the little things about houdini

Houdini is very good for advanced 3d tasks,but sometimes you will find it lacking many basic functions.Those little things will slow down our process.from a c4d user and motion designer’s perspective ,I really hope houdini will pay attention to those little things.

01.permanent autosave option.i know there is a script,but you should really give user the option to turn it on or off natively in houdini.

02.a little icon showing the project has changed,and you haven’t saved,in c4d it’s a * .

03.Hip file preview thumbnail.this will be a lifesaver,please,please.

04.drag and drop support.again,there is a python script,but you know.

05.multi-window support.when I want to open more than one project at the same time,it’s so annoying to start another houdini.

06.the curve node.it really needs some big improvement,the functions now are so limited.you can’t even select multi points at a time,it’s miles away from c4d’s spline module.

07.the font sop.houdini’s fonts manager is very outdated,you can’t scroll up and down,the font does not have a preview.

08.the ui.maybe a more modern and flat version?i don’t know,I just feel it’s not so intuitive now.

Those little things will have great value for motion designers,if houdini wants to attract more c4d users,please pay attention to the details.

Sorry for my English.what’s your opinion?

Strongly agree with 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7. 8 would be nice.

I'll add a couple:

What is the advantage of having the selection undo queue separate from others? Manual selection in the viewport feels like walking on egg shells. When using Maya I could make any selection and any operation and I knew that if I messed up I could step back in time without hidden caveats. I think you will find it very hard to convince modelers or anyone that wants to work primarily in the viewport to consider Houdini without addressing this.

I usually use the grid in the background when laying out my nodes. But functionally its somewhat useless. Nodes are always shifted off the grid position I put them. What's the point of a visible grid and grid snapping if they are not always in the same place?

Node shapes are cool, moving the flag positions because of the node shapes makes no sense to me.

Its impossible to see very small prims in the viewport (e.g. for tiny constraints).

There should be a built in variable or function to reference the current hip file version for all image or geo file outs, and have them only update when you run them again, not when the hip file version changes (I haven't used anything beyond 16.5 yet, does 17.5 have a way to do this?)

As a tablet user I can't scroll the parameter pane with a wheel, so like Nuke, click + option drag to pan/scroll the parameter pane.

(hey, I've been asking for this for 7 years )

You're welcome to log those suggestions some time.
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/25347/ [www.sidefx.com]

01: This definitely should be an option for lighters, at least for USD/Solaris part (ie it frequently saves each LOP context in a separate backup file)

04: File browser (asset browser?) pane would be even better, you can leave it open and drag textures etc to the parameters or quickly create relevant nodes if you drag the file to the network view. Also must have candidate for lookdev/lighters.

08: Be my guest here: UI/UX: Share your screenshots & tips & tricks & ideas [www.sidefx.com]

Tablet users:
I will send a proposal about such things for Blender soon, but here is one thing which would be a better alternative to value ladder(annoying because of the accidental jumps):
Instead of middle click(value ladder), a modifier key + drag on the value activates the pressure sensitive tweaking mode: more pressure means more rapid slider value change, if you press gently, you can fine tune. Basically the math is: [pressure] * [X or Y coordinate change of the pen] = [value change]. If you used Flame, you know what I mean.

… and additionally:
Usual problem with the tablet's absolute positioning: If you reach the edge of the tablet/monitor, you should go back every time. The mouse cursor wrap doesn't work with pen or goes crazy.
Solution: circular movement, like turning a control knob. (have you tried 5D Cyborg back then? … it was a magic with pen). The circular movement has no limits and additionally it would be more fun and better in terms of ergonomics, especially with pressure sensitivity.

Solaris is coming and lookdev/lighter guys are more likely use tablets…

chrism
You're welcome to log those suggestions some time.
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/25347/ [www.sidefx.com]

I've reported a ref for better curve tool several weeks ago but with no further report(except for the auto report email). The curve tool in Houdini really sucks, compared to C4D.

regarding permanent autosave, I quote a response I got from the support just few days ago:
The reason why we don't make this option stick is because we think there is a fine balance to what users want when it comes to opening/saving very large (enormous) files which might interrupt their work. The way to have the autosave always on, is to put the hscript command “autosave on” in one of your 123.cmd or 456.cmd files.

Andr
regarding permanent autosave, I quote a response I got from the support just few days ago:
The reason why we don't make this option stick is because we think there is a fine balance to what users want when it comes to opening/saving very large (enormous) files which might interrupt their work. The way to have the autosave always on, is to put the hscript command “autosave on” in one of your 123.cmd or 456.cmd files.

