I don't know if that's a good idea to ask questions to the highend 3d artists right away from someone (“me”) with a low-end 3d App background experience (3ds max), but anyway here we go.

I downloaded the NC version 7 and lots of tutorials from 3d-buzz (outdated).
However I am facing a problem which I can't figure out how to get around it (stupid me).
I managed to create a Sphere (wow) and a Grid. The Sphere was easy to move, but the grid remains static way above the working grid (I can't select it neither rotate or translate it).
The Network Use for doing things is very logical but also very new to me and makes me most of the time I'm using Houdini a little confused.
Can someone of you give me some very important survival tips on using Houdini?
ops:

Hi Ikebana

Welcome to Houdini . Firstly, I would suggest easing yourself slowly into the networks. They're quite a different workflow from any other package and as such, can be a little overwhelming.
Houdini offers quite good viewport tools to do everything and handles the building of the networks automatically.

So you can hit tab in the viewport to bring up the tool menu and put down a grid. When you do this it will automatically come up with handles attached so you can move it. If you do another operation then it's handles will come up automatically too.

If you ever find that the handles have dissapeared for some reason (this is the real answer to your question ), move your mouse to the viewport and hit enter, this will activate the tools' handles.

Hope this helps a little.
Marc

P.S. There is a button to the left of the viewport called “secure selection” it's hotkey is “=”. I would highly reccomend you turn that sucker off. All it will do is confuse and annoy the bejeebers out of you if you don't know what's going on.

Hi there,

I believe the first 3dbuzz video is an intro to Houdini & it shows how to navigate around the UI pretty well. Did you download that video?

Also, in the top right corner of the Houdini window, there's a “?” button to open up the Help Browser (or click on an OPerator's “?” button to get a floating Help Browser instead then click on the “Home” button at the top) and I recommend going through the “Tutorials” & “Quick Reference” sections to know your way around Houdini.

There are also intro videos available at the Sydney VisLab mirror [sidefx.vislab.usyd.edu.au]. They were created with Houdini 5.5 and 6.0 but they are still useful, nonetheless.

Good luck and welcome to Houdini-land.

Cheers!
steven

MarcH many many thanks!!!
That works well now - me and Houdini Handles. Cool.
It's just the learning curve of the interface, you know…
I guess what I have experienced sofar in Houdini it's a very fast 3D App overall. I'm sure the Networks is easy learned after a while. But I'm too eager I guess, and overlook some important thinks right now.

Thanks stevenong.
I was having a look at the videos but didn't pay too much attention to the interface as it was for version 5, and didn't want to learn outdated stuff. But they are very good videos. I will have a look again tonight and see how things go. And I found the Help Button, thanks. With the Tutorials they are very good but I prefer Videos instead, as they are more understandable to me, I guess.

Thanks again to you both. You are very kind to me as a Houdini noob.