Is this by design? Gets quite annoying when you have a heavy scene with many nodes and assets to cook.

I'm not seeing this behavior. It might depend on what nodes you have in your scene? Is there a hip file you can post that shows the problem?

Not a production file that I can share at the moment, but i'll see if I can make a repro this week

Just to check a few things:
* which Houdini version?
* are you changing the filename (i.e., Save As) or overwriting an existing hip?
* does it only happen the first time, or every time?

Thanks!

-18.5.596
-Usually Save-As, yes (incrementing version)
-Seems intermittent

I have had this happen as well. Usually with initial saves.

Okay, I think I know why this is happening (the Render Gallery database path is tied to $HIPNAME so if you're doing Save As then $HIPNAME changes, and the LOP Network gets dirtied). If I'm right, it's something we've already fixed for the next release, but I'll try to get it backported to 18.5. I'll post again when that's done (or if there are issues).

Should be fixed in 18.5.727 ... let me know if you still see it happening!

Thanks Rob! I'll see if I can get pipeline to put a build together. Will report back!

Thanks for this, Rob!