Houdini is a great tool but its support for reading cad files is a bit limited. The best supported file format at the moment for interchange cad files afaik is Iges, but since autocad doesn't handle it you are narrowed to dxf. Although even this approach is limited since there are some discrepancies in headers descriptions forcing autocad crash on import (This could be workaround though by parsing the files through 3rd party software). A recommended solution I found successful is Houdini<->Rhino<->Acad setup where Rhino was used primarily for files exchange and concept development (also incorporating grasshopper) and houdini for processing heavy geometry stuff (it is so much more flexible then Rhino, although lacks some rudimentary modeling operations).
I can't go into details at the moment, but by choosing Houdini you are facing a little bit of tools development at the start to iron out the pipeline workflow, but once you are there it is a nice enhancement to the design process. On the other hand changing people working habits could be a real challenge and a pain, especially where you switch to the tool where visual part takes only fraction of the screen, but that's a different story. Good luck.
Found 306 posts.
Search results Show results as topic list.
Technical Discussion » dxf from autocad
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Houdini Lounge » HOUDINI_MULTITHREADED_COOKING = 1
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Which areas this variable has influence on? Help info doesn't tell much. It's off by default, but COPs and DOPs are multithreaded anyway. I'm particularly interested with SOPs, has anything changed recently with regards to multithreading support in Houdini?
Cheers,
kuba
Cheers,
kuba
Technical Discussion » Basic FBX Houdini export to Maya problem
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Try to save fbx as binary not asciii as it is by default. I remember that used to lead to strange results in Maya from time to time. Exporting with Escape or Master has no difference, but you can provide build number you are working on and more fbx details such as version of the exporter - but i'm assuming it's the latest one.
Cheers,
Kuba
Cheers,
Kuba
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Intersection of multiple shapes
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Hi Rafaels,
The problem with curve and surf sect is that it's working, but not in every scenario - and your case is the one in which it doesn't if you have many intersecting curves and want to evaluate intersections in one go that for sure will fail. The simple workaround is to build a loop do the operation on each pair of curves (see attached example). This should succeed in a simple scene as this but you definitely run into more problems if there are multiple intersection regions. The issue of using forloops is that it's slow in heavier scenes.
The same thing applies to surfsect, in addition you need to pay attention to the direction of the intersecting surfaces.
It would be nice to have these operators improved (I dream of Rhino performance level) but since developers are focused more on another areas I reckon it will not happen very soon.
kuba
The problem with curve and surf sect is that it's working, but not in every scenario - and your case is the one in which it doesn't if you have many intersecting curves and want to evaluate intersections in one go that for sure will fail. The simple workaround is to build a loop do the operation on each pair of curves (see attached example). This should succeed in a simple scene as this but you definitely run into more problems if there are multiple intersection regions. The issue of using forloops is that it's slow in heavier scenes.
The same thing applies to surfsect, in addition you need to pay attention to the direction of the intersecting surfaces.
It would be nice to have these operators improved (I dream of Rhino performance level) but since developers are focused more on another areas I reckon it will not happen very soon.
kuba
Houdini Lounge » Mantra & Houdini 11 - Now Online!!
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Houdini Lounge » Mantra & Houdini 11 - Now Online!!
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Houdini Lounge » Mantra & Houdini 11 - Now Online!!
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Houdini Lounge » Black screen render issue. Help pls!! :(
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
There's no need to cross-posting, spamming the forum does not guarantee you get a reply sooner. So if you don't mind keep one thread active.
What I would test first is to render from the different camera, just to nail down this is the camera issue. So copy reference relevant parameters from the tracked camera onto the new camera (H11 I guess) and see how the render looks. From the top of my head, the hip file created by bojou is compatible with version 5.5 or 6 of houdini so some camera parameters names might be missing or interpreted in the wrong way by mantra.
What I would test first is to render from the different camera, just to nail down this is the camera issue. So copy reference relevant parameters from the tracked camera onto the new camera (H11 I guess) and see how the render looks. From the top of my head, the hip file created by bojou is compatible with version 5.5 or 6 of houdini so some camera parameters names might be missing or interpreted in the wrong way by mantra.
Houdini Lounge » Ideas for basic Python projects
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
How about the measure distance shelftool which can be accessed in OBJ and SOP level as well. I remember Peter Bowmar did similar thing some time ago but that solution used Nulls, the distance was measured in CHOPs and it was available in OBJ context only. I was thinking more about placing points as it is done in the curve tool, so I think I already suggested you where to start…
Technical Discussion » line segments
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Put a carve sop, set first U = 0, second U = 1
In Breakpoints tab check, “cut at all internal U breakpoints”
In Breakpoints tab check, “cut at all internal U breakpoints”
Houdini Lounge » VOP inline code
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Hi there,
I'm looking for any example how to embed a VEX code inside VOPs. My aim is to reuse choppy water example as a displacement in the material shader builder. Since in H11 most of the old materials have gone and subnetworks were replaced by vopmaterial node. I'm very interested to see recommended shading workflow, the displacements in particular.
