mantragora
I would expect that most old Houdini users already have their own version of similar tool. I made those mostly for newcomers, who are unfamiliar with Houdini and/or scripting etc. and miss this type of functionality.

Yeah, houdini is such a great software to build tools… Sadly most small studios are paid to use tools, not to build them. So everything out of the box would be appreciated by indie users

McNistor
That is if you really intend to become a Houdini power-user and use it for everything at some point. Learning another app just for modeling, you're going to spread yourself thin.

But perhaps the mistake is to try to become Houdini rockstars, just as we were XSI rockstars? The dream of “one app does it all” has gone a long time ago. We live in a time when specialized apps do different things, and perhaps we all need some personal pipelines: Modo for Box Modelling, Zbrush for sculpt modelling, Mari for texturing, Houdini for sims and renders, etc. And on top of that: Fabric, for the missing tools.

Houdini will never have Zbrush abilities, and perhaps it will have good box modelling tools in many years. So waiting all these years with XSI, an app that does not evolve, could be frustrating, while other 3d artist are benefiting from new technologies.

I am tempted by this multi-app setup but I see 2 problems :
- A freelancer perhaps can't afford all these apps.
- Software interaction is so different between apps. The most annoying thing is the keyboard shortcuts. But also the fact all these apps have different “mindsets”.