Hi, I just started to learn Houdini9 after using Maya and I am hoping someone can tell me what I am doing wrong….

-create box
-create grid
-using the “copy” command icon from the modify tab I can then have a box on every point of the grid.

All fine and dandy.

Now. If I create a box and grid as before and try not to use the new Houdini9 icon and instead use the network editor to create a copy node I cannot then connect the grid as I am in object mode not scene node. If I go into scene mode I lose the copy node.

I assume this is something simple I am doing wrong but not sure what…

Any help would be grateful.

Thanks

Mark

I must admit I like the old style of building nodes and I have noticed some nodes just will not work when created in the old H8 style of workflow which is annoying to say the least.
You should be still able to drop a geometry manager at the obj level then dive inside and lay down all your nodes in this case a grid SOP / copy SOP and Box SOP.
There is a slight catch and I think thats whats catching you out , by default the create at object level is on , you want to change this to create in context , refer to picture. That way when you create your sphere , box etc you dont go back upto the object level.

Hope this helps

Rob

Thanks for that Rob. That seems to work.

Now my next Hypothetical step..

-Say I want to import an OBJ geometry from Maya.

-how would I go about getting it in (I'm think I should be using “merge”).

-Then I want to use the “copy to points” Sop and distribute a cube over every point.

My company has now got a few copies of Houdini as we are mainly a XSI and Maya house and I am very impressed with the power of the non-destructive workflow.

Many thanks again

Mark

=“newbiemark”

-Say I want to import an OBJ geometry from Maya.

-how would I go about getting it in (I'm think I should be using “merge”).

Simply use File SOP (or while being in SOP level press “=” to add geometry from disk). You can possibly resave *.obj file to *.bgeo for greater performance if your obj are big one.

hope this help,
sy.

PS Many answers on how to communicate Houdini with Maya or XSI you can find on odforce Wiki.

When you say “getting it in” that might be 2 steps

1. Create an object with a file sop in it, that reads in the OBJ file.

2. Merge that with your existing geometry - that would require an object merge to “merge” it from one object to another and a “merge” sop will combine several bits of geometry within the same sop network.

If you just want to copy it to your grid, you could just replace the box sop with the file sop and read in your OBJ right there in your existing geometry.

newbiemark
Now. If I create a box and grid as before and try not to use the new Houdini9 icon and instead use the network editor to create a copy node I cannot then connect the grid as I am in object mode not scene node. If I go into scene mode I lose the copy node.

You can still do it with Create at Object level. Dive into your box object in the Network View. Now do Copy to Points. Now hold the Alt key to select geometry from the grid object. Hit enter after you're done.

newbiemark
-Say I want to import an OBJ geometry from Maya.

From the top File menu, choose Import > Geometry. Choose the .obj file you wish to import.

-Then I want to use the “copy to points” Sop and distribute a cube over every point.

Do it the same way as you did before. It would probably be easiser if you went back into object selection mode first in this case.