Houdini Applinker

[mifth]

Hi.

 

I did 3DCoat-Houdini Applinker asset. It's possible to export-import meshes and export textures from 3DCoat. Very useful for modeling and texturing artists. It's going to be at Orbolt soon.

 

 

- Set the Exchange folder before exporting/importing. On linux it's at 'home/user/3DCoatVersion/Exchange'. On Windows it's somewhere at user documents. 3DCoat creates such a folder itself.

- Tested on Linux. If you have any issues on Windows then write me here.

 

Video test of export/import of meshes and textures:

https://youtu.be/4WVgfgugZ5M

 

Houdini thread:

https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=43886&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

[mifth]

And! The asset is now at Orbolt! 

 

http://www.orbolt.com/asset/mifth::mifth_3dcoat_applinker

 

Enjoy and test it!

[paulrus]

I'm testing out Houdini as a Softimage replacement & having a 3DCoat applink is really helpful to me.  I don't know a lot about Houdini so forgive me if I'm missing something obvious, but....  In 3DC when I choose Open in Original App, then click Import on the applinker, I get a new FBX object with all my changes made.  The problem I see is, the object is living inside the 3DC Exchange folder as a reference object.

How do I bring it into my project so it's part of the project & not an external reference?

Thanks,

 

Paul

[mifth]

It's not an external reference. You can use the new subnet as a common imported fbx. All its sop nodes are locked.

[paulrus]

Sorry, but I literally just started trying out Houdini and I haven't yet gotten an understanding of what all the VOP, SOP, COP, FLIPPITY-FLOP, DOOWOPSHEBOP stuff is all about.  What I see is not a new object/geometry, I see a node that has a referenced path and filename as it's name - the filename is the path to my Exchange folder and the object is being loaded dynamically.  I know this is the case because I tried creating a scene on one machine that uses this applink, then loading it on another machine - all objects that were created internally in Houdini loaded fine, but the applink object was missing because it couldn't find the Exchange folder where the modified object lived.

I'll attach an image of what I'm talking about.

 

[matthias.kappenberg]

Hi Paulrus,

you have many options if you like to transfer your stuff to another machine.

The simplest one is: check the "lock" icon, if you have the desired model imported on your base machine.
Then the FBX is locked and the actual geometry will be embedded in the Houdini file.
But beware of the dog: Never save it then, with unlocking the Geometry...
Mainly used if you like to transfer a simple Houdini file with some demo geometry.

Another option, which is usually better, is to have your files organized in a "project", which should have
subfolders for the different needed files like textures, models, ....
like:
YourProjectFolder <--- base folder
YourProjectFolder/Models <--- your models
YourProjectFolder/Textures <--- your textures
....

then save your Houdini file in
YourProjectFolder/TheFile.hip
and the FBX in
YourProjectFolder/Models/export.fbx

now you can use variables like "$HIP" , see here: http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini13.0/expressions/_globals

and set a variable path to the model like:
$HIP/ Models/export.fbx

or use shared path, which are accessible in the network and use them, optional with the above variable
to have all your stuff in sync.

Hope that was helpy.

 

@ .. VOP, SOP, COP, FLIPPITY-FLOP, DOOWOPSHEBOP ... 
Have a closer look at the manual... simply think of it like: stay organized (ok, it's much more...)
SOP -> SurfaceOPerator -> all Geometry related stuff
COP -> CompositingOPerator -> all Image manipulation
......
DOOWOPSHEBOP -> my favorit -> the Paulrus playground, I'm curios what's growing up there?

[matthias.kappenberg]

Forgotten to say: Really big thanks for the "3DCoat-Houdini Applinker", simply cool

[mifth]

Thanks a lot. I'm gland that the asset is useful.

[Barracuda]

Hello, first of all thanks a lot for the applinker,  the workflow described here is if you start from Houdini export load in 3dc, what if I am starting in 3dc and want to export first from there, Should I just export using the Houdini Mantra surface preset?, and would you happen to know if that would work with redshift?.

and when baking I cant find any Houdini preset for normals, which one of the existing ones would work?

and then should I export this to the exchange folder or can I just pick any folder and then point the Houdini app link to it?

 

Thanks a lot for your time 

Ahmed Barakat

[AbnRanger]

13 hours ago, Barracuda said:

Hello, first of all thanks a lot for the applinker,  the workflow described here is if you start from Houdini export load in 3dc, what if I am starting in 3dc and want to export first from there, Should I just export using the Houdini Mantra surface preset?, and would you happen to know if that would work with redshift?.

and when baking I cant find any Houdini preset for normals, which one of the existing ones would work?

and then should I export this to the exchange folder or can I just pick any folder and then point the Houdini app link to it?

 

Thanks a lot for your time 

Ahmed Barakat

Yeah, that's how some of the Applinks work. They assume the user wants to bring an asset from their main 3D application, into 3D Coat first, rather than originating in 3D Coat. Wish that would change.

