Hi everyone,

I have a question regarding Houdini Indie and HDAs, and I’d really appreciate some clarification.

I’m currently developing a custom “Hole” HDA in Houdini Indie, intended mainly for clean, production-friendly geometry workflows (especially for cinematic/character work). The tool is designed to create holes on both flat and curved surfaces while maintaining clean, quad-dominant topology and good edge flow.

Some of the planned features include:

Adjustable hole radius with safety clamping to avoid breaking surrounding geometry
Support for multiple input modes (polygon, edge, and point selection)
Curvature-aware hole generation (so it works nicely on tubes and cylindrical surfaces)
Optional hole capping with subdivision controls
“Supporting edges” option for better deformation and smoothing
Non-destructive workflow with stable, deterministic results
Preservation of UVs, normals, and existing attributes

My question is:
If I create and distribute this HDA using Houdini Indie, will it work in other Houdini versions like Core or FX? And are there any licensing restrictions or limitations I should be aware of when sharing it (for example via Gumroad, even if it’s free with optional donations)?

I want to make sure I’m not running into any issues before releasing it publicly.

Thanks a lot for any guidance!

AFAIK Houdini Indie has its own hda file format, .hdalc, and any scene that uses it will have to be saved in the .hiplc format, with associated restrictions.

Tanto
AFAIK Houdini Indie has its own hda file format, .hdalc, and any scene that uses it will have to be saved in the .hiplc format, with associated restrictions.

correct my friend. There is one BUT. If you upload it on Orbit, it will automatically be converted to all Houdini versions like FX, Apprentice. I think I have something that could help out alot of artists. I Would love them to have fun while creating holes and concentrate on what matters.