For example, say I have a quite complex network in a .hip.

I'd like to write a simple command line script that does:

1. Launch Houdini

2. Load this .hip

3. Switch to "Model" desktop

4. Search for a node named 'character1' and make the network view focus on it

Is it possible?

You can try to do it with python commands using Hython.

Google Houdini hython inline, and the AI should give you some examples using a script.py or a full command.

You can pass a python script to Houdini when launching it. Simply put the code you want to execute once it's started and then run it like so: houdini my.hip script.py