I am looking into purchasing Houdini Apprentice HD within the next month, but before I do this I need to know a few things.

1)What sort of files are supported for importing? (Please name off the major formats, .3ds, .x, etc.)

2)What sort of files are supported for exporting? (Please name off the major formats, .3ds, .x, etc.)

3)HServer.exe always has an un-expected error and shutdown on boot up with my computer, I've re-installed Houdini Apprentice many times before, but nothing fixed. Do I need this file to be working to properly install my Houdini Licenses? (When I purchase them)

My computer specs are below for your information on helping me with this problem:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (Overclocked to 3.67GHz)
RAM: 4x1GB (4GB) Corsair Dominator Dual Channel DDR2 (Overclocked to 1066MHz)
Graphics card: Dual nVidia GeForce 8800GTX in SLI (no overclocking)
Operating system: Windows XP Media Centre 2005

Any more information needed I would be more than happy to provide it.

Thank you,

Liam.

Hi Liam,

From the manual (regarding file types):
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini9.1/ref/formats/geometry_formats [sidefx.com]

Kamil.

In terms of whole scene formats, H9.5 has support for FBX import and export. Also new in H9.5 is MDD import and export.

Thank you both for your help.

Oops, there's no FBX export for Apprentice HD though.

Why is that? The potential for abuse too high?

Also, can you write out .obj out of the HD version?

Looks like it in the Link Kamil posted.

@Mike: <shrugs> Maybe? … Yes, you can output .obj from Apprentice.

3)HServer.exe always has an un-expected error and shutdown on boot up with my computer

I'm just wondering which Houdini version have you installed? There was an issue like that fixed in version 9.5.142 and I have not heard of if since then. The hserver.exe is a licensing process that should be always stable.

I have version 9.5.134 - So that's probably why. Is there any update packages or do I have to completely re-download and install?

Thanks,

Liam.

you will need to completely re-download and install. See here [sidefx.com] form more info.

Thanks.

When Houdini Goes Gold, and there are daily releases, will there be update packages?

Yes there will be. And now you can use 9.5 in production and expect full support (for non-Apprentice people)

http://odforce.net/wiki/index.php/DownloadingHoudini [odforce.net]