Hello everyone.

I would like to introduce my self to the forum as I plan on using it quite a lot. I started to learn about Houdini back in roughly 2004. Only for 6 months or so. I found 3DBuzz site and followed his free training. (sad to see he now charges)(also sad to hear about his illness) I have had no experience in any other platform. This time however I am fully committed (no ties or responsibilities) to going all the way to advanced practitioner. I am a very fast learner with above average intelligence. I'm 47 and live in the UK. I hope to get some useful advice and encouragement from you guys, and of course help others as I progress. I am currently going back to very basics to familiarise my self with Houdini. I also plan on learning Python in the near future. Anyhoo, that's me and in the mean time I do have a couple of questions that you might be able to help with. I seem to be having trouble upgrading the Apprentice version to the free indie version. The name in the persp view still says Non-Commercial Edition. If someone could explain the whole process as if to a child (lol) I would appreciate it. My other question is, does anyone know a way of selecting a large number of edges, quickly, for a bevel for example, leaving out ones not required. Selecting them all one or a few at a time seems laborious, if the model is complexed.
Thank you for your time and I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship. lol

I seem to be having trouble upgrading the Apprentice version to the free indie version.

Cool, it's great to see your progression resume. While the Houdini Engine features within Indie are free, Houdini Indie itself still has an annual cost.

https://www.sidefx.com/filmtv/compare/ [www.sidefx.com]

Houdini Indie | Houdini Indie is also available for $199 USD per year. This version offers limited commercial usage for indie gamers and animators making up to $100K USD per year and cannot be used in the same pipeline as commercial versions of Houdini. Houdini Indie uses its own file format for saving scenes and assets and renders animations up to 1920x1080. These annual licenses include all upgrades therefore existing Houdini Indie users will be issued upgrade licenses on release day.

FREE Houdini Apprentice | For students and artists looking to learn more about working procedurally, SideFX has a free Houdini Apprentice Edition which allows non-commercial usage with a render restriction of 1280x720 and a watermark.

https://www.sidefx.com/community/more-flexible-houdini-engine/ [www.sidefx.com]
https://www.sidefx.com/services/licenses/ [www.sidefx.com]

does anyone know a way of selecting a large number of edges

Hold down the control key to interactively subtract edges from a selection. Or use the Group Combine Sop to refine a set of pre-selected edges. The selection tool also offers some prompts about shortcuts to quickly highlight loops.

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/basics/select [www.sidefx.com]
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/groupcreate [www.sidefx.com]

Thanks for your help. I guess I'll treat myself to indie then