Heh, really, its fine (the loading hipnc files in commercial houdini I mean), you only do the accidental hipnc save once and you never do it again.

Houdini gives you a big warning dialog when you load a hipnc file anyway saying ‘hey, I’m about to drop you into NC mode, are you sure? ARE YOU SURE???), so you get given plenty of warning.

Using your hipnc file while open I tried to adjust some params but with no success. I haven't tried to use different types of SOPs with the expressions you wrote to iterate the group attribute numbers yet though. Will still keep trying until you get a chance to work on the file and provide an update. Thanks in advance.

I now used a Color SOP and created colors by BoundingBox which somewhat represents some consistency in a sequential way. I then hooked up the network you had with the expressions you provided earlier and was able to achieve a somewhat nice result. Not exactly what i'm looking for but close. If it makes a difference I might have to try to adjust the carve animation direction on a per-primitive basis or use a reverse sop on a per-primitive basis to customize it and get exactly the look I am trying to achieve.

If you still have time maybe you can still provide a working hip file. Thanks for all your help mestela.

At work, just loaded that last example in h13, it works fine.

At work, just loaded that last example in h13, it works fine.

This is awesome work mestela! Thank you so much. I'm sure it will find use in many circumstances of using the software.

blackpixel
You can also have some fun with Chops and the Primitive SOP and control everything with groups or attributes.

by the way blackpixel, i think the “glow” effect you provided is really cool. I will try to create a file that uses the best of all of the methods provided that will be suitable for me, if such a thing is possible.

I appreciate everyone's input on this as it saves hours.