jsmack

Soothsayer
A more plausible use would be to take the shop_materialpath attribute and manipulate the string to get at part of the path, and then concatenate this with a usd location containing one or more materials.

That's exactly what I want to know. The SOP create node does it, somehow.

It's useful for assets that have been created before Solaris existed.

For that you may need to resort to Python LOP, where you would look at the imported attribute (shop_materialpath), then use that value to look for the Houdini shader node and translate it to a USD shader primitive using hou.lop.translateShader() and then assign the created material primitive to the geometry primitive from which you took the shop_materialpath from.

jsmack
Why not use the name attribute to split the geometry into multiple mesh prims rather than use geometry subsets? The name sop can create names from existing groups. I've found geometry subsets sometimes have funky behavior with materials bleeding from one subset onto another.

When you have more than 300 pieces imported from a modeler that didn't name all, it's kinda hard. That's why assign by groups is good

Paulo Cunha2

jsmack
Why not use the name attribute to split the geometry into multiple mesh prims rather than use geometry subsets? The name sop can create names from existing groups. I've found geometry subsets sometimes have funky behavior with materials bleeding from one subset onto another.

When you have more than 300 pieces imported from a modeler that didn't name all, it's kinda hard. That's why assign by groups is good

How is that different? Creating groups from a soup of unnamed geometry is just as much of a chore as coming up with name or path attributes. It's probably more of a chore since VEX makes it easier to procedurally define name attributes than to create groups.

Hello friends. Can someone explain to me what is happening with Houdini? Are the developers intentionally making it more difficult to work in this program with each new release? What is this concept of working with materials where, in order to simply assign a material to an object, you need to go Google? What do developers achieve with this attitude towards users? Why in Houdini does nothing ever work by default in the best, obvious way? Why do you always need to look for some kind of checkbox to invert, activate, switch, etc.? WHY??? 😭 😭😭 Are developers really that indifferent to their users? But who are they developing this program for then? For several people who have been in Houdini for a long time? This work with materials in Karma, where it is impossible to assign a material to an object, is some kind of Karma..

I can assure you we are not intentionally makig Houdini more difficult with each release. Perhaps you could explain in more detail what you are trying to do, what steps you have taken to accomplish our goals, and what you have found difficult about the process we could help, and maybe improve the software to make it easier for the next person. Your basic question seems to be "how do I assign materials" and the basic answer is "the Material Linker LOP or the Material Assign LOP"...

vertexbend
Are the developers intentionally making it more difficult to work in this program with each new release?

No, they aren't.

What is this concept of working with materials where, in order to simply assign a material to an object, you need to go Google?

The concept is yours; And a good one. If you don't know how to do something, yeah searching google or looking at tutorials is a good concept.

What do developers achieve with this attitude towards users?

But it's your attitude, not the developers; And the result is you get to learn.

Why in Houdini does nothing ever work by default in the best, obvious way?

There's a difference between working by default and working by how you want it set up.
There is also a difference between what is obvious for you and what is obvious for others.
How you like to work is not the same as how others would like to work; So 'obvious' will be different for each person.
So essentialy, except for bugs, everything does work by default in Houdini, contrary to your statement.

Why do you always need to look for some kind of checkbox to invert, activate, switch, etc.? WHY???

So you can work with Houdini the way you want to and others can work with it the way they want too.

Are developers really that indifferent to their users?

No, but you are being 'indifferent' to how others like to use Houdini.

But who are they developing this program for then?

For people who find Houdini usefull.

This work with materials in Karma, where it is impossible to assign a material to an object, is some kind of Karma..

Actually, it's not impossible; that's my experience at least.