Well, even if it did ( obj ), that's not what you want. Obj would hold the geometry as polygons not as nurb surfaces which is what I think your wanting to preserve.
And I don't think you can import iges directly into Houdini without some possible unwanted results.
This software here does support the conversion of a SW part file to fbx. But I don't know that file format too much - I think it is used more for like a container for a scene rather than geometry object.
https://www.okino.com/conv/filefrmt_3dexport.htm [www.okino.com]
The software does support converting SW or iges to obj though. Maybe might be able to find a free converter too.
And, if you did use obj you could convert it to a volume within Houdini, if you don't want the triangulated polygons.
But from that point on, I don't think there is anything you can do much to get the volume back into a nurbs surface - unless of course you use the imported obj file as a reference to build your nurbs.
I was curious - it seems .abc supports nurbs and Houdini has an import alembic node but I could not find any convertors for SW or even iges to .abc.
You might want to re-consider working with plygons ( some of which might be triangulated rather than just quads).
If you have high enough polycount you can easily make surfaces indistinguishable from a nurbs surface.
I use to make models in SW and 3d print them…I now do that with Houdini ( that has lots of triangulated polygons )..and there's no way one can tell from the resulted printed models - if it was originaly from a nurbs or poly model.
Of course, this is a moot point since in either case both are converted to .stl
Again, depends on your intentions.
Found 2037 posts.
Search results Show results as topic list.
Technical Discussion » Best way to get models from Solidworks in Houdini [in 2018]
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
Technical Discussion » Best way to get models from Solidworks in Houdini [in 2018]
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
I no longer have access to SolidWorks…so I forget, what are your file export options? Knowing that someone might be able to help you.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Ignore gravity force for static particle emitter
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
Here's a file that shows one way to do it.
Keep in mind your asking for two things, when to emit or not, and when to apply your negative y popforce value.
I made a null node with parameter to set the threshold value.
The sovler sop creates a velocity value and creates an attribute called threshold which is applied in the next pointwrangle to the point.
The popforce node is set to use vexpressions and the negative y force is only applied once threshold is passed.
The POP Source nodes Impulse Activation paramter is set with python to only activate if threshold is passed.
P.S. I am not experienced that much with pop networks, so keep eyes peeled on this thread as someone might post a better solution.
Keep in mind your asking for two things, when to emit or not, and when to apply your negative y popforce value.
I made a null node with parameter to set the threshold value.
The sovler sop creates a velocity value and creates an attribute called threshold which is applied in the next pointwrangle to the point.
The popforce node is set to use vexpressions and the negative y force is only applied once threshold is passed.
The POP Source nodes Impulse Activation paramter is set with python to only activate if threshold is passed.
P.S. I am not experienced that much with pop networks, so keep eyes peeled on this thread as someone might post a better solution.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Asset manager and Embedded OTL warnings
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
When you open Asset Manager you have to open up and look through the subfolders to find the Embedded Folder.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Rendering Memory
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
I was referring to the number displayed in the renderview, the platform is irrelevant to this metric. The memory reported in the corner of the render view may give a good idea of the amount of memory to be used when rendering the image “for real,” but some factors may cause this number to be an inaccurate estimation.
Yes I knew you were talking about the displayed value, but regardless of how ‘accurate’ the metric is, it remains that it does take up space after the render is complete. What percentage, I do not know…but more than enough to mention it here.
The snapshots of the renderview consume an iota of memory to be sure, but should hardly be noticeable except for extremely high resolution images or many many image layers.
2560x1440 with default mantra node settings with exception of samples uped to 6x6:
Can max out - meaning, not enough memory being released after about 10 renders.
If you are finding memory leaks, it would help to file them as bug reports.
Not having a benchmark reference for a similar system to compare too, there is no way to gauge whether my experience is as what could be expected or not and in turn file a bug.
However, having read a number of posts over the last couple of years, it just seams like its a simple matter that windows doesn't manage memory that well - and with a program like Houdini that can easily eat up alot of memory, the shortcomings show.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Rendering Memory
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
I'm assuming what jsmack is saying is for Houdini on a Linux based system.(better memory management)
Working on windows here, my experience is that memory ‘lock’ builds up with more numbers of render previews.
Monitering with Task Manager is necessary for me to prevent crashes.( I can anticipate how much memory the next render will take and save the current settings first ).
Even closing a render view window completely does not release all the memory from a render. I don't know how much is getting released and how much is kept locked;
But depending on how much detail and the number of renders done in the window, at some point I have to close the hip file altogether and re-open the hip file to release all the memory to continue rendering.
