspected some of these issues may be related to that. Here is a screenshot if the #3 issue I was mentioning with the ‘close preview’ button being obscured by the camera selector.

If you look closely you will see the circle (x) behind the text. Seems an easy solution would be to put the preview window control on top of everything as I would not likely be selecting another camera using the same preview location.(at least I don't think I would).
One thing I could not capture is the cursor. Sometimes during preview I get a clock as the cursor for which I cant figure out if I can click with it or not and if I can where is the selection point.

I really appreciate everyone's input on all of the points. Some very helpful info here. Some of you guys have been extremely helpful with other questions I have had as well. Cant thank you enough.

Jeff

For capturing the cursor in your printscreen, use a 3rd party app (like irfanview which is free), Windows will discard the mouse cursor.

jammer
If you look closely you will see the circle (x) behind the text. Seems an easy solution would be to put the preview window control on top of everything as I would not likely be selecting another camera using the same preview location.(at least I don't think I would).

All handles are drawn behind those menus in general. I think that what one would want will depend on specific situations. I don't have Houdini handy but there's likely other ways to close the render handle that you can use if its x button is obscured.

One thing I could not capture is the cursor. Sometimes during preview I get a clock as the cursor for which I cant figure out if I can click with it or not and if I can where is the selection point.

Offhand, I can't think of a case where busy cursors can be used to click with.