Hi,

my name is Tobi from germany.
Im a Houdini user since 3 years as a hobby (mostly Tutorials). Now I really want to get more professional with this tool. Before Houdini I worked a lot and professional with Softimage and ICE (loved it) and then switched to Cinema4D (which I didn´t love so much). I am also very interested in Unreal in conjunction with Houdini (Engine).

At this moment I will begin shortly with my first serious Project using CAD Files for Product Presentation. I read a lot of Posts in this forum and gathered a lot of Information. But the posts where old and the amount of possibiltys confusing (DWG, DXF, STEP, STL, SPF, Wire, IGES, AutoCAD direct FBX Export?!?, Unreal Datasmith, Polytrans, 3DSMax and many more).

What do you think is generally the best way in 2021 to get CAD Data to Houdini?

Thanks for your help.



sting. I read a lot of Posts in this formum and gathered a lot of Information.

I used the preinstalled Datasmith Plugin in Unreal. It can read a multitude of CAD files. I get a stp (Step) File of 1,9GB and it loaded 25 Minutes. There where no Issues.
Via File Export Selected I could Export an FBX to Houdini.

It is amazing that houdini doesn't have the functionality of natively open a .step file. Even maya does...