I've been having a problem exiting Houdini apprentice. When I exit I get an error message saying that there is a problem with the desktop and would I like to ignore and exit or fix it or cancel. If I click ignore and exit Houdini quits; but, if I click fix it, I have no idea what I am supposed to do so I cancel it and then try to exit. This is when Houdini hangs up and I can only exit by going into the task manager and ending task. I am using Win2000 Pro and started having this problem after trying the tutorial that showed you how to save a desktop. I installed the newer version of Houdini and still have this problem. Did something get changed in the registry?

What is the exact message? It's likely that you can fix it manually via the Desktop Manager. Choose Desktop Manager from the top main Dialogs menu. Find the desktop that is causing you trouble and see if it says $HOME/houdini5.5/desktop. It's likely that you don't have permission to save to that particular location.

Note that you will also see a lot of entries that say $HFS/houdini/desktop. That means that you've never modified those desktops before and Houdini is using the default ones. If you ever change them, it will save the new copy into $HOME/houdini5.5/desktop.

To check where the file actually is, you need to know the value of the HOME environment variable. Under the Dialogs menu again, choose Textport. In this window type:
echo $HOME/houdini5.5/desktop
So under this directory is where the desktops are saved. Make sure you have write permission to this directory. If worst comes to worst, you can probably simply backup and delete the directory to start fresh.

dante

PS. You'll find all sorts of weird and wonderful settings that Houdini uses in $HOME/houdini5.5. Be careful modifying them though as that can screw up your Houdini setup. At times, I've had to delete my $HOME/houdini5.5 directory to start fresh because I've messed something up.

Thanks for the quick reply danteA.

Here's the error message I get: “There was a problem while trying to save the desktops. You may use the Desktop Manager to resolve the problems or just discard the changes to the Desktops. Options are: Discard and Quit, Fix Errors, or Cancel”.

I clicked on Fix Errors and the Desktop that is the problem is “Build”. The Location is $HFS/houdini/desktop.

When I hold my mouse over the exclamation mark beside the location I get this: “The file for the resource ”Build“ cannot be saved to cProgram Files/Sidefx Houdini 1.151/Houdini/desktop/Build.desk. Saving the resource will fail unless steps are taken to resolve the problem with the save location of its file”.

Since the location is $HFS/houdini/desktop, doesn't it mean that I never modified the desktop? Why am I getting an error then? It doesn't say $HOME. Also, you talk about permission saving to a particular directory; how do you get permission?

When you say to check where the file actually is you go to the Dialogs menu and choose Textport; are you talking about Houdini's main menu?

For now I left everything as is; I'm afraid I'll mess something up.

I'll also read more of the help files to see if this is covered there also (I usually need to refer back a few times before I remember).

One more thing: I guess everytime you exit the desktop gets saved? So, if you are using the model desktop and you change something in the menu, it will save it so when you open Houdini up the next time, you will be where you left off? I don't know if I like this, but then I am very new to Houdini and it's nothing like Maya.

cProgram Files/Sidefx Houdini 1.151/Houdini/desktop/Build.desk.

There is your problem!
Houdini chokes on paths with spaces in them!
I don't know if it would be enough to just rename the directories or you will need to reinstall Houdini.
Mine is installed in CHoudini5.5.151

Oops. I think I put the space in the path when I typed it out.

I didn't change the directory that the desktops went to. Should I uninstall and then re-install again?

Edit: I just un-installed Houdini and deleted the directory and re-installed it. I am still getting the same error. I did not change any directories or anything; everything was loaded into the default directories. Any help would be appreciated as the pdf files were no help.

I would re-install Houdini with a directory structure that has no spaces in it…like c:\Houdini5.5.151 , also make sure you have the environment variable HOME set.

Well, I re-installed it into a directory without any spaces but still have this problem when exiting. I can shut the program down if I click “Discard and Quit”. I don't think that I should have to keep doing this; so, something is definitely wrong and it's bugging me.

Where do you set the environment variable HOME? I'll open Houdini again and see if I can figure it out.

Edit: I went into the textport as danteA mentioned and found that my desktops were going to cDocuments and Settings/J Gimpelj/LocalSettings/Temp/houdini5.5/desktop instead of choudini5.5.151/houdini/desktop. I also have another directory for houdini5.5 in CDocuments and Settings/ j~1Gim/Locals~1/Temp/houdini5.5/desktop which is empty. I did not put these 2 Documents and Settings directories there. I guess if danteA is correct, when I make changes to a desktop this is where it is placed? Is that so the original is not overwritten? So I have 3 directories that Houdini desktops can be put in. How the h?ll do I change things to work correctly? Do I delete the ones from choudini5.5.151/desktops? This is where I installed Houdini to. Or do I delete the Houdini5.5/desktops from within the Documents and Settings directory? I never had this much trouble with Maya. Please someone explain what is going on here?

Go to Control Panel>System and in the Advanced tab click on Enviroment Variables
Now set this variable in System Variables window.
HFS CHoudini5.5.151
Also. While you there. Set these too. It'll save you a lot of trouble in the future!
H CHoudini5.5.151
HB CHoudini5.5.151/bin
HH CHoudini5.5.151/houdini
In all Houdini related variables use forward slashes!
———————————————————————————

I think what happens is, when you attempt to save a desktop Houdini is trying to use HFS variable to find a directory where to save it to and can't find anything since the variable is not specified.
As soon as you set HFS variable Houdini will save your desktop to CHoudini5.5.151/houdini/desktop
Now!
Set variable HOME. You can point it anywhere. Mine is Cconfig
Sart Houdini and open Desktop manager. You've probably noticed by now that if you click on Location button to the right from the desktop name you will be prompted to choose where to save your desktop to. You can now use any of these two. HOME or HFS.
Please note that all paths I used here are specific to my installation.
Set yours to where Houdini is installed on your system accordingly.