Working on windows here, my experience is that memory ‘lock’ builds up with more numbers of render previews.
Monitering with Task Manager is necessary for me to prevent crashes.( I can anticipate how much memory the next render will take and save the current settings first ).
Even closing a render view window completely does not release all the memory from a render. I don't know how much is getting released and how much is kept locked;
But depending on how much detail and the number of renders done in the window, at some point I have to close the hip file altogether and re-open the hip file to release all the memory to continue rendering.
Technical Discussion » POP Emission Attribute
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
Thank you Tomas.
Although it wasn't my intent, since I was just interested in controlling with the emission attribute where in the geomtetry points get generated or not ( I'm using two different POPs for the same geometry source to play with combining their results ).
From what your saying here and what you already said earlier to the other poster (if I understand correctly);
It looks like I could use that as a way to push/pull point generation from certain areas giving a build up or ‘dispersed’ effect;
Since the same amount of points will be generated, overall.
Will have to do another scene setup with that insight and see what interesting things I can do.
Thanks again.
Although it wasn't my intent, since I was just interested in controlling with the emission attribute where in the geomtetry points get generated or not ( I'm using two different POPs for the same geometry source to play with combining their results ).
From what your saying here and what you already said earlier to the other poster (if I understand correctly);
It looks like I could use that as a way to push/pull point generation from certain areas giving a build up or ‘dispersed’ effect;
Since the same amount of points will be generated, overall.
Will have to do another scene setup with that insight and see what interesting things I can do.
Thanks again.
Edited by BabaJ - July 8, 2018 13:01:11
Technical Discussion » POP Emission Attribute
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
I know this is an older thread, but if anyone knows, saving me from doing some setups to determine what I wish to know…
from tamtes' post:
Does this mean that my range of values I set for the attribute that I will use as the emission attribute will get “automatically” fit to their min/max values.
Meaning whatever the min/max value range I create with my attribute, I can expect a relative probability mapped to that range?
Docs are saying:
“…Higher values will increase the relative chance of that polygon getting an emission…”
e.g. for all source points I have an attibute of say f@My_Emission. The lowest value found for a point is 0 and say the max is 2.5.
So I would assume there is a fitting happening when I specify emitattrib of the POP Source Dop node to use @My_Emission and maps out 0 to 2.5 as 0 to 100% ?
Or do I have to set up my values beforehand to say 0 to 1 ?
Like I said I could probably test this out…but since I'm not too experienced using DOPs I'm not sure the results I see is all there is going on.
from tamtes' post:
… just differently distributed based on the attribute value distribution…
Does this mean that my range of values I set for the attribute that I will use as the emission attribute will get “automatically” fit to their min/max values.
Meaning whatever the min/max value range I create with my attribute, I can expect a relative probability mapped to that range?
Docs are saying:
“…Higher values will increase the relative chance of that polygon getting an emission…”
e.g. for all source points I have an attibute of say f@My_Emission. The lowest value found for a point is 0 and say the max is 2.5.
So I would assume there is a fitting happening when I specify emitattrib of the POP Source Dop node to use @My_Emission and maps out 0 to 2.5 as 0 to 100% ?
Or do I have to set up my values beforehand to say 0 to 1 ?
Like I said I could probably test this out…but since I'm not too experienced using DOPs I'm not sure the results I see is all there is going on.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Scale Object Instances To Match Scale of Prims?
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
Well I think one could do some copystamping…but I haven't used stamps in a while and forget the ins and outs of them.
I could show you something using vex…but you might not like that.
But if all you want is the width and length to be the same then the simplest thing to do is just a polyextrude in a For-Each Primiteve sop node pair.
I could show you something using vex…but you might not like that.
But if all you want is the width and length to be the same then the simplest thing to do is just a polyextrude in a For-Each Primiteve sop node pair.
Edited by BabaJ - July 7, 2018 18:51:56
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Scale Object Instances To Match Scale of Prims?
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
That could be easily set up; But you haven't said what you want to use for the scale value, i.e.,
You're using the prim faces of the source box rectangle for the points to be copied on;
And in your example you either have squares or rectangles.
So what do you want to use?:
The shortest length sides, the diagonal distance, etc.
Once you've decided then simply apply that value per prim with the setpointattrib like you did with normals, except use pscale.
You're using the prim faces of the source box rectangle for the points to be copied on;
And in your example you either have squares or rectangles.
So what do you want to use?:
The shortest length sides, the diagonal distance, etc.
