jkunz07

I would recommend python/hython for this task because you mention your dealing with many files. Python is much better at working with directories, many files on disk and databases then hscript/hbatch is.

You can do something like: echo $_HIP_SAVEVERSION > $TEMP/$HIPNAME.txt This will put the version number of Houdini that the file was last saved with into a .txt file of the same name as the .hip file your currently checking (In the /tmp directory of your OS).

You can set visibility per face at the SOP level: http://mrkunz.com/blog/12-08-2016_Export-Alembic-geomtery-from-Houdini-utilizing-the-visibility-property.html Other packages like Maya and Vray will support this out of the box and hide the faces both in the viewport and during rendering. Mantra doesn't hide invisible faces by default, but you could do many things to hide them, either just blast the hidden faces group or assign a kind of pass thru zero opacity invisible type shadier to the hidden face group

This is an issue with the OpenVDB code being updated to 5.0, when I asked SideFX about it a while back they said they have let the OpenVDB team know about this issue.

float eps = chf('epsilon'); // Default 0.01 float magnitude = chf('magnitude'); // Default 1.0 vector p = v@P; // Noise Initial Position float freq = 1.0; // Noise Frequency vector offset = chv('offset'); // Noise Offset p = p * freq - offset; // Final Noise Position vector dx = {0, 0, 0}; dx[0] = eps; vector dy = {0, 0, 0}; dy[1] = eps; vector dz = {0, 0, 0}; dz[2] = eps; vector fxdxn; vector fxdxp; vector fxdyn; vector fxdyp; vector fxdzn; vector fxdzp; // Evaluate the noise in a local neighborhood for finite differences fxdxn = noise(p-dx); fxdxp = noise(p+dx); fxdyn = noise(p-dy); fxdyp = noise(p+dy); fxdzn = noise(p-dz); fxdzp = noise(p+dz); // Compute curl from the cross product vector curl; curl[0] = (fxdyp[2] - fxdyn[2]) - (fxdzp[1] - fxdzn[1]); curl[1] = (fxdzp[0] - fxdzn[0]) - (fxdxp[2] - fxdxn[2]); curl[2] = (fxdxp[1] - fxdxn[1]) - (fxdyp[0] - fxdyn[0]); float scale = magnitude * (1.0 / (2.0 * eps)); curl *= scale; @P += curl; If it's helpful, here's what a basic curl noise function looks like. You could replace the noise() calls with whichever scalar noise you prefer.

Those are used to sample finite differences of the noise, in order to find the gradient vector of the scalar noise.

You could add a detail attribute that get's used to toggle a switch node, bypassing the node you'd like to disable.

This thread is a good read through for getting faster settings

It should work fine in a standard vellum sim clothvortex.hipnc

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/vex/lang.html#dot-operator

There is also the preflight scene option (Use the Render ▸ Preflight menu item to find references in the current scene file to resources outside the project)

You can use __display_sop__ or __render_sop__ in the path instead of the name of a real surface node name to have Houdini use whatever node has the display flag or render flag.

#include <math.h>

You could use the seed output of a voronoi noise in vops or vex. You could also scatter points as well to define the cell centers, then nearpoint(1, @P); would give you the cell id assuming the points are wired into the second input of the prim or point wrangle. It will be hard to get sharp cleanly defined cells like that picture with out actually cutting your model unless it's really high res/subdivided.