[Solved] Unable to read files (importing geometry issue)

[Etherloth]

Hi all!

 

First post, sorry is not to contribute much but to ask for help, hopefully someone else with the same problem can read about this and find the solution here.

 

I have a problem loading geometry in Houdini 16 running on W7x64, no matter what kind of file the behavior is always the same, to hang for a few seconds, then display the Cooking message for a (longer than it feels right) moment and then returning an error in the node.

 

The dreaded message in the ! Error field of the node is: Unable to read file "C:/Users/userName/Documents/fileName.obj".

 

This happens either via FILE > IMPORT > GEOMETRY and also popping the TAB menu, typing GEOMETRY and creating a new node, double clicking on it and trying to browse to the file via the floating file chooser input.

I have already tried with many different files and file types, creating a simple cube OBJ and trying to import it, to make sure the file name does not have any spaces or numbers, I have even dropped the file in the $HOME folder (/Documents in my case) to ensure was not a path issue. I also have tried to check my houdini.env  file to see if something weird was overwriting the program defaults (all is commented out, no actual environment variables there), even to add a PATH | path-to-the-houdini-bin-folder; to the system variables to no avail.

The default.bgeo that Houdini uses as placeholder is loading without any issue, so not sure if this involve a path problem, my guess is more a geometry interpreter related issue of sorts.

Additionally, Houdini gets all weird after the geometry is unsuccessfully loaded with constant freezes and even if I can get to select the node and eliminate it, the behavior of pressing space/alt to cam-navigate the 3D viewport results in a constant spinning around (!?).

 

I have added an image displaying the error if its of any help, would be great to know how to get a workaround to this issue if someone can give a hand, thanks in advance!

 

Eth.

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2017 by Etherloth
Title update.

[stickman]

roundycube.obj0? is the 0 supposed to be there?

[Etherloth]

Yes I found that actually weird, obviously the .obj files I try to import do not have that zero at the end.

[Etherloth]

Shameless bump to see if someone can shed some light on the topic

[Atom]

Yeah, the problem is the extension. Don't name your .OBJ files with a zero at the end. Can you post the problem file?

If your files on the disk don't have the zero at the end then remove that zero from the filename field where you are trying to load the file.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Atom

[Etherloth]

16 hours ago, Atom said:

Yeah, the problem is the extension. Don't name you .OBJ files with a zero at the end. Can you post the problem file?

If your files on the disk don't have the zero at the end then remove that zero from the filename field where you are trying to load the file.

 

On 3/29/2017 at 5:02 PM, Etherloth said:

Yes I found that actually weird, obviously the .obj files I try to import do not have that zero at the end.

 

What I meant above is that obviously I do not give my OBJs a .obj0 extension name, they are completely normal OBJ files that open perfectly in any other 3D package, I also created a totally simple square in OBJ and tried to import it with the same results.

 

There must be something else because upon importing any geometry Houdini starts responding REALLY laggy and glitchy, mostly non responding. The way it works is that actually the geometry TRIES to load for a while (few mins) letting Houdini unresponsive, then when it seems to "give up" just adds the zero at the end of the file extension.

 

If I try to take out that zero manually from the extension and reload the geometry, it returns me the same error without the zero at the end of the extension as shown in the attached screenie.

 

I have also noticed that if I try to export any geometry to an FBX file and load it in Keyshot it appears all black, not sure if related.

 

 

 

 

[Etherloth]

Problem is with all files ) showing here the one I use as example.

simplesquare.obj

[Etherloth]

Ok so after an extensive research I have not found the solution, is a pity because I think Houdini offered amazing features, is just perhaps that my hardware combination unluckily is not very friendly with it, thanks @stickman and @Atom for trying.

 

Eth.

[Atom]

You may have an error in your Houdini.env. I experienced a similar error and it was because I left off a semi-colon on the $PATH variable inside the houdini.env. Have you altered the path or installed any 3rd party render systems that may have altered the path?

Edited April 5, 2017 by Atom

[Etherloth]

Thanks for the interest @Atom my houdini.env is basically empty, has the comments only:
 

#
# Houdini Environment Settings
#
# The contents of this file are read into the environment
# at startup.  They will override any existing entries in
# the environment.
#
# The syntax is one entry per line as follows:
#    VAR = VALUE
#
# Values may be quoted
#    VAR = "VALUE"
#
# Values may be empty
#    VAR = 
#

# Example:
#
# HOUDINI_NO_SPLASH = 1

 

So nothing there, can you please paste here the $PATH you had to add in order to make it work?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Eth.

 

[Etherloth]

@Atom so could you pls tell me what is the exact line to add PATH in the .env? Just concerned I could have entered some typo of sorts.

 

Thanks.

[f1480187]

Your file works fine on my machine. Such kind of errors happens when there is no file exist at this path. Try place file into C:/simplesquare.obj for the test.

Edited April 13, 2017 by f1480187

[Etherloth]

4 minutes ago, f1480187 said:

Your file works fine on my machine. Such kind of errors happens when there is no file exist at this path. Try place file into C:/simplesquare.obj for the test.

Hey, thanks for the answer I already tried that in the beginning, not just in C: but also in Desktop, $HOME (Documents) etc. I do not think is a pathing issue, but more that Houdini cannot find or is unable to start the process to work with the OBJs.

[f1480187]

Houdini uses gwavefront program to convert objes. It located at $HFS/bin/gwavefront.exe on my machine. You can check it by running Command Line Tools installed with Houdini and typing gwavefront: it should print usage help. Does other geometry formats work?

[Etherloth]

Yes I have tried to test gwavefront with indications from another post but when I tried to do a geometry conversion from command line it complains about the license :| 

 

By simply typing gwavefront in the cli indeed does return the proper help text.

[Etherloth]

Quote

Does other geometry formats work?

 

Yes, for example if I open Houdini, create a box and export it to the desktop in .bgeo or .poly form it works flawlessly, same thing if i create a new scene, a brand new geo node, dive into it and bring back in the .bgeo or .poly box via the file node, it all works fine - If I try to save that same box as an .obj or .dxf though, it looks like the program process something for a few seconds, then the dialog box disappears as if the process has been completed, but does not generate the .obj or .dxf file at all.

 

[Guest tar]

so your PATH is probably off - some other program has probably it set wrongly. On MacOs setting the PATH env variable to something non-standard will cause import errors - different but still in error.

In a shell try echo $PATH or in About Houdini look for PATH.

[Etherloth]

I did read about this on other forums and already have set my PATH in environment variable to point the /bin folder on Houdini, this is the PATH value on env. vars:

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.0.504.20\bin;

Not entirely sure if there is anything I miss there, tried both with and without semicolon at the end and nothing... hence me asking @Atom about it.

 

If i enter an echo PATH in cmd it returns me simply:

PATH

 

Edited April 14, 2017 by Etherloth

[Etherloth]

In the About Houdini section, my PATH is set to:

PATH                                   C:/PROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.20/python27;C:/PROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.

 

[Guest tar]

yeah - that's the issue - can you try 'echo $PATH' make sure to use the dollar sign!

You can't have spaces in the path so try enclosing with double quotes

"C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 16.0.504.20\bin;&"