I have a custom vent model made in maya imported as an FBX, I want to tile this along a curve as to create vent systems just by dragging a curve around. I've tried the sweep node but that doesn't seem to produce the right results no matter how I modify it, the geometry is horrid. I've only been working with houdini for a day now so I'm still very much new to this (although I have experience in speedtree and UE so I'm use to the node based systems). Any help would be much appreciated

You could take a look at these post on tunnels. Seems kind of similar.
https://forums.odforce.net/topic/45432-trying-a-subway-tunnel/?tab=comments#comment-213135 [forums.odforce.net]
https://forums.odforce.net/topic/32716-brick-tunnel/ [forums.odforce.net]
https://forums.odforce.net/topic/28129-creating-a-subway-network-in-vex/?tab=comments#comment-160235 [forums.odforce.net]

Sounds like you are looking for the chain SOP.
It’s duplicates geometry along a path.