Hi all, I am a starter of Houdini and I'm trying out a wood simulation.

Here is a sample of the video i will like to do:

http://vimeo.com/48457304#at=0 [vimeo.com]

I used a model i create in Maya, scale it down and added a voronoi fracture, lastly with a transform and scale it back. However, i added a RBD object and the all object is moving when i use a pole to hit it ( it's also a RBD object). And when i used RBD fracture, the whole object started to fly away from each little pieces. But these are not the main problems cause I'll be looking on more tutorial about rigid bodies.

Here are some questions I will really appreciate that someone can answer me

First : How can i crack the object only when another object touches it?
(Like the pole cut through the wooden platform in the video)
Can i do it in a whole piece or each wood plank must be a piece and add up a few pieces? (Cause i wan to do the simulation in slow motion)

Second : i cant select the fracture i want to add debris or emitter, it always select the whole pieces. Can i separate it and combine to make it different parts? ( Like in Maya, sorry i just start on Houdini so i only can use other software as reference)

Lastly : If i animate it on Maya and texture it, will all the key frames and texture stay the same by using FBX/OBJ? ( I need to import back to Maya too)

Thanks for looking at my problems, some questions may be very easy and making you laugh but I'm grateful if you can answer me

Cheers

Coming from and going back to Maya with 2D textures is going to be a major hassle. You'll save a lot of time and your sanity if you use a procedural shader in Houdini for your wood, attach it using rest data (instead of UVs) and render with Mantra. Do a search for user lukeiamyourfather. He has some posts out there on the subject.

As for the rest of your DOPs related questions.. you'll get a lot more help from the forums if you post an example file.