Once you've decided then simply apply that value per prim with the setpointattrib like you did with normals, except use pscale.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Cut lines from coincident points.
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
I don't know…I have no problem opening it from the forum as a source.
This is the second time in about 2 months where someone couldn't open a hip I posted.
I'm wondering though…
you see the new nodes I put in after your color5 node?
Well maybe in a new file or your original file on your computer just copy and paste the code I have after your last node where I picked up.
Your original file had a reference to an hda that was not available to me..so houdini ‘embeds’ it. I had no problem working with that…but maybe my re-saving it back causes the problem..but then again…I have no problem opening it from the forum.
This is the second time in about 2 months where someone couldn't open a hip I posted.
I'm wondering though…
you see the new nodes I put in after your color5 node?
Well maybe in a new file or your original file on your computer just copy and paste the code I have after your last node where I picked up.
Your original file had a reference to an hda that was not available to me..so houdini ‘embeds’ it. I had no problem working with that…but maybe my re-saving it back causes the problem..but then again…I have no problem opening it from the forum.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Cut lines from coincident points.
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
I initially was thinking along the lines of Konstantin and was going to do something simple…
But I thought, because you were using spheres you might be looking for applying a variety of different geometric shapes;
The example here allows you to do that.
Green netboxes are your individual groups you set up.
The red netbox is the total combined groups.
But I thought, because you were using spheres you might be looking for applying a variety of different geometric shapes;
The example here allows you to do that.
Green netboxes are your individual groups you set up.
The red netbox is the total combined groups.
Edited by BabaJ - July 4, 2018 20:11:13
Houdini Lounge » The baffling attitude of some Houdini users toward MOPs and other 3rd party tools.
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
I am probably wrong, but my theory is that even hardcore users realize that when it comes to modeling, Houdini is (at the moment) in pretty bad shape compared to the competition.
… same could be said for the competition being in pretty bad shape for FX.
If one has no problem with MOPs, Direct modelling HDAs…then there should be no problem in using a second, third, fourth , etc. piece of software to accomplish your goals, if the current software your using is not meeting your needs.
You'd have to qualify ‘modeling’…because I use to be a SolidWorks user and print 3D organic models.
I just recently did a job that took me about 30% more time to finish, compared to how long it would have taken in Solidworks.
But that 30% more time was for the most part, working out a tool for future projects.
My next job will take about the same amount of time as in SolidWorks. Not only that but because I spent time on the tool I'll be able to do complex models that I could not do in SolidWorks; due to it being a ‘black box’ type of software;
In other words, software that has all the tools for you…up until you run into that wall in which there isn't even a workaround let alone ability for you to make your tool to get the job done.
And at $300 vs. 6k…it's a nobrainer.
Houdini Lounge » The baffling attitude of some Houdini users toward MOPs and other 3rd party tools.
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
One reason and example of the types of things I like to see improved/“fixed” and am glad the SideFX team pays attention too that helps making tools easier and faster:
Side Effects Support Ticket: #63209
Hello BabaJ,
Our developers comment:
Yep, this is ugly. Sometimes just @ will work to properly escape the @, but sometimes you may need more to escape due to translation layers.
Fortunately Houdini 17 has fixed this and @ will be protected by “” as one would expect.
All the best,
Hector
(ID# 90166)
—————-
In response to:
—————-
Bug Submission from BabaJ .
—
Version: 16.5.494
Category: vex
Platform: Win8
Severity: SEV4
Username: BabaJ
Summary: nearpoint vex function argument description
—
Hello,
I would like to make a request that either the nearpoint function can accept explicit attribute arguments, or the docs supply the additional knowledge of what to write for the unicode representation of the @ symbol for the ptgroup argument of the function.
For example, the docs say:
“…Can be a SOP-style group pattern such as 0-10 or @Cd.x>0.5”
if one was to use “@Cd.x>0.5”, it would fail. Instead it is necessary to do:
“x40Cd.x>0.5”
This seems a bit archaic and inconsistant with using expressions and attributes elsewhere in Houdini.
It is also hard to remember unless doing so frequently, depending on a number of web searches.
Although not necessary I've included a hip with a working version of the function with the above syntax.
Edited by BabaJ - July 3, 2018 10:02:32
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » addpoint VEX function malfunction?
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
Thank you for your appreciation….
It's payback (my answering others questions) for all the feedback I've received here, and still continue to benefit from.
There's a number of things I have learned through various tutorials/website articles that have been vary informative for me.
