unable to read .obj file

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Hey all–

I am running into a strange case when I try to use a file SOP to export/import obj it no longer works. On import I get a ‘Cannot read obj file’ error, and when I export, I get 0 byte files. Other things I have tried:

- I have tried 2 versions of apprentice
- A bgeo will work
- I have tried file names with no spaces.

This was working for me at one point, so the only think I can think of is that I have been ‘Vista’d. Is there any external library that obj depends on somehow? Any ideas short of installing a different OS?
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Please log a bug, making a note about whether it is a Vista (32-bit or 64-bit) problem.
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Any chance of posting it here? We could try and confirm it for you..
Jason Iversen, Technology Supervisor & FX Pipeline/R+D Lead @ Weta FX
also, http://www.odforce.net [www.odforce.net]
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jason_iversen
Any chance of posting it here?

What would you like me to post? Vista version? I am using 32bit Vista…I will log a bug–Thanks!
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If you would like a hip it is here [micahhenrie.com]

I am RMB on the SOP and ‘Save Geometry’ as a obj. I get a 0byte file.
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I'm unable to import/read/export OBJ's from Houdini 10.0.249.3 as well.

I've tried version 9.5 build 379 as well with same errors. (Master and Escape versions)


ie: can't read Obj's (File node),
when exporting obj (geometry->sphere (polygon)) saves as a zero byte file.

On another machine, it works fine.

I've tried to delete my$Home directory of Houdini preferences and reinstalled Houdini 9.5 / 10 as well without problems.

Someone mentioned gconvert.exe is used when importing / export … Is this true? Looks like my Gconvert.exe looks good.

Btw, I'm running xp64 with win64 bit version installed.
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FWIW: We can't import/export Objs either on our Windows machines. (Works fine on Linux.)

I spent two days trying to debug this and could never really narrow it down. gconvert just doesn't seem to be happy. HOWEVER: gwavefront works just fine.

Case# 25232
if(coffees<2,round(float),float)
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Most strange. I can both read, and write them here.

G
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I've tried the following :

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 10.0.249.3\bin>gconvert.exe ctemp/in.bgeo ctemp/out.geo

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 10.0.249.3\bin>gconvert.exe ctemp/in.bgeo ctemp/out.obj

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 10.0.249.3\bin>gconvert.exe ctemp/in.bgeo ctemp/out.pp

Here is the file output sizes:

in.bgeo 193 KB
out.geo 493 KB
out.obj 0 KB
out.pp 193 KB


So, the symptom is narrowed down to the gconvert.exe is not handling the .obj files properly.

Question now is, does gconvert.exe read a filter / config / ini file to handle it's format types? Where is this file?


Thanks!
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Could you please try:

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 10.0.249.3\bin>gwavefront.exe ctemp/in.bgeo ctemp/out.obj

This bypasses the GEOio table and likely will work, as per Wolfwood's comment.

Can you please also try:

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 10.0.249.3\bin>hconfig -p

This will print out the path variables Houdini is searching for GEOio. I am not sure if it would help as you likely have default settings…

I see Wolfwood's case number and raise him Bug# 35617.
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I am getting a license error when I try to run gwavefront.exe. I can run apprentice and the License manager says everything is running:


C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 10.0.249.5\bin>hconfig -p
Common paths are set to:
$JOB = <not defined>
$HIP = CProgram Files/Side Effects Software/Houdini 10.0.249.5/bin
$HOME = CUsers/micah/Documents
$HSITE = CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.5/site
$HFS = CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.5


C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 10.0.249.5\bin>gwavefront.exe C:\tmp\test.bgeo C:\tmp\test.obj
No licenses could be found to run this application.
Please check for a valid license server host
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It looks like this is fixed in 10.0.292. Thanks!
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As a follow up, if anyone is still having this problem in H10.0, it might be due to csh.exe failing to run because of a bad $HOME directory, or a bad $HOME/.cshrc file, or a $HOME/.cshrc file that outputs extra text. I'd highly recommend trying H10.0.654.
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Yup, I just had the same prob. with 10.0.xxx upto 10.0.595.

In my case a bad ‘.tcshrc’ file was in my $HOME directory.

Actually it's not a bad ‘.tcshrc’ file. It only contains :


setenv PATH ‘/opt/kde3/binopt/gnome/binusr/gamesusr/bin/X11usr/binbinusr/sbinsbinusr/local/pfx/qube-4.0-3/bin’


I just removed the ./tcshrc file to fix the execution of houdini for objs. (Did not even need to to restart Houdini)

Quite the weird symptom for what is seemingly an unrelated set of files.

I suppose there's a subprocess that the file sop usese to call csh.exe, or shell variant to do the conversion. Any erronious extra data renders the process void. OR I might have inadvertently overridden the path that the shell is using.

background info: In my environment, we use $HOME for the placement of our roaming profile directories and it is shared with our linux shell stuff.


Markus

http://www.distill3d.com [distill3d.com]
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I might have inadvertently overridden the path that the shell is using.

It looks to me that is the reason in your case because you just removed $HFS\bin from your path so the csh subshell won't be able to find any of the external geometry converters.
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Good to know. Thanks!

Is there an output / error log for theses subshells that I can view/debug?



Markus
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Unfortunately, I don't think so.
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Hello All,

Unfortunately I am facing the same issue with Houdini 13.0.509. I was able to read/write .obj and .dxf files just a week ago and since then unable to do so.

I am not sure what changed in the last one week. I tried deleting the entire Houdini preferences folder in $HOME directory and still the problem persists. I also checked the environment variables for $HFS/bin and they seem to be alrite.

Where am I going wrong? What am I missing? I really need to get this sorted out for my workflow.

Thanks a bunch for your suggestions.
Cheers
ViSiKa
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Try what jlait said.
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I have faced with the similar problem. But it was fixed as I change the path to the file. As far as I understood the exclamation mark (!) symbool couses this issue. So I deleted it from the folder name and now obj loads correct.
Try it as well, please!
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