[vertigo262]

Hi,

I have never used the Applink before. While trying it out today on Houdini 16.5.439

I get this error

Also, on the download section the Youtube link no longer exists

I checked all the folder perms and even made a simple folder in a new directory. That does not seem to be the problem

[RandyBonnette]

On 7/27/2016 at 12:30 AM, matthias.kappenberg said:

Hi Paulrus,

you have many options if you like to transfer your stuff to another machine.

The simplest one is: check the "lock" icon, if you have the desired model imported on your base machine.
Then the FBX is locked and the actual geometry will be embedded in the Houdini file.
But beware of the dog: Never save it then, with unlocking the Geometry...
Mainly used if you like to transfer a simple Houdini file with some demo geometry.

Another option, which is usually better, is to have your files organized in a "project", which should have
subfolders for the different needed files like textures, models, ....
like:
YourProjectFolder <--- base folder
YourProjectFolder/Models <--- your models
YourProjectFolder/Textures <--- your textures
....

then save your Houdini file in
YourProjectFolder/TheFile.hip
and the FBX in
YourProjectFolder/Models/export.fbx

now you can use variables like "$HIP" , see here: http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini13.0/expressions/_globals/essaydune

and set a variable path to the model like:
$HIP/ Models/export.fbx

or use shared path, which are accessible in the network and use them, optional with the above variable
to have all your stuff in sync.

Hope that was helpy.

 

@ .. VOP, SOP, COP, FLIPPITY-FLOP, DOOWOPSHEBOP ... 
Have a closer look at the manual... simply think of it like: stay organized (ok, it's much more...)
SOP -> SurfaceOPerator -> all Geometry related stuff
COP -> CompositingOPerator -> all Image manipulation
......
DOOWOPSHEBOP -> my favorit -> the Paulrus playground, I'm curios what's growing up there?

Hi there,

Is it possible to define a new location to store files? The $HIP variable in Houdini actually defaults to the C:/users/username folder whenever I start Houdini. I'm working on a project and need to configure $HIP and a project directory. I asked the same on sidefx forum, but there's no reply yet.

[mifth]

Hi.

You can set a project. Then you can use  $JOB variable. 

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/basics/project.html

[jacobo]

Thank you so much for your efforts, yet I just don't get why on earth Pilgway does not develop it's own applinks and rely on third party efforts. Yes, generous people like yourself do a fantastic job, yet I need to ask; don't users of 3DC deserve up-to-date official applinks???? 

Edited September 20, 2019 by jacobo

[mifth]

Hello. Thank you. All works fine at my side. I have such setup.

 

[AbnRanger]

14 hours ago, jacobo said:

Thank you so much for your efforts, yet I just don't get why on earth Pilgway does not develop it's own applinks and rely on third party efforts. Yes, generous people like yourself do a fantastic job, yet I need to ask; don't users of 3DC deserve up-to-date official applinks???? 

Why do people hold Pilgway to a different standard than it's competitors? Allegorithmic doesn't write or update all the applinks to Substance Painter, nor does Pixologic handle all the ZBrush links to 3D apps. It's up to those 3D app developers to keep their ZB links updated. Pixologic will help them if they reach out to them, but they don't bear the responsibility of keeping such applinks updated. Why then, should a much smaller company like Pilgway be any different. They do try to, to some extent, but only the most common 3D apps and sometimes the developers of the applinks are too busy to keep up with those applinks.

[underberg]

@mifththanks for developing the app link! I was not aware that it still works in current versions of Houdini. However, I wonder if it would be possible to make the App Link work inside of SOPs. Ideally it would be one node in SOPs that takes the input and sends it to 3D-Coat to do the task that was specified in the dropdown, and loads the result (after work in 3D-Coat) back into the same node. the node could have two output ports. One with all Geo data from the Sculpt room, one with all Geo data from the Retopo room. The Retopo stream would then carry the UV and Materialpath data if there is any. Separate sculpt-objects or separate poly groups could appear in the shape of a name attribute or groups. Finally it would be great to have a dropdown to specify renderer and the place to drop the material networks so that the shaders get build automatically.

I'm not sure if any of that is even possible, I just wanted to share this in case you revisit the development of the App-Link. I tried to build an Asset myself, but I obviously can't get over the python part.... Hoping for the best

[mifth]

@underbergthanks a lot. The exchanging itself works using fbx/obj export/import. It can become too complicated. I tried to make it as simple as possible to support through the time. 

Ps: let me know if something stopped working as I didn't update/test the tool for a long time.

[Carlosan]

Thanks Pavel !

@underberg It is compatible with version 19.5 ?

 

[underberg]

haven't tried on windows yet, but works on Mac for Houdini 19.5 with 3D coat 2023.16. I did not try every export/import combo, but def works for Per-Pixel Painting and Voxel Mesh exchanges. 

One thing that probably could be improved more easy ist scale matching. Right now everything is exchanged as is, so very tiny Houdini Meshes in 3dC and big 3DC exports to  Houdini. A transformation of around 0.01 should be applied to the imported object by default.

[Carlosan]

Pavel Geraskin said: 

Hello! 

I investigated the problem. H17.5 uses relative paths by default. Just make Absolute path for the node you want to export. 
Like this example: