Houdini: Organizing and managing

Dive into the fascinating world of Houdini as we explore more of setting up node networks, HDA structures, and improve your workflow with tips and tricks.
In this tutorial, we'll take you on a journey through the art of node network organization. Learn how to construct clean, efficient, and visually comprehensible node networks.
But that's not all - we're delving into the exciting realm of Houdini Digital Assets. Discover the secrets behind structuring HDAs effectively. Learn about using the onCreated function and basic packages for your project.
Throughout the video, we'll sprinkle in a wide array of practical tips and tricks to add annotations, establish logical structures, and foster general concepts for organizing your Houdini files like a seasoned pro. Whether you're a seasoned Houdini sorcerer or a curious beginner, these insights will help you navigate the software with confidence.
Timestamp
00:00 Intro
00:12 using $JOB and $HIP
02:51 Align nodes
04:12 Wires
05:11 Node Colors
05:55 Node Shapes
06:25 Network box/frame
07:22 Sticky Notes
08:15 Subnetworks
09:42 HDA: oncreated for shape and color
11:29 Make package for HDA
15:32 Quickmarks
16:28 Search
17:20 View Dependency
18:55 Node Icons

[@frigbychilwether]

Hi, really useful set of tips. One other thing I find myself using quite a lot(and I'm sure you know it) is when you have multiple wires coming out of a node, if you click alt to create one of those dots then drag it over other wires, it joins the wires together at that dot - then the input node can be replaced and is connected to everything the previous node was - no need to rewire multiple times.

[@ErikBorchersVR]

Thank you for covering this Simon. Your videos have been extremely helpful to me!

[@graemepalmer2306]

So many great tips, thanks a lot for sharing!

[@Anim_osity]

Extremely useful, thank you for the tips

[@kir11]

AWESOME!

[@ChrisC1377]

Thanks, very helpful

[@jessesolomonscott]

Thanks for the video 😇

[@Jofoyo]

Thank you very much for covering this, Simon. It's not a very exciting topic, but damn is it necessary when integrating Houdini into a pipeline.

[@simonhoudini5074]

Visually not to most fanciest video but so useful if you ever have to setup Houdini in a production. I went fast over packages but there is much more around making packages, it is a must if you setup custom tools for a team or Github

[@artfive]

Super useful

[@inskribe_]

great video. I've been digging into a project you did for Houdini on wfc. any pointers to information on how to set up blueprints to accept the position and placement of the wang decoder. I dug through the project but couldn't find any blueprints to reference. I really appreciate any help you can provide.

[@fahimjaowad8717]

Here's one cool tip. Select multiple nodes and alt left click anywhere in the network, It'll create a merge node merging all selected nodes.

[@Gloromo]

Great video, thank you so much for sharing! On a personal note, I wish there was a way to color individual wires other than coloring the output of the node :(

[@simonhoudini5074]

Thanks, Not sure if there are options in python to change wire colors.