Hi everyone,

I’d like to share a tool I’ve been developing – **Universal DCC Importer for Houdini**.
The goal is to make it easier and faster to bring assets from different DCC and CAD apps into Houdini, and to prepare them directly for use in Unreal Engine via the Houdini Engine plugin.

Example of importing a .max file with the Houdini Universal DCC Importer:

Geometry is processed
Primitives are renamed
Material zones prepared for later conversion




GitHub: https://github.com/novusion/houdini-universal-dcc-importer [github.com]

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Current Features (in development)
- Import for 3ds Max (.max) and Maya (.mb/.ma) files
- Per-file GEO node creation, with caching for faster reloads
- Automatic cleanup: attributes, naming (`name`, `srcfile`), normals
- Packed prims for efficient handling of large scenes
- Runs directly inside Unreal Engine through Houdini Engine

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Roadmap
- More formats: C4D, Blender, Modo, Rhino, CAD STEP/IGES, etc.
- UVs, materials, smoothing groups/normals
- Batch import & presets
- Material conversion to PBR (MaterialX / UE5)
- Live Link Houdini ↔ UE5

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The project is currently in an **early alpha stage**.
I’m still working on packaging (HDA blackbox, licensing, trial version) before the first public release.

In the meantime, I’d be happy to hear feedback from the community about which formats or features should be prioritized.

If you’re interested, feel free to **watch or star the repository** on GitHub – first demo builds are planned for **Fall 2025**.

Thanks!

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*Disclaimer: This tool is an independent project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Autodesk, Maxon, McNeel, or any other vendor. It does not include or distribute any proprietary SDKs, APIs, or libraries.*

such a tool would be amazing
thank you!

Great idea! One potential consideration is the ability to bake modifiers on geometry and shaders into textures. For example, cars often have subd modifiers, and plants have adjustable leaf shaders; therefore, all of this has to be baked beforehand.

FaitelTech
Great idea! One potential consideration is the ability to bake modifiers on geometry and shaders into textures. For example, cars often have subd modifiers, and plants have adjustable leaf shaders; therefore, all of this has to be baked beforehand.

Thanks for the suggestion! At the moment, the importer focuses purely on bringing geometry and attributes into Houdini. Baking modifiers and shaders into textures is a separate stage (more lookdev than import), but I agree it’s an important step in production pipelines.
Once the importer is stable, I may look at adding a simple ‘pre-bake option’ (e.g. collapsing SubD to poly), but full texture/shader baking is probably better handled by existing Houdini/third-party tools. My goal is to keep the importer lightweight and robust, while leaving space for users to plug in their own baking workflows.