How to translate an alembic transform node?

[fredrikaverpil]

Hi,

Case: I import a car (alembic format) into Houdini. The car's door is closed and consists of many geometries. All these geometries are located under one specific transform node in the alembic hierarchy. This transform node's pivot is placed properly in order to just rotate the door open. But I can't for the life of me figure out how to just "grab" this transform in Houdini and rotate it in order to open the car's door.

I have imported the alembic ("alembic" SOP). I'm choosing "Create primitives for Shape and Transform nodes" and "Primitive groups: Name group using Transform Node full path".

I can now create a "transform" SOP directly after the "alembic" SOP and move around geometries. In the translate node's "Group" dropdown menu I can see all the transform nodes from the alembic. But when I select one and then translate it, nothing happens. It works fine to select a geometry instead and move that. But I need the transform which holds all the geometries. How can this be done?

I can also select all individual geometries which are part of the door by defining the transform's Group: @path=="*door_left*". However, now I need to somehow fix the fact that the pivot is not where I intended it to be. I can see a red/green/blue axis marker in the scene view exactly where the pivot should be. Can I somehow snap the pivot to it?

Any ideas?
I need to move and rig a lot of stuff based on the alembic's transform nodes so this isn't just this single car door that I need to apply this to...

 

PS. I don't want to use "alembic archive" and insert null nodes into the network (which can then be translated). First off the pivot will be off and second; these nulls will be deleted when I reload the alembic.

Edited April 5, 2017 by fredrikaverpil