I think the decision should be made by users,so one option in settings(permanent or not)will be fine.

wanglifu
I think the decision should be made by users,so one option in settings(permanent or not)will be fine.

What I proposed to the Support is to have at least the option to have the autosave permanent for the $HIP directory. Once you toggle it one time for your hip file, it should stick for that project unless you decide otherwise.

Yes, I really hope that in the future SideFX would care more about UI.

wanglifu
07.the font sop.houdini’s fonts manager is very outdated,you can’t scroll up and down,the font does not have a preview.

08.the ui.maybe a more modern and flat version?i don’t know,I just feel it’s not so intuitive now.

07 - also the Font sop is also super slow. It can cripple your for-loop speed when used inside a loop.

08 - UI really needs some care. Especially the parameters UI. We need bugs fixed and better controls over the placement and alignment of the parms.

While we are talking about UI:
I submitted a request to fix BUG# 92122, which has not being taken care at least since Hou 15.5 (years ago)
What is it:
when you ‘Tear off Pane Tab Copy’ (alt+shift+c) the new pane tab is created on the bottom left of the screen SUPER MINIMIZED (happen to many users of different OS, linux, mac, windows).
Which means you end up wasting seconds (yes seconds!) to resize and reposition it.
I use the ‘alt+shift+c’ command constantly during my hou session, sometimes I just scream at Houdini.
This bug is a perfect example on how bad UI can lead you to waste much time and break your flow/concentration.

One more thing about bad UI, it seems like everything about “Curve” is hard to use in Houdini.

wanglifu
03.Hip file preview thumbnail.this will be a lifesaver,please,please.

This is the one single thing I miss the most about C4D. Being able to highlight a file and press the spacebar on my Mac, and having effectively a Viewport-sized image of the geometry in the file was a huge help in my daily workflow.

But as far as I know, it was a very C4D specific thing, so many people might not even know just how awesome it is!

@MidPhase - MacOS has an inbulit USD viewer with QuickLook, so files from H18 should be previewable at some level

Interesting, I didn't know that USD is OSX previewable!

we need node/tool special for destruction modeling which will simplify and speed the modeling process in houdini. One tool which contain bridge,extrude,bevel,add loop,loop slice,make circle,fill polygon and others. This will help when you just want to model something without the need of the procedural workflow.

seifdune
we need node/tool special for destruction modeling which will simplify and speed the modeling process in houdini. One tool which contain bridge,extrude,bevel,add loop,loop slice,make circle,fill polygon and others. This will help when you just want to model something without the need of the procedural workflow.

No, I don't want to see a new toy tool like Poly Draw. I just hope one day we can select/edit multiple points at a time with Curve SOP.

wanglifu
04.drag and drop support.again,there is a python script,but you know.

it's 2019, we are sending robots to Mars. I think it's too early to ask for drag and drop in Houdini.

Andr

wanglifu
04.drag and drop support.again,there is a python script,but you know.

it's 2019, we are sending robots to Mars. I think it's too early to ask for drag and drop in Houdini.

If eMusk conglomerate would buy this company, they might ship Houdini with a direct brain interface (Neuralink): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPGa_FuGPIc [www.youtube.com]
Carbon neutral live cloud rendering with Ludicrous or Plaid speed options.
SidefX

I don't want such things in my head, but it would be good to use some multi-decade old UI/UX stuff, like drag and drop and pressure sensitive UI elements (I mentioned above). An audit by UI/UX specialists(at least focusing on annoying things) would be useful. An inspiration:



(this video is 6 years old…)

#1 App GUI panels should be fully exposed in unlocked qt .UI files so we can change everything.

I spent 2 days digging in the deepest darkest corners of various .py and other code files trying to find any entry to set Pane splitter width…no luck.

I know the pro TD's arent really bothered by these kinds of things, so its really unfortunate.

EricSheng

seifdune
we need node/tool special for destruction modeling which will simplify and speed the modeling process in houdini. One tool which contain bridge,extrude,bevel,add loop,loop slice,make circle,fill polygon and others. This will help when you just want to model something without the need of the procedural workflow.

No, I don't want to see a new toy tool like Poly Draw. I just hope one day we can select/edit multiple points at a time with Curve SOP.

I wouldn't call it a toy tool, it's quite a leap forward from what it used to be! Look, some tasks just aren't procedural by nature and I'd like to see tools that are more aligned with that workflow. You can still mix and match them as you'd like.