Saving Fluid Simulation

[goldleaf]

I have a fluids test that's been cooking for around 36 hours. When it's done solving, will simply saving the .hip file keep what the solver calculated? Or is that only for viewing the results as it is re-solved a render time? If necessary, how do I save the sim files? Thanks!

[Allegro]

I have a fluids test that's been cooking for around 36 hours. When it's done solving, will simply saving the .hip file keep what the solver calculated? Or is that only for viewing the results as it is re-solved a render time? If necessary, how do I save the sim files? Thanks!

Well...

Hopefully, you'll be able to simply append a rop_geometry node after your dop imports. You can then write out a .bgeo sequence of your temporarily cached simulation. There is a possibility depending on the complexity of your simulation that you could chew up all your ram durring this process and houdini will crash.

The best way to save simulations is to think ahead. When you're ready to do a simulation, you should use a file dop at the end of your network, and after naming the .sim file and choosing it's location, set the mode to Automatic.

.sim files are typically going to be a larger size on disk than .bgeos because you'll a: be saving *all* simulation data to disk, and b: be saving subframes to disk rather than just the frames you see. However, the advantage of using .sim files, is that you will be able to resume a sim from whatever frame you left off at in the case of a system crash/power failure/etc.

Never simulate at rendertime. Break that habit sooner than later, because it's a terribly inefficient workflow when you gain access to a renderfarm.

[goldleaf]

I decided to just save a flipbook sequence, as it was just a test to get the fluids to work.

Thanks for pointing out those aspects of simulation.