Steve Baker

In 12.5.316.22, I create a box, change it to a poly mesh, select polysplit and it goes red and does not have a connection line to box node. It does not allow me to split the primitves/faces.

This exact same steps work in 12.1. I can repeat the error on other machines. Am I missing something in 12.5 or is this a bug or is there a workaround?

One of the beauties if Soft + ICE was that you did not have to leave the comfort of the traditional ways of doing things and then if you were eager you could venture into procedurals/ICE. Once you get into it, you discover the power of it.

I think, this is one of the areas for improvement for training offerings in Houdini. So many of the tutorials throw you/new users very deeply into the procedural method and things easily get overly technical that it perhaps scares the more traditional workflow people away. Sometimes you just need to model a bar stool and not make a fully customizable adjustable for every situation bar stool. I know if you think a few steps ahead this is easily added with procedurals but at times when I made the switch I found myself thinking just this.

I know that is a possible weakness of a learneer, but you have to take them where they are at. I think there could be better transitional learning methods for training people into Houdini. Show them the normal workflows, a polygon is a polygon is a polygon, then introduce the more non-linear workflows that the procedural workflow offers.

Cause let's face it a majority of them have spent years learning it the traditional linear workflow way. Just my two cents.

I agree, I am an ACI in Softimage and the one thing that I miss the most while transitioning to Houdini are the character animation tools. Animation mixing, bringing in MOCAP and transferring it to other rigs, autorigging (something akin to Ikinema or CAT would be fantastic), synoptics, etc. Hope SideFX focuses on this in the upcoming releases.