Hello everyone. i'm a maya user and i'm new in houdini. I want to know how i can collapse or delete history(maya) several nodes in one single. how can i do that? thanks for your help greetings from Machu Picchu - Peru

Export a bgeo, or make a subnet, or make a network box, or start another tree with an object merge node.

Delete History is a very bad idea as it essentially bakes the lightweight procedural graph into explicit, static and potentially very heavy geo that will bloat your scene file on disk

- to do that though you have a few options
1. Turn on Lock Flag on the last node, this will store the cooked geo in the node with all described disadvantages

2. as a shortcut for 1. that you can just choose RMB/Geometry/Delete History with our mouse cursor over viewport which will place Lock flag on the display node but also delete all input nodes for you, which you really may not want to do as they will not be evaluated anymore, but its generally a good idea to have your history

3. append Stash Node and click on Stash Input, which will store static geo in a Data Parameter, but ultimately very similar to locked node with a few advantages, like easier recaching or being able to access and manipulate the cache through python


- better option is to append filecache node and cache your geo to disk either static or a sequence

tamte
Delete History is a very bad idea

Hello Tamte, i get into more in modeling first then i get at simulation and dynamics. is that a good idea for modeling delete history or collapse in houdini? thanks for your answer and greetings from Peru

I think Tomas was saying it is pretty much always a bad idea to delete the history. You can't delete just a few nodes. You can freeze a node and delete the upstream nodes, but all that does is make any changes impossible and bloat the file. The whole point to Houdini is that it is procedural. If you want to use it as a non procedural modeler, it works fine, but there is no reason to delete the nodes for that either. You can right click on the terminal node and export it and then create a new Houdini file and just import what you exported. But generally the issue is you don't want to look at the node tree, because it is complicated. The options I mentioned will make it less complicated. You can color code nodes or change the shapes. You can take a series of nodes and make them a network and collapse that. You can make a subnet out of a bunch of nodes. If the crossing wires get really complicated, add an object merge node and just reference the terminal nodes from a chain of nodes and go from there. It is pretty easy to make things look more readable.

Island
The whole point to Houdini is that it is procedural. If you want to use it as a non procedural modeler, it works fine, but there is no reason to delete the nodes for that either. You can right click on the terminal node and export it and then create a new Houdini file and just import what you exported. But generally the issue is you don't want to look at the node tree, because it is complicated.

thanks Island i think, i understand finally isn't any way because it's Houdini. i cannot see it like non-procedural software thanks for your advice man