Hello
I installed Maya 2020 and houdini-18.5.578-win64-vc141 some days ago. The Engine plugin for Maya was running fine.

But today when starting Maya , I got this message in the script editor:
// Automatically starting Houdini Engine server using named pipe.
// Error: HARC: Timed out waiting on the server ready event //
// Houdini Engine failed to initialize.

When I try to lead an *hdalc file, I get this message :
// Error: Could not load OTL file: D:/Users/path/filename.hdalc //
// Error: //

So now I installed houdini-py3-18.5.581-win64-vc141.exe . Same problem.
Any clue?
Thanks
GZ

If HARC did not start, any following action will also fail. The timeout is configured to 10 seconds. When you launch Houdini, what does your start time look like?

Problem solved. I think the problem happened because I never started the newly installed Houdini before starting Maya and the Houdini Engine plugin. I was too in a hurry.
BTW on this PC, Hou starts in almost 2 minutes. It's REALLY a slow PC that I intend to upgrade so please don't hit me on the head.

I have just added a new preference that will allow you to set the timeout in Houdini 18.0.828/18.5.583.

Houdini Engine>Preferences>Connection Timeout.