Artists' Guide for External Editor for Scripting in Houdini

   6337   4   2
User Avatar
Staff
99 posts
Joined: Feb. 2021
Offline
Hi, want to improve your experience coding in wrangles? The title may seem like an oxymoron, but hey, never say never.

So I'd like to share with you a reference document I've made to configure my external editor Sublime Text 3. It was helpful every time I migrated to a new personal or work computer. I can set things up the way I liked them in a few minutes. The editor gives you options for auto-formatting, different color schemes, auto-completion, function help cards, etc.

SideFX is also working on improving our own text editor. But in case you want to try out Sublime Text in the meantime, here is your guide.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vebq04Ycz1cjHlprzNyn23O6tkP3QJJll1bwbwuD18s/edit?usp=sharing [docs.google.com]


Feel free to leave comments for improvements. Shout-outs to the developers who created the packages included in the document.




Edited by MaiAo - March 19, 2021 11:21:48

Attachments:
Sublime Python Example.png (42.1 KB)
Sublime VEX Example.png (68.5 KB)

Mai Ao
Senior Technical Lead of SideFX Labs
youtube.com/@notverydarkmagic
User Avatar
Member
28 posts
Joined: March 2016
Offline
Thanks!
FX reel https://vimeo.com/523174378 [vimeo.com]
User Avatar
Staff
99 posts
Joined: Feb. 2021
Offline
The latest update to Sublime Text hard-bound its new Safe Mode to Alt+Shift. If like me, you previously bound Houdini's Edit in External Editor hotkey to Alt+Shift+<something>, to prevent launching from Houdini into Sublime Text Safe Mode, try rebinding the Edit in External Editor hotkey to Alt+D. It's one of those combinations that don't trigger a conflict.
Edited by MaiAo - May 29, 2021 08:28:26
Mai Ao
Senior Technical Lead of SideFX Labs
youtube.com/@notverydarkmagic
User Avatar
Member
9 posts
Joined: Dec. 2013
Offline
This is very cool. I had no idea you could do this but I just set it up to use Visual Studio Code.

As I got tripped up on getting the external editor hot keys to work let me add to the thread as maybe it will help someone else in the future.

Where your mouse is located when you press the hotkey is very important and determines if it works or not.

Your cursor can't be typing text or the shortcut won't work. So first make sure you click out of the text box. Next when you press the shortcut make sure you are hovering your mouse over where it says "VEXpression" on like an AttWrangle node or "Python Code" on a python node, etc to launch the external editor. If you are hovering over other parts you will still open the external editor but you won't actually have a live link to the text box and are creating a new file.
User Avatar
Member
38 posts
Joined: Sept. 2017
Online
This is great, much appreciated.

Is there anything similar (auto-completion, function help) for writing python with hou?
  • Quick Links