Hi
I just purshased a car model in obj format and Houdini can't load the geometry
it only tells me “unable to read” the file

how can I find more infos about that, so I can explain the turbosquid online help to figure out the issue

thank you for your time

(ps: the file is 45Mb so I don't think it's a good idea to upload it for testing)

Well, if you purchased it, it's copyrighted so don't upload it here regardless.

OBJ files are probably the least challenging file format to import into Houdini - I suspect either the file is still compressed(zip gzip etc), something corrupted the download(make sure you aren't using a downloader, just your browser), or there are file permission issues.

You're loading it in with a File SOP, right?

If you get really stuck and you have support with SESI, you can contact them and perhaps arrange uploading to a secure area where they can test it.

Cheers,

J.C.

yeah I load the geometry in a file SOP and nothing happens
I use apprentice HD actually, this project is for personnal training so I just can expect help from turbosquid or you…
I know you can't really fix it but I was just wondering if I oculd get some info somewhere like in the textport or something, so I can send a bug report to turbosquid to help them to fix that.

what kind of format can I use besides .obj and fbx by the way?
is there a trick to import .ma or max objects?

thanks for your support

regards

As a test, from the command line, try using gconvert to convert it from an obj to a bgeo. If that gives you the same error try using gwavefront instead.

We had a case recently where gconvert just wouldn't work but gwavefront did.

@Wolfwood: You should send it into support if you haven't already.

@jlautret: How do you know it didn't work? Did you try hitting space+g in the viewer? Does it say 0 points and 0 primitives when middle click on the File SOP icon in the Network View pane?

edward
@Wolfwood: You should send it into support if you haven't already.

I did. And after a few weeks of UTR we chalked it up to bad karma. It only happened on windows, if $HOME was in the root of a networked drive, and only then under specific conditions. I had a few other people, aside from Support, try to reproduce it and they couldn't either.

Sadly I lack windows debugging skills so I gave up.

:cry:

thank you for your interest…

I would love to try all this but I'm absolutely not familiar with those functions
I've been trying for like an hour to figure out how to run gwavefront, I can't find any help, I mean readable help by someone who is not a programer…

where should I start? buy a book about linux language? (if this is linux language)

I can see scrolling down the help page that houdini is full of utilities but there's nothing telling the basics about them

if you feel like helping a noobie :-)

thank you guys

It's a command line utility that ships with Houdini, nothing to do with Linux. Just cd to the houdini install directory, the ‘bin’ folder in there, and run it from a DOS shell(assuming you're on windows). If on linux, then run from a shell. If you run it with no parameters it gives you a little help. Should be in the help too.

It's unlikely it will help you, but it might, it was more of a diagnostic thing. I'd check out what Edward suggested…

Cheers,

J.C.

awww ok …

well I should have began by saying I run on mac osx…
I found those applications in the “houdini shell.terminal”

thank you I will try this and let you know

thank you for your help

As a check, not that I like to suggest it, you can download Maya PLE and try and load the .obj there. If it doesn't work then it suggests your .obj is corrupt.

hey
ok so I tryed via gwavefront with no result
I mean it wasn't able to read the file
but I also downloaded the model in C4D format (which worked well in C4D) and converted in wavefront with C4d and now it seems to work in Houdini (I get all the polygon groups and everything)

maybe the file was corrupted, but I also tryed to convert a .obj file which was working great and gwafront “wasn't able” to save it in .geo or .begeo

sooo.. I dunno hehe

but I can read the model in Houdini now so that what matters

thank you for all your answers anyway and I will keep looking up for thoses standalone applications with more interest

thank you all

cheers