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Showing results for tags 'library'.
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Hi, I've tried to find information about this but it's hard to come by or maybe I'm not looking in the right spot. After all I'm an improvise programmer. I want to create VEX libraries of functions and possibly structs (but let's start with functions). You know, functions I would use often and that I would not have to copy paste from AttribWrangle to AttribWrangle nodes. These functions should be accessible using #include (I think). So here is a few questions to get me started... 1) How to structure the inside of the file? I don't want to compile them into an asset. For example if I put this straight into a .vfl file and compile it will it work or it needs a header? // Function to Round at specified intervals int roundToInterval(float val; int interval) { float new_val = ceil(val / interval) * interval; return int(new_val); } 2) How to compile those files? Seriously I don't understand any of the compiler stuff... Do I even have to compile them??? What is a .h and do I need to use it? 3) Where to put the files? I want a common location that is not inside any of Houdini folder structure. Where do you specify that Houdini should look in an external folder for these extra functions? You know like adding HOUDINI_OTLSCAN_PATH to the houdini.env file. Is there a HOUDINI_VEX_PATH that I could use??? 4) Finally, is using the files as simple as doing #include? It would be nice that this was written somewhere because some of us don't have the programming background necessary to understand these easily. Any help would be appreciated. Thx! Christian
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I want to use an external python library to create and write out a pdf file from houdini. Maybe it's a simple thing to many, but I've been struggling for the past couple of hours, even if I've done this before!! About a year ago I managed to usereportlab, but since I installed the latest houdini (or something else change on my computer) my python SOP fails to import the library and I am trying to figure out how to do it again. What's the typical process of installing and importing any external library to houdini? There is also the cairo library which would like to try. Any help will be highly appreciated thanks
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Hey guys, I'm sure that everyone who has ever attempted rendering in Hou has experienced the pleasures of using expression functions and pattern matching. The workflow of formatting your target content (geometry, lights etc.) together with this syntax is truly powerfull. For example: I want to render a character and everything else to mask him. Group and expression operators make that easy and dynamic: Render Objects: @character Mask Objects: !@character However at some point the group of @character has to be expanded and the ! negation-operator has to be resolved before the concrete pathes are used to generate the information consumed by the renderer. I guess this is the job of the Pattern Matching and Expression Library I am referring to in the title. Now on an abstract level, this is just a powerfull language for users to dynamically describe (sub-)sets of data which they wish to use for something. Same principle - different data sources: Now what if your Object Names in the Mantra node whose patterns and expressions will be evaluated would not refer to objects in networks but to entries in databases? @group_name string expansion could result in all database entries whose "Group" field matches "group_name". (and of course !@group_name would result in the opposite...) What if we are not talking Mantra ROPs anymore, but maybe a Pyside Standalone or Web Application that lets you enter these patterns and expressions to describe the datasets to pull from any database? How to ?: Does that sound realistic/reasonable/doable at all? If so, do you know any libraries that define expression languages/operators and expose solvers for them? (Sympy!?) Are there some details on how Houdini handles that? How would you go about implementing a Mantra ROP like application that exposes string fields where people can use pattern matching and expressions to describe data that is then pulled from databases?