Hi,

I tried to search for best practices on making catalog-like things in Houdini but haven't find anything. So that's why I'm asking for your opinion.

I have hundreds of furniture geos for furniture catalog for example. It's .bgeo.sc files currently with textures applied. I also have hundreds of pre-defined Redshift materials with custom textures for everyday use and so on. I see few different approaches.

1. To create separate HDA for every single thing. “Chair 001”, “Bed 002” or “Gold Scratched”. Place files into the files section of the HDA and organize HDAs in proper structure in context menu. I believe it's the fastest way in terms of loading times but it's definitely the messy one (hundreds of similar HDAs I mean).

2. Same but organize all items by type. For example one HDA for Sofas and another one for Chairs with switches in them. For materials it's one for metals and one for plastics etc. Seems like this way is less messy and overall kind of a balanced approach.

3. I can upload all files to files section and switch between them with presets. Basically it's a replacement for switch I believe. No idea if it's a legit approach or not but at least it's an idea. May be especially suitable for materials.

4. Same but python scripts instead of presets to switch to different geos and textures. If I understand correctly this is the option if I want to make buttons with items thumbnails on them.

I believe it's something very common to make libraries of things in HDA so if somebody can point me in the right direction I will be happy.

Thanks.

I think you need to watch this and look into PDG and Tops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZIKpyJFLFs [www.youtube.com]

maybe this tool could be beneficial to you : OD Tools [vimeo.com]

Cheers
CYTE

FFD
I think you need to watch this and look into PDG and Tops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZIKpyJFLFs [www.youtube.com]

Thank you. Looking right now.

CYTE
maybe this tool could be beneficial to you : OD Tools [vimeo.com]

Interesting. Thanks.