Forums Technical Discussion Duplicate geos in the viewport (like Maya)

Duplicate geos in the viewport (like Maya)

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olivierth
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Hi!

In Maya, a Shift+Click and drag will duplicate the geo. Is there something similar in Houdini? How to duplicate a geo without living the viewport?

My goal would be to stay in viewport to duplicate and move/rotate/scale each time. I'd like the geometry node to be duplicated instead of polygons at the sop level.

-Olivier
Edited by olivierth - Oct. 24, 2025 09:53:39
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olivierth
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...To better explain, I would like to know a way of duplicating a geo node from the viewport simply by selecting it and doing some kind of shortcut (without ever getting in the Network View)

The result should look like this:
Edited by olivierth - Oct. 25, 2025 17:02:37

Attachments:
Houdini_Duplicate_Geo_from_Viewport_03.jpg (13.9 KB)

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tamte
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would Ctrl+CV suffice?
Edited by tamte - Oct. 27, 2025 11:36:31
Tomas Slancik
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olivierth
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Its a start. But I'm asking on behalf of a team that will do this over 1000 times so, I'm looking for the most user friendly "one click and drag" solution if possible.
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CYTE
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Sry, to intervene here. But to me copy and pasting a thousand times doesnt sound very Houdini-ish. Are you sure this is the way you want to approach this?

Cheers
CYTE
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ajz3d
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@olivierth, for your information, Modeler 2025 comes with this feature - CTRL+D in the viewport to duplicate selected object (in Object context) or selected geometry components (in SOPs).
Edited by ajz3d - Oct. 27, 2025 11:41:20

Attachments:
modeler_duplicate_obj.mp4 (190.8 KB)

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Neffnoa
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I'm not aware of a built in shortcut, but here's how I added my own.

  1. On the shelf tool, go to the Modify tab and look for the Duplicate tool (one that looks like a snowman lying sideways)
  2. Right click the Duplicate tool and press Edit Tool, a window should pop up.
  3. Go to the Hotkeys tab and press Edit on the line with the Scene Viewer.
  4. The Hotkey Manager window should open and you can set your shortcut there.
  5. Duplicate away!

Hope this helps!
Edited by Neffnoa - Oct. 28, 2025 13:00:59
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olivierth
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Interesting but it might be too expensive to use that single feature...
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olivierth
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@CYTE: Some artists will have to set-dress huge scenes from camera so most asset placement will be done manually.

Again, I'm just trying to make it as easy as possible for a Maya artist to keep their same workflow as before. We'll go from there.
Edited by olivierth - Oct. 27, 2025 13:44:05
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tamte
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maybe do a custom shelf tool that does copy/paste and assign a shortcut you like?
Tomas Slancik
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olivierth
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That's what I was starting to think about. Thanks!
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alexeyvanzhula1984
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shelf tool

viewer = kwargs["pane"] or hou.ui.paneTabOfType(hou.paneTabType.SceneViewer)
pwd = viewer.pwd()
if pwd.childTypeCategory() == hou.objNodeTypeCategory():
    nodes = hou.copyNodesTo(hou.selectedNodes(), pwd)
    for node in nodes:
        node.moveToGoodPosition()
Edited by alexeyvanzhula1984 - Oct. 28, 2025 05:06:35
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Homps1982
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If you want to duplicate geometry in Houdini and stay in the viewport, here’s how I do it:

At the object level, I just select the node and do Ctrl+C → Ctrl+V or Alt+Drag in the network – you get a copy that you can immediately move/rotate/scale in the viewport.

If I need multiple copies, I use a Copy to Points SOP: place points where I want the copies and connect my geometry to them – you can adjust positions directly in the viewport.

Houdini doesn’t have Maya’s Shift+Drag, but this way you can create live duplicates without leaving the viewport.
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olivierth
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Hi alexeyvanzhula1984, thanks for the script but it duplicates every node (selected or not).

Ah, my bad, it works but it offsets all my nodes to the left for some reason... It messes up all my organized nodes. Any way around it? I don't know python...
Edited by olivierth - Oct. 28, 2025 10:19:07
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tamte
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olivierth
Ah, my bad, it works but it offsets all my nodes to the left for some reason... It messes up all my organized nodes. Any way around it? I don't know python...
that's because of 
node.moveToGoodPosition()

that function is evil by default, since it moves all nodes on the canvas for no reason, I have a RFE for that since almost all shelf tools and even recipes use it when placing nodes and that shifts all other nodes in the graph, misaligning from the grid

maybe try
node.moveToGoodPosition( move_unconnected=False )
Tomas Slancik
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olivierth
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Super! Thanks, tamte!
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