I will probably sound as a noob, which I am, but only in the world of Houdini, I've spent some time in Max and Maya, how about some color coding on the gigantic tab menu "All"? For example, nodes in the red field are most commonly used in rigging area, yellow field are nodes used in let's say modeling, blue field simulations, etc. etc. Unfortunately not all of us mortals have photographic memory, or time, or patience, to read trough 600+ nodes help file when focusing on one area only. Sorting nodes out alphabetically is not the solution. Narrow it down man.

They are already broken up into headings > subtypes. Color coding makes zero sense, as houdini, unlike Maya and Max, doesn't
really care 90% of the time WHAT it is operating on. Points on a mesh, or from a popsim, or a FLIP sim are just points.
Ditto for curves, volumes, etc. So you'll find most nodes can operate on what would be considered in Max and Maya, as different data types. Just take your time, and explore around. You'll remember more of them than you might think.


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tinyhawkus
Color coding makes zero sense

you mean you don't want to see rainbow colored wrangles?

Tomas funny you mention that. I just saw an FX Artist make rainbow coloured wrangle input nubs!
What a time to be alive.



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tinyhawkus
I just saw an FX Artist make rainbow coloured wrangle input nubs!

as long as the node shape is set to unicorn count me in

I'd like to see colored houdini instances. With multiple shots and houdini sessions open I sometimes toggle around trying to find which session is the right one. Or give it the pid in the menu bar so that I know which one to kill when one of them freezes.

Been using Houdini for about 3 years now, and I have literally never opened that All menu until now (out of curiosity after reading this post). Before now, I actually never even noticed it was there.

I'd imagine the Tab menu was primarily designed as a search tool, where you type the name of the node you already know. The nodes showing up as a menu is just as a reminder of their existence, because you sometimes forget the exact name for a node, even though you know it's there. For e.g. for the life of me, I couldn't remember the Facet node, even though I knew there was a node under 'Polygon' that could remove inline points.

Also, I don't know if trying to gobble up all the nodes in one go is the way forward. The more time you spend with Houdini, the more nodes you'll learn about, and add them to your toolkit, one-by-one. Just focus on what you need to do, and it'll fall into place.