By the way!
To get the list of all Houdini variables, open Houdini's “Command Line Tools” and type hconfig -h > blah.txt (blah stands for anything you want )
This will save a txt file named blah to your Houdini root installation directory. eg CHoudini5.5.151
Also. To find out more on how Houdini manipulates it's variables, still in Houdini's “Command Line Tools” type hconfig -ap > anotherblah.txt
You will find anotherblah file in the same location as the first one.

Hope this helps.

PS. To find out all about Houdini's variables, in Command Line Tools type hconfig -

Dang!
Doubleposted.
Sorry.

cyclinggimpe,

I think it's probably better in the long run to install Houdini in a path without spaces even though that is not supposed to be necessary.

Houw about this. First quit out of houdini if you're already in it. In your C drive, create a directory named “home”. So now you have a empty directory named c:\home. Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. Depending on which Windows version you're using, the next step is different. I'll describe XP since that's what I'm using. Switch to the Advanced Tab in the properties dialog. Push the “Environment Variables” button. Under System Variables, click on the New button. Under Variable Name, put “HOME” (without the quotes), under Variable Value, put “Chome” (without the quotes and note the forward slash this time). Now press OK until you've closed the properties dialog.

Now start Houdini and quit it to see if you find the problem.

dante

Thanks for the help Stremik and danteA and arctor.

Stremik: I set the variables for HFS, H, HB, and HH as you said to (I didn't even know about this; I'm still finding new things in Win2000 Pro compared to Win98 SE). I still don't understand why Sidefx made the slashes go different than in windows. Are they anti-Microsoft? (just kidding) When you say to open Houdini's “Command Line Tools” to get the list of all Houdini variables, where do you mean? I am very, very new to Houdini; are you talking about the Textport?

danteA: I did install Houdini into a directory without spaces this time. And I made a directory called Home and set a variable called HOME pointing to the directory.

I then went into Houdini and pointed the problem desktop to the HOME path instead of the HFS path and everything was solved! I don't know why I couldn't leave the location path set to the HFS path. Do you guys have yours set to HFS?

How did you guys know what to do here? I checked the pdf files that came with the Apprentice and couldn't find anything. I think Sidefx needs to make up a troubleshooting and faqs section since Houdini is totally different than other programs.

Thanks for all the help guys and I hope everything is okay from now on.

One more thing: Win 2000 Pro installed a directory called “Documents and Settings” and whenever I install a program, a directory is also made in this directory (under my name) for that particular program. It did this for Maya also and I was told that it was to keep different peoples settings apart from each other. I ran into a problem with Maya when I needed to add a Mel script to the script directory and didn't know which one to use. I had to use the one under “Documents and Settings”. Windows also made a directory for Houdini in this directory (I didn't make it). Now that I made a Home directory and pointed the desktop there and it worked, I probably should have pointed it to the Documents and Settings directory before (it was in the list of locations, but I thought it wouldn't work so didn't try it).

I'm really glad we could help!!!

You can find Houdini's “Command Line Tools” under Start>Programs>Side Effects Software>Houdini5.5.151
Alternatively you can just go to Start>Run and type hcmd (it wouldn't work before you've set H and HB variables but now that you have them set, it will)

I'm almost shure that Windows type slashes would work too but it's best to use forward slashes, just to be on the safe side.

Don't get discouraged by all these variables. Once you get the hang of it you will not wish for anything else! Just start with typing “hconfig -” (don't forget the space and dash after hconfig) in Command Line Tools and from there you will be able to find out everything about them variables.

As for that directory in Documents and Settings I'm still puzzled over this one myself! One thing is clear. Houdini uses your User variable to create this directory and saves some files there. :? (I think, same goes for Maya) For example, when houdini crashes your hip file will be saved in that directory.
I'm preatty shure this can be overriden with some variable, I just don't know which one.

Once again, Thanks.

I'll try the hconfig you mentioned and see what I get.

I hope I can get a grasp on Houdini because I am hearing some good things about it.

I tried the hconfig just now and at first it didn't work. I got the message: “hconfig is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file”. When I went to Start > Program> Houdini>Command Line, it put me into the root directory and I tried hconfig there. So I then did a search for the file in all of C-drive and found it in the bin directory. I put myself into that directory in the Command Line box and hconfig worked. Thanks for the info.

I'd like to add that if you can do away without setting the HFS, H, HB, and HH environment variables, then you should NOT set them. The problem with setting these environment variables presents two probems:
1) If you ever install a newer copy, then you will likely install them into a different directory. This means that these will then need to be manually updated to reflect the new path. It's nothing worst to install a newer copy of Houdini and then go through hours of headache until you realized that you forgot to update these.
2) They are tied to specific Houdini version, so that makes it impossible to install two different versions of Houdini and run them at the same time. Sometimes it is nice to be able to try out a new version for a while before uninstalling the old one.

For me, I don't have any Houdini specific environment variables set at all except for HOME which points to where I save all my Houdini-related work. If I run Command Line Tools from the Start Menu, it seems to set various environment variables for me right off the bat. For example, if inside the command line tools, I type “path <enter>” to see my path, it shows that it has added the Houdini directories in there. And so, all the command line tools like hscript, mplay, etc work within Command Line Tools without me having to tinker with my environment paths.

dante

I'll also keep that in mind. It's good to get different views and try each out. Thanks.