I have been using Houdini as my main 3D app for about 2 years now. My only regret is that I didn't get into Houdini sooner.
So here are my biggest frustrations and they are interaction issues. Wondering if others have similar experiences and maybe can offer a good suggestion or at least condolences.
#1 I am constantly accidentally overwriting settings in my parameter/property windows with the space bar when I am switching from text/value input to navigating with the camera in my scene - ie space bar mouse. The problem is that I fail to hit enter or click outside of the input area after setting values/expression. Sometimes it just seems to happen even if I do things correctly and deliberately.
#2 Nodes sometimes don't refresh as expected. Still working my way through this but I cant tell how many times I have been working with what is technically a correct setup but I don't see results because the network is not properly refreshing. To me this most often happens with materials. I think much of this non refresh issue is self inflicted by doing things incorrectly at first and confusing the node but this isn't always easily apparent to a newer user.
#3 The preview frame/window can very difficult to close sometimes. It is difficult because the close click area is so small and sometimes gets hidden behind other interface things on the screen such as the group and attribute list or the camera selection area.
#4 the component selection tool seems to want to default to edges (or whatever I don't want) all of the time. I think I just need to learn the shortcuts better but it seems that I am always needing to re select the desired component type when selecting and manipulating geometry components.
#5 last but not least manipulation handles are just too small/thin for my taste. I very often miss them when trying to translate and end up deselecting my geometry. Couple this with item#4 and the issue compounds.
Has anyone else struggled with these issues? Am I overlooking some obvious solutions?