List View has lots of useful sort modes, including By Node Type which is great when you want to select all your Bones (for example).

twod

What McNistor proposes is adding possibility to visualize parent/child relationship in the tree view.

It's not very obvious, but it is there:

• press ‘T’ to toggle into List mode
  
• RMB click on the list background, select List Order > Input/Output
  It admittedly should have an easier UI to pop into that mode.

• 
  Thanks.
  I was looking in the tree view not in the network view. I scratched my brains a bit because it's possible only in network view apparently. Unless it's hidden somewhere in tree view as well.

I was looking in the tree view not in the network view. I scratched my brains a bit because it's possible only in network view apparently. Unless it's hidden somewhere in tree view as well.

The tree view is distinctly different than the List view. It is used almost exclusively to navigate to different networks & nodes, similar to the way a file browser uses it to search directories. The list view is more akin to the Details view of files in a filebrowser. The good news is that you can have both up at once in a network editor (T to switch to List view, W to open the tree view).

List view is an alternate viewing mode for the network editor, so yes, it's only available in that pane. However, given the flexibility of Desktops, you can create a desk with 2 network editors in it - one in network mode, and one in List mode with the tree view open, if you find yourself constantly needing both.

Yeah I'd like to see the “Tree view” sense of scope and navigation (seeing nodes inside) combined with the “Input/Output” organization with parent/child relationships with the “List View” Toggle controls… If that makes sense.

Right clicking in a dedicated Tree View pane doesn't allow you to switch to Input/Output like from Technical Desktop.

I switched from XSI a few years ago fearing exactly this. It was a difficult decision because I loved the modeling workflow that XSI has so it took a bit of time to adapt.
However as soon as I “accepted” the node based modeling approach I was in love - yes, I still miss the M tool, yes I still miss the UV tools, yes I still miss XSI viewport speed and stability - but the new approach is much more flexible.

This is especially true for my personal work (indie game dev) where I need to assemble the game props from different parts, atlas uv's and test different variations - the node based system makes all these a breeze.
For example I can model on a house beam in one viewport and have several variations of the house assembled in another, previewing life how the changes I make reflect on the final props.
Or I can see real-time how changing a stone that repeats many times in a paths breaks the pattern, etc.

And then you have the entire reusability of the assets, which in games is essential. Using objectMerge, rewiring and some other tools is super easy to check if one props can be used in different combinations, saving geometry and texture space.

And don't even get me started on how useful it is to setup fbx exporters to save the models with one click.

So while I do miss a few tools from XSI and while I wish Houdini's OGL viewport would be a bit more artifact free - I never looked back. I'm very happy with my “home-made” Houdini pipeline for creating game assets.

adrianlazar
I wish Houdini's OGL viewport would be a bit more artifact free -

Please log these viewport bugs with SideFx. Artefacts should be considered unacceptable and must be killed so we can create the best modelling environment

adrianlazar

Thanks for sharing this.
I'm sure Houdini will prove to be a match for me as well, in time.
As of now I can't abandon Softimage's modeling tools and its speedy workflow for quickly grabbing a character and slap it on a GEAR rig. XSI is great tool and chances are I will still use it 10 yrs from now for some stuff.
I hope Houdini will catch up in some areas and seeing how this community functions I'm confident that it will.
Salutari

McNistor
And my question was why does it select the last object selected (orange) instead of the parent on which the command was initiated and what are the benefits of this?

The “orange” selection is by definition, the “last selected object”. It the node that gets “linked” between all the unpinned panes, most importantly, the Parameters pane. So the weird place that this ends up in is because the select outputs/inputs just happen to add that particular node last. I think it can be easily changed to something more sensible. This does affect the order of the object selection, but I'm not sure whether this has any real impact. Perhaps the selection order from select inputs/outputs should just be reversed (before possibly adding it to the existing selection if the CTRL key was held down).

In the case of the viewport, there are additional modes when you RMB on the Object selection icon in the viewport's left toolbar. I believe you're looking for the “Select Child Objects” and “Select Parent Objects” toggles.

McNistor

MartybNz
There is redundancy in the scale tool, having 3 arrows, which is rarely efficient Maybe a temporary fix could be SESI to add larger arrow heads for easy picking Twod is that possible?

As a temporary solution this sounds good.