But it's this forum and the posters here who if had not provided the feedback they did, would have left me ‘stuck’ for a long time on certain aspects of Houdini that otherwise would have taken me much longer to figure out.
It's payback (my answering others questions) for all the feedback I've received here, and still continue to benefit from.
There's a number of things I have learned through various tutorials/website articles that have been vary informative for me.
But it's this forum and the posters here who if had not provided the feedback they did, would have left me ‘stuck’ for a long time on certain aspects of Houdini that otherwise would have taken me much longer to figure out.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » addpoint VEX function malfunction?
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
Is it possible to force the addpoint function to run on a different prim?
Yes, but you don't have to ‘force’…your running over prims already - each one is looked at; So depending on the condtions you want as to whether an addpoint is executed per prim - you code it that way.
And if the condition you want for a specific prim is met but your addpoint is the position of another prim, just use the return of the primattrib function that has “P” for its attribute_name argument.
From your file it looks like your trying to check two conditions before you execute so you could do something like:
vector AddPos;
int Success;
if( (Condtion_A == This) && (Condition_B == That) )
{
AddPos = primattrib(geoself(), “P”, primnum, Success);
addpoint(geoself(), AddPos);
}
geohandle is not for assigning the addpoint to anything like a primitive or such.
At the moment, since I've not seen it used by anyone, it might just be that the function was created in a way that if in the future if the functionality of using handles was introduced, the function will have already been set up to take advantage of it.
In the future you might be able to get the ‘handle’ of a geometry file, which would be the int number. Then the function would add a point to that file instead of the scene; basically acting like a pointer.
The prim wrangler doesnt run in a prim after another, rigth? It seems that it is executed on all prims at the same time, is it rigth?
I don't know for sure, but I think I remember reading a thread where it was stated, at the moment wrangles will look at 6 at a time.
Edited by BabaJ - July 1, 2018 00:31:09
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » addpoint VEX function malfunction?
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
That's because your addpoint is within a for loop, and those for loops depend on the size of the array.
The prims associated with @balcon = 0 never get looped because the array is empty, so addpoints never gets executed.
I could say more, perhaps I'm not being as clear…but I'm needing to leave my computer for a while.
The prims associated with @balcon = 0 never get looped because the array is empty, so addpoints never gets executed.
I could say more, perhaps I'm not being as clear…but I'm needing to leave my computer for a while.
Houdini Lounge » The baffling attitude of some Houdini users toward MOPs and other 3rd party tools.
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
Perhaps I should have rephrased what I said to emphasize what I was thinking in the context of this thread….
“…That aside, IF I HAD TO MAKE A CHOICE,….”
“…That aside, IF I HAD TO MAKE A CHOICE,….”
Houdini Lounge » The baffling attitude of some Houdini users toward MOPs and other 3rd party tools.
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
Well put Geotzinger…that's why I chime in on threads like this; even though my voice/influence is only a drop in the bucket.
When I started into the field of generalist animation/FX two years ago.
After looking at Maya and others…then because it was free…a few days later after using Apprentice, I realized the big potential and capability that one could make a wide range of their own tools.
I was hooked.
The only regret is I wish I discovered Houdini many years before.
If Houdini was a more of a closed box type of software like Maya, I doubt I would have pursued using Houdini much.
I probably would have gone back to Blender, at which point was using to create 3D stills as an extension from my photoshop use.
I know as a whole the SideFX team to be commercialy viable and to continue to exist has to make careful decisions in what direction they put their development resources.
That aside, personally I would like to see less development on ready made tools and more on development that assists and improves the capacity for the tool making process itself.
When I started into the field of generalist animation/FX two years ago.
After looking at Maya and others…then because it was free…a few days later after using Apprentice, I realized the big potential and capability that one could make a wide range of their own tools.
I was hooked.
The only regret is I wish I discovered Houdini many years before.
If Houdini was a more of a closed box type of software like Maya, I doubt I would have pursued using Houdini much.
I probably would have gone back to Blender, at which point was using to create 3D stills as an extension from my photoshop use.
I know as a whole the SideFX team to be commercialy viable and to continue to exist has to make careful decisions in what direction they put their development resources.
That aside, personally I would like to see less development on ready made tools and more on development that assists and improves the capacity for the tool making process itself.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » problem with copying over points
- BabaJ
- 2039 posts
- Online
Since the same image results can be accomplished in different ways, desired or undesired;
It's better to post your .hip file to increase your chance of getting a helpful response.
It's better to post your .hip file to increase your chance of getting a helpful response.
-
- Quick Links