How can I make auto-save on as a default when I start up Houdini?

Add “autosave on” to either your 123.cmd or 456.cmd file.

Hi, thanks for this.

I just wanted to make a note here just in-case I forget the method in the future.

Windows:

1. Go to your Documents/HoudiniX.X
   
2. Create a “scripts” folder.
   
3. Inside the scripts folder, create a 123.cmd (or also a 456.cmd) file - using notepad will do.
   
4. Add “autosave on” for the files (without quotes).
   
   So far, that is how it worked on my Win10, Houdini Indie 15

Hi !

How do you do that on linux ?

I tried to make a 456.py file in script folder with this content, as founded in another forum but it didn't work:

import hou
hou.appendSessionModuleSource('''hou.hscript(“autosave on”)''')

Any clue ?
Thanks.

It's a bit silly that it's an option that you have to set each session(if you want to use it).
It's a conspiracy to get us into writing 456 files!

One thing though, auto backup has never worked for me. I'm on OSX, maybe that's it??

peteski
It's a bit silly that it's an option that you have to set each session(if you want to use it).
It's a conspiracy to get us into writing 456 files!

One thing though, auto backup has never worked for me. I'm on OSX, maybe that's it??

Why 456?

It's in the doc's.
456.cmd or 456.py will be executed when the user loads a hip file.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/hom/locations.html#startup [www.sidefx.com]

While you're at it, add a line that creates a new folder (maybe today's date) and saves your file there because I don't think auto save will work unless you first do that.

Here's some Py for your shelf

If you place the afterSceneSave handler, linked below, in the same scripts folder it will do some housekeeping only keeping a certain number of backups, see source to set the number to keep. (make sure to keep the exact filename, houdini uses that to identify it's function)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pv3v2rm1gnhovy6cj23hv/afterscenesave.py?rlkey=608r3wn14kx89zvs746najcet&dl=0 [www.dropbox.com]

Jonathan de Blok
If you place the afterSceneSave handler, linked below, in the same scripts folder it will do some housekeeping only keeping a certain number of backups, see source to set the number to keep. (make sure to keep the exact filename, houdini uses that to identify it's function)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pv3v2rm1gnhovy6cj23hv/afterscenesave.py?rlkey=608r3wn14kx89zvs746najcet&dl=0 [www.dropbox.com]

This script sounds useful, but I'm getting the following error, and don't know enough Python to troubleshoot:

" File \"C:/Users/User/Documents/houdini20.0/scripts/afterscenesave.py\", line 12
print \"WARNING, saving into a backup folder.. skipped pruning\"
^
SyntaxError: Missing parentheses in call to 'print'. Did you mean print(\"WARNING, saving into a backup folder.. skipped pruning\")?
"

I'm not sure if this means it's not pruning. I assume not as all previous backups and autosaves still exist. What do you mean by exact filename? The exact filename of the script?

Any insight would be great.

Thanks,

I think now (in python 3) you have to put the print in brackets. So print ("Blah") or something like that. You could probably just remove that line or comment it out too.

peteski
I think now (in python 3) you have to put the print in brackets. So print ("Blah") or something like that. You could probably just remove that line or comment it out too.

Yeah that was the first thing I tried, but I still seemed to error out. I'll try again, also with it commented out.

BenjaminMarkus

peteski
I think now (in python 3) you have to put the print in brackets. So print ("Blah") or something like that. You could probably just remove that line or comment it out too.

Yeah that was the first thing I tried, but I still seemed to error out. I'll try again, also with it commented out.

I guess I forgot to add parenthesis to all the print commands. No more errors, but it still doesn't look like the script is working and pruning the old autosave and/or backups.

Amazing. A whole thread about something you just have to click on in other applications.... The essence of Houdini.