Houdini engine for 3dsmax H17 crashes instantly

[squidbean]

Hi everyone,

H17 was just released and with it finally houdini engine (indie in my case) for 3dsmax. I have tried to take it for a spin using the preset hda it comes with, obvious one to test is the boolean as houdini is amazing at that and 3dsmax far from. it works wonders if I make a simple box and a sphere, but as soon as I try to add a more complex model, 3d scan or anything else that I have used many many  times inside houdini before, it crashes max to desktop instantly. just wondering if any of you have this experience too? 

Cheers,

[artshek]

I was excited to give it a spin too!  I was able to get he_polyreduce working fine, but when I try he_curve_instancer or one of the other ones, either crash or unexpected results, so similar experience here.

[Noobini]

I must be doing something wrong....I can test out other stuff like the PolyReduce....but for the Boolean...can't seems to pick my node 1/2 for the Bool operation.

Did you create the Bool object as a new object (then select say 2 objects for Intersection) or did you say "add as modifier to selected objects" ?

(I'm on Indie too, tested both Max 2017/18)

Edited October 11, 2018 by Noobini

[artshek]

I emailed SideFX about this and they said to use a Modifier when you aren't creating or expecting new geometry, and to use Create Object if you're expecting new geometry.  So, in the case of Boolean, that seems to indicate you'd make it be a New Object and then select inputs 1 and 2 (by using the "Lock to Current Selection" button in the Houdini panel).  I'm still getting crashing by following that rule for the he_curve_instancer example, but they said that's a known problem and will be fixed when daily builds pick up again on Oct 15.

[Noobini]

got it working to actually populate objects into nodes 1/2.....but boy oh boy.....you have to jump thru hoops while doing a triple sommersault to get it to work tho....

[Noobini]

here's how I would use the curve instancer.

So to populate the inputs for your HDA:

01) select the HDA object

02) CTRL+click the object you want (ie. add to current selection)

03) Click Select on the HDA dialogue, then you'd see the object name in the Input slots

(this is how I got the Boolean to work)

One thing to note, to ensure everything is as expected...have your instance object at the Origin.

(I'm giving As Modifier a wide berth...if you try to remove/delete the modifier...instant death!!!)