Hey!

I just downoladed Apprentice onto my Dell Inspiron 8000.
- 900 MHz PIII
- 256MB SDRAM
- Win2KPro
- NVIDIA GeForce2 Go

First Question: Houdini seems to run OK (no wierd behavior, fatal errors, etc.), but I can't load any of the .hip tutorial files. There is no error message, no indication that anything is wrong, except that the file never loads.

Second Question: is there anything about my system that could be causing this problem? If not, then I have two other questions:
- What IS the problem? I'm willing to admit operator error, but we're not talking rocket science, here, people…
- Is there anything about my system that may cause problems for Houdini?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Scotty

that's a strange one….
can you save a scene and then open it?

scotty
First Question: Houdini seems to run OK (no wierd behavior, fatal errors, etc.), but I can't load any of the .hip tutorial files. There is no error message, no indication that anything is wrong, except that the file never loads.

Which files are gving you trouble?

I'm not sure how well you know Houdini so:

after attempting to load a file, do you see anything in the network editor? Try hitting “h” while your cursor is over the network editor to home the view and see if any of the OP tiles are there. If the OP tiles are there, try right clicking on a geometry operator and going into Edit SOPs. If you see a network in SOPs (hit “h” to home the network view in SOPs), and any of the tiles have a red falg , middle click on it and it should tell you what the problem is. Some of the sample scenes load geometry files off the disc, and sometimes Houdini can't find them because they are pathed to a directory other than where you may have put them. If the problem is a File SOP, just look at it's property page and point it to the correct location of the file.

Oright….! Just wonderd if ya sussed out loading hip files ..to ya laptop …Iv just downed version 6 and cant even find tutorials.to load..a clue would be usefull..Thanx.

I had almost the same problem on almost the same Dell Laptop-

Try this- Drag all the houdini tutorial folders with the .hip files like the Hoodnik into your side effects folder, yes within the Program Files folder on your local disk (C). Click the show files link if necessary to find the side effects software folder. Drag the tutorials into the main Houdini 5.5.x folder inside. Name the folder “tutorials”. Start houdini- go to file, open.

You should see your tutorial folder within the directories load box along with the bin, document and Houdini folder. Click once on it and it should open up to reveal your files. Select the one you want to start with. I recomend going to the help menu, and opening the tutorial/user guide (in PDF format) and working through those projects first.

Here is a file management project hint
as you become comfortable with the program and you start projects from time to time, create a new directory (folder) by hitting the new button within the “open” dialogue window. Give your new project a simple name like “My tutorials”.
Open this directory and create sub-folders/directories naming them-

geo
hip
map
pic

save out your project parts into those folders. It will help build good project management habits, and make your life uncomplicated so you can focus more energy on learning the program.

Hope this helps,

TL