I work between houdini and maya. From houdini export alembic to maya is the easiest way for my workflow. But there is a problem when i update the alembic file from houdini(object name unchanged), either modify something or add object.

When resume working on maya, the objects are all wrong. Some objects are swapped, some repeated, some missing. The reason is that maya only recognize the object index in alembic file, not object name.

Is there anyway I can maintain or manually arrange object index on alembic export?

Have you tried adding a simple Sort node right before the Alembic Export? Maybe something like that could work…

Enivob
Have you tried adding a simple Sort node right before the Alembic Export? Maybe something like that could work…

I dont mean to change the vertex/point order, but i mean the object index in object level.

For example, when i export alembic from houdini, the index is:
0 cloth
1 hair
2 shoe
3 body

Then i import this alembic into maya and do some dynamic. Half way i think i need to tweak the original shoe shape a little, so i modify the shoe in houdini and re-export to replace that alembic. Now i resume my work in maya but the problem now is all objects are swapped between them. Because the updated alembic have the unmatched object index of:
0 shoe
1 body
2 hair
3 cloth

So how do i maintain the initial object index when re-export alembic?
(im exporting using File > export > Alembic.., not a rop per object)

I hope you can understand my poor english

Yes, but if they are packed, each object is essentially a vertex, then simple sorting might work. That is what I was suggesting.

Enivob
Yes, but if they are packed, each object is essentially a vertex, then simple sorting might work. That is what I was suggesting.

Im new to houdini and haven't used anything related to ‘pack’. I will read the documentation about it.
Thanks

Enivob
Yes, but if they are packed, each object is essentially a vertex, then simple sorting might work. That is what I was suggesting.

After read on pack concept, to my understanding it is for reading files from disk when rendering, instead of load everything into RAM.
Does it affect anything on alembic export? I tried adding a pack sop to every geometry node and export to a single alembic file. Maya still imports it as separated object, same like what i have done before…
(i still want them to be separated in maya, if i can manage to solve the object index problem)

keep path attribute on them as it comes from original alembic
then in ROP output choose Hierarchy mode, which uses path attribute to correctly place objects into the object hierarchy
you can as well edit path attribute to decide where each primitive goes in hierarchy