can we append prefix 0s to file name?

[musickent]

we all know that we can use $F for padded file name when outputing sequencing images.

but, i am wondering whether we can do this for hip filename or not? i tried like "test.$F4.hip" , but the new saved filename still could not append 0 instead of "test.$F5.hip"...

can someone explain how?

thank you in advance

[edward]

It doesn't make sense to use the frame number for a .hip filename because that includes an entire scene, not one specific frame of the scene.

[musickent]

noo.i think i didn't say correctly . sorry

all i want to know is that wheter it is possible to save filename like test001.hip, test002.hip, test003.hip ... each time you save your hip file, houdini will do it for you. ( I tired to name the first file test001.hip, but the next time I saved file, the filename was test2.hip, instead of test002.hip)

[George]

I think Houdini parses out the file name and increments the numbering, ignoring the previous formatting. I think that feature is being supplanted by the "Make Numbered Backups", which keeps your original filename the same and puts a numbered version in a backup directory. The backup directory can be specified using the HOUDINI_BACKUP_DIR environment variable.

Hope that helps.

bf

[priel]

Using the HOUDINI_BACKUP_DIR string in the environment does not seem to work if your scene file in on a NFS mounted drive.. works ok if saved in $HOME or locally. Anyone else have this problem?

The warning dialog you get is: "Failed to backup file /xxx/xxx/xxx.hip to file xxx.bak1.hip"

Peter

[michael]

I start with fileName.0.hip and use 'increment file name' as save pref

[craig]

If you name your original file something with leading zeros, then the subsequent ones should also be named that way. That's if you are having houdini automatically increment your saved files.

If you are talking about the backups that go in the backup directory, then the environment variable

HOUDINI_BACKUP_FILENAME

is what you want.

Set this to

$BASENAME_auto$N3

and you'll get files like myfile_auto001, etc

Similarly, you can do the same for autosave files, by setting

HOUDINI_AUTOSAVE_FILENAME

run

hconfig -h HOUDINI_AUTOSAVE_FILENAME

for more details.

[sibarrick]

Now where oh where have I seen this useful tip before

[priel]

Hi, thanks for the answers, but it's not what I was refering to. I was playing around with the HOUDINI_BACKUP_DIR variable, in a attempt to minimize network traffic created by hip backups. If I'm working on a 80 meg hip file, and have it auto 'backing-up' to the same folder the original hip file is in (which is default, HOUDINI_BACKUP_DIR=. ), unessecary network bandwidth is used. So I tried to alter it, and set it to: $HOME/hbackup, which should tell the auto save feature to save ALL backups into my local /hbackup directory. This works fine if my source hip file is somewhere local, like in $HOME or $HOME/Desktop... it does not work however when the file is residing on a NFS share (/mnt/projects/whatever/ for instance). Maybe I'm missing something?

Cheers,

Peter.

[Jason]

I'm working on a 80 meg hip file ...

Not part of your solution except to alleviate the cause of the problem:, what why is it you're getting hipfile of such a size? Do you have lots of locked geometry? Are you using large OTL systems and have stayed with the default method to "Save Operator Definitions to the Hip File"?

Wiki: OTManagerConfiguration

[priel]

Hi Jason, yeah lot's of locked geometry.. no otls. I know it's not advisable to lock the geometry like that.. but the cooking took to long and it was much faster once it was locked. City shot, tons of buildings. We probably should have bgeo'd it out and then brought it in, but since there was like 10 different takes it all got a bit messy in the end. We're still learning here, and learnt a few lessons regarding the initial planning of a houdini workflow. Regarding the backup dir variable... was more out of curiosity.. thought I've stumbled on some obscure bug or something

Peter

[craig]

Now where oh where have I seen this useful tip before

Recycling is all the rage, baby!