Tool to run ordered file cache nodes

[Mozzarino]

Hello everyone,

I have a setup where I need to cache different bgeos along the way. For this I set up various file cache nodes (collider volume -> flip sim -> flip vdbs -> whitewatersource -> whitewatersim).
I'm wondering if there is any way to run this multiple file cache nodes in an orderly fashion?

Cheers,
Diogo

[celd]

This is exactly what you can use the new TOPs for - They give you the option to run these water simulations essentially at the same time, with caches further down the stream beginning to run as soon as their dependencies are available.

[3dome]

apart from TOPs you can always use Fetch ROPs and wire them together in the desired fashion

 

edit: also have a look at this

 

Edited July 2, 2019 by 3dome

[Mozzarino]

thanks for the tips!

Will have a closer look at both options.

Cheers,
Diogo

[CorvaenOboros]

A quick way to update all the filecaches can be using a PythonScript node as well , using it in TOPS is a good way ive found to trigger it in sequence . and unlike ROPFetchs in TOPs you dont need to create a explicit node for each filecache .

import hou
from nodesearch import parser
# Create a matcher that finds nodes whose name contains filecache
matcher = parser.parse_query("*filecache*")

network = hou.node("/obj/")
for node in matcher.nodes(network, recursive=True):
    node.parm('execute').pressButton()

This looks for all nodes with "filecache" in their name and triggers their Save to Disk button ( execute ) . the nodesearch function can also do "match only on multiple" queries  ( more details in the help https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/hom/nodesearch.html ) 

as long as named your filecache nodes something like "flip_sim_filecache_01" and "whitewater_filecache_07" then you could have a string of Python nodes in TOPS searching for and caching all nodes of that type in order ( the first nodesearch looking for *flip* and *filecache* , then the next python node looking for the *whitewater* + *filecache* nodes ) . this was ideal for a project that has potentially lots of different filecaches that you dont want to explicitly path to .