I'm looking for any example how to embed a VEX code inside VOPs. My aim is to reuse choppy water example as a displacement in the material shader builder. Since in H11 most of the old materials have gone and subnetworks were replaced by vopmaterial node. I'm very interested to see recommended shading workflow, the displacements in particular.
Technical Discussion » slow hython rendering with Hqueue on win7
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Has anyone experienced slow rendering using HQueue on win7? It seems rendering locally is far way faster, it's a matter of 10 seconds to over an hour with hython. I'm pretty new to win7 so maybe I'm missing somthing obvious…
Thank you,
kuba
Thank you,
kuba
Houdini Lounge » upgrade from escape to master
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
I think still would be best to ask sales, you'll get most upto date info. From what i recall if you'd like to upgrade you need to pay the differnce between escape and master + difference of the AUPs (uppgrade), but since the price of the master has droped recently my information may be out of date. Haven't check that but on the main page pricing still applys to H10.
Houdini Lounge » upgrade from escape to master
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Houdini Lounge » Copy SOP and groups
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Group elements by colour (prim attribute). After copySOP recreate groups with the partitionSOP - colour expression from the pull down menu.
Technical Discussion » Mantra VS Mantra VS Etc...
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Hey Serg, very cool Cornell box, share it on the forum please! I'm very keen to have a go with it.
I'm not sure if you are aware of it but there's a VEX pathcache asset on the exchange which does roughly something similar to what you described.
Have you ever tried to incorporate light portals into render tests. Render times should be cut down significantly (I'm curious how much in your case). On the other hand I have no idea if that works correctly with the manual irradiance cache baking.
Lastly, I was expecting SESI will implement eventually irradiance caching in H11. They didn't and I don't understand why ( I remember long time ago MTL and LightCache for PBR where already partialy implemented (at least in documentation) and later removed. My guess is that irradiance caching might be in fact a step backwards and produce more problems in motion then it gives in still renders. And in the end Mantra will support GPU in the next release anyway :roll: . Bur since I'm not an expert in this matter I'd love to hear a reasonable argumentation why Irradiance caching is still missing in PBR.
Cheers,
kuba.
I'm not sure if you are aware of it but there's a VEX pathcache asset on the exchange which does roughly something similar to what you described.
Have you ever tried to incorporate light portals into render tests. Render times should be cut down significantly (I'm curious how much in your case). On the other hand I have no idea if that works correctly with the manual irradiance cache baking.
Lastly, I was expecting SESI will implement eventually irradiance caching in H11. They didn't and I don't understand why ( I remember long time ago MTL and LightCache for PBR where already partialy implemented (at least in documentation) and later removed. My guess is that irradiance caching might be in fact a step backwards and produce more problems in motion then it gives in still renders. And in the end Mantra will support GPU in the next release anyway :roll: . Bur since I'm not an expert in this matter I'd love to hear a reasonable argumentation why Irradiance caching is still missing in PBR.
Cheers,
kuba.
Technical Discussion » Geometry lights with material - example?
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Hey Mario, thanks for the file. One question though, I'm having problem to change a colour of the light. I tried to modify the parameter on the geolight node in the first place - no success, then realised to insert additional parameter in VOPs. Should I connect it to the light_output where a Light Color input is. This doesn't work either.
Thanks.
Edit:
Nevermind, I reread your post :roll: and plug colour to the Ce parameter.
need a coffe break
Thanks.
Edit:
Nevermind, I reread your post :roll: and plug colour to the Ce parameter.
need a coffe break
Technical Discussion » Import IGES (.igs) - What is the best iges format ?
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
Can you attach the file? It might be then badly interpreted multi trim surface ( houdini is really weak with them) or some other stuff with very minimal area. You can increase delete threshold to say, 0.001 (this may change depend on the scale of your model).
Technical Discussion » Import IGES (.igs) - What is the best iges format ?
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
append measureSOP and calculate area, then put down deleteSOP and in the filter expression field type $AREA == 0
this removes all the prims with zero area (curves or some trim surf operation leftovers etc.)
hope that helps.
this removes all the prims with zero area (curves or some trim surf operation leftovers etc.)
hope that helps.
Technical Discussion » importing very large igs file
- kuba
- 345 posts
- Offline
You can always split the geometry and import it in parts. Also when iges is loaded delete Cd attribute, it increases memory usage a lot. If possible before import try to get rid of the colour information as well, or apply to the geometry only one colour.
hope it helps
kuba
hope it helps
kuba
-
- Quick Links