I thought of another thing that would be nice to have. As I dig into the VEX functions for controlling agents I am finding that I am having to pass/manipulate a lot of string names.

VEX has limited string support and should be expanded to at least include a .find and .replace methods that other languages have.

Enivob
I thought of another thing that would be nice to have. As I dig into the VEX functions for controlling agents I am finding that I am having to pass/manipulate a lot of string names.

VEX has limited string support and should be expanded to at least include a .find and .replace methods that other languages have.

VEX has them in the form of Regex:
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini14.0/vex/functions/re_find [sidefx.com]
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini14.0/vex/functions/re_replace [sidefx.com]

animatrix_
Thanks guys I am not sure how to make the network editor more visible on top of the scene view but it can be done. Maybe thicker lines that are additive on scene view, etc.

It should work like so:

Network editor overlay:
Only scene navigation is possible (same hotkeys with Space).
Without using space, they navigate the network editor.
Everything else is network editor related

Toggle network editor overlay off for full scene view manipulation
Toggle network editor overlay on for full network editor manipulation while seeing and navigating the Scene View

Design A (UX by Afroza):





Design B:

This is now implemented on H18

Hi,

Great!
I think it deserves a dedicated topic with instructions, how to get/install etc. (and not on the 8th page in a half decade old one)

Is it possible to move the menu/status bar combo to the bottom?

Yes that should be doable. But it won't as clean because moving the main menu bar will require a new panetab to be created at the bottom of the screen. I am not altering the main menu bar but rather placing the new status bar on top of it, hiding the irrelevant parts for my workflow.

Also in my opinion the top right of the app is prime estate for the most important controls, yet we have the Takes parameter here, which is not a recommended workflow anymore, so IMO that shouldn't even be visible.

I think Flame is still a good reference for UI design:
https://www.autodesk.com/products/flame/overview [www.autodesk.com]

Yes I don't use takes too, but this split that Flame has - just the image/content at the top, UI at the bottom - is neat, with the status+etc bar at the very bottom. Here are some ideas too:
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/54423/ [www.sidefx.com]

Yes there are some really good ideas there.

My setup in Houdini has 2 layers:

1. Extensive GUI customization
2. Rule based context sensitive hotkeys

For #1, I also have a lot of hotkeys to toggle between different panes, so I can switch from overlay to split network editor with a single key. It's not loading a new desktop, but rather maximizes a stoved panel.

Other operations like toggling the details view, etc, automatically resizes the overlay network editor.

For #2, the hotkeys are mostly based on mnemonics, for the most common operators, rather than just useful operators. For example Point Deform SOP is useful but it's not common to create a dozen of it in a single scene rapidly in general. Whereas SOPs like Switch, Transform, AttribWrangle are so commonly used, a single letter hotkey speeds up the workflow tremendously, when assigned per context and with some rules.

I will post a revamped version of #2 on patreon before the end of the year, that will allow people to assign separate actions per key per context using a google spreadsheet/table of all contexts with optional modifier keys, and other concise behaviour built-in.