mihai architect Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Hi all Houdini people! It's my first post here, since I started learning Houdini (a week ago). First of all, I'm stunned about the way Houdini it's concieved and the way it works. Very unique and very powerfull. I'd say endless power. One thing really confuses me: The default xyz orientation. In all other 3d applications (I use also AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Blender, Maya) the Z axis is facing upwards, and as an architect i'm used the z to be up and the xy plane the horizontal/construction plane (default plane/grid eg. c_plane). And that's also what I've been taught in school about de world orientation axis (I've learned alot of spatial/descriptive geometry) and I'm pretty sure I'm not wrong. In Houdini the y axis is facing up . Is there any way to configure the orientation of the c-plane to be xy and the z up ??? And the same for the world axis orientation transform gizmo. I simply can't get used to the approach Houdini has about this thing. And when I see those numeric fields in the paramter tab I've always see them in this order XYZ, not XZY. If there is anyone who can help me solve this problem, I'd appreciate. Thank you very much ! Mihai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sibarrick Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 The parameter widgets are XYZ, you just have to get used to Z being depth... makes sense really, zdepth rendering etc. Z is always the depth. But as far as I know you are stuck with it that way as it can't be configured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted April 22, 2008 Author Share Posted April 22, 2008 I've done myself a research about this and I found that in 3d graphics y is pointing upwards (the notation is different than in common geometry). The explination was that Z must be towards the view. I understand that, but when I want a top view y is pointing towards me. Anyway I found that in Maya, this issue can be configured, altough the defaults are with the y pointing upwards. It's good to know that it cannot be configured in Houdini, so that I stop searching. It would be useful though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pagefan Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 It's the difference between the way the architect traditionally works and the way the 3d-artist work. Architects are used to drawing in 2d space, it's still mainstream, so they have only two coordinates, x and y. In computerized 3D land, X and Y is usually bound to the screen of your computer. Then Z is facing away or towards you, that varies a bit between applications i think. It's best to forget about maya and 3dmax when you work with houdini, they are too different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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