Latest daily build, H13.0.348 has scale arrow highlights now

edward
In the case of the viewport, there are additional modes when you RMB on the Object selection icon in the viewport's left toolbar. I believe you're looking for the “Select Child Objects” and “Select Parent Objects” toggles.

Yes, that kinda does it. Would be cool to have it as a hotkey or mouse combo instead of a toggle. Also, when choosing select child objects it would be useful to have the parent selected instead of the last child. Not extremely important though.

MartybNz
Latest daily build, H13.0.348 has scale arrow highlights now

Unfortunately yesterday I've uninstalled the previous version for unimportant technical reasons and now I've installed 13.0.348 so I have no way to make a comparison, but that's extremely good news as it means the guys upstairs are listening. I know they already said so, but it's still good to see some action in this direction.

Here's a small sample of what's to come in a chapter related to viewport interaction and display problems. Related to the gizmo too.
Cheesy .gif incoming:




(notice how the removal of the solid cube from the middle of the gizmo makes the selection of very close together points unproblematic)

Hi, regarding characters in Houdini, the rig provided by Side Effects is really advanced but I manage to put together a character fully weighted through a Range Of Motion gym in one day, pretty much the same than XSI.

It is different though and you will want to go through the various tutorials to get up to speed but hopefully you know what to expect.

McNistor

adrianlazar

Thanks for sharing this.
I'm sure Houdini will prove to be a match for me as well, in time.
As of now I can't abandon Softimage's modeling tools and its speedy workflow for quickly grabbing a character and slap it on a GEAR rig. XSI is great tool and chances are I will still use it 10 yrs from now for some stuff.
I hope Houdini will catch up in some areas and seeing how this community functions I'm confident that it will.
Salutari

McNistor

MartybNz
Latest daily build, H13.0.348 has scale arrow highlights now

Unfortunately yesterday I've uninstalled the previous version for unimportant technical reasons and now I've installed 13.0.348 so I have no way to make a comparison, but that's extremely good news as it means the guys upstairs are listening. I know they already said so, but it's still good to see some action in this direction.

You can always have as many version of Houdini on your computer as you like

Hi McNistor,

On your website, could you talk about the tool “Add / edit polygon” (press N) to create a polygon or triangle interactively from scratch? I think it would make a good extension to the “polyknit” tool that seems to require a starting geometry.

Perhaps, the polyextrude houdini tool should create a line instead select adjacent polygons. What do you think?

On your website, could you talk about the tool “Add / edit polygon” (press N) to create a polygon or triangle interactively from scratch?

You can do this with the curve tool - click the Closed toggle while drawing a polgon curve.

Hey twod, I think the workflow being referenced allows for polygons to be drawn and stitched together interactively, similar to some of the workflows found in topogun or 3D coat. I have been trying to repro this workflow in houdini without too much luck, but I think it could be a very powerful interactive tool (especially if it could be made promotable like the stroke SOP)

take a look at this quick example of topogun (around the first minute, you can see the gist of it)

http://vimeo.com/6764913 [vimeo.com]

twod

On your website, could you talk about the tool “Add / edit polygon” (press N) to create a polygon or triangle interactively from scratch?

You can do this with the curve tool - click the Closed toggle while drawing a polgon curve.

Ok, Thank you very much

Question:
are incremental transformations currently possible in Houdini?
By that I mean the ability to make a stepped (or snapped) transformation by pressing a modifier key (shift or ctrl), for example:

-hold shift/ctrl/etc to translate on either x, y or z one unit at a time (the amount would be specified in preferences as 0-10 interval for example)
- hold shift/ctrl/etc to rotate 10 by 10 degrees (again, interval 0-360 in prefs)
- hold shift/ctrl/etc to scale proportionally (amount is a multiplier, 0-10 for example) - example: with a mult. of 0.5 you'd be able to scale to 50% by holding a modif key in one move.

If there's anything unclear don't hesitate to ask.

McNistor
Question:
are incremental transformations currently possible in Houdini?
By that I mean the ability to make a stepped (or snapped) transformation by pressing a modifier key (shift or ctrl), for example:

Yes, possible with value ladder (middle mouse button)
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini13.0/basics/quickref [sidefx.com]

Alright, I'll check it out as soon as I get the chance.
Thanks.

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