No luck in compiling the hdk on windows machine

[keltuzar]

I have tried all the tips and suggestions to compile the simple star_sop file on my windows machine and have had no luck.

Maya devkit comes with visual studio project files and new developers can simply open them up and compile with the visual project files. This isn't the case when it comes to houdini's hdk and frankly it needs to change.

The steps to get a simple compile provided here: http://odforce.net/wiki/index.php/HDKFrequentlyAskedQuestions is insane.

I am sorry, but the amount of steps and loopholes one needs to go through to just get this setup is not right in my books.

Why can't it be simple as:

1) open the visual studio project

2) compile

3) load the plugin

4) have fun!

To hear limitations on what visual studio app I can or cannot use is not a welcoming carpet to developers.

Maya's devkit seems to allow this AND more. Maya's api is convoluted but that is reasonable. I would rather spend months trying to figure out an api, rather than weeks trying to get a simple plugin to compile.

Another nice aspect of maya's devkit on windows is it provides a setup wherein it automatically creates a standard template based on whether you want to write a mel command, a maya node, etc.

If someone can please provide a simple visual studio project that shows how to compile the hdk plugin it would be really helpful.

And please sidefx if you are reading this; please fix this problem for us windows developers. A lot of students and artists have windows at home and they would love to develop stuff on houdini but they would like to not go through the hassle of compiling something simple as a star_sop on their machines by reading through an ikea style faq page.

Thanks

Edited September 7, 2009 by keltuzar

[Ratman]

It's actually pretty simple, you set your MSVCDir variable, which is the MAIN INSTALL PATH of VS 2005, the example given is "c:/vstudio8/VC", and it's advisable to have "c:/vstudio8/VC/bin";"c:/vstudio8/Common7/Tools/bin";"c:/vstudio8/Common7/IDE" on your PATH variable, you might have to find them specifically in your install.

Then just load up a Sidefx shell, and "cd %HFS/toolkit/samples/SOP" and use "hcustom SOP_Star.C"

You can also use Make files to compile, but I'm not familiar with that yet.

[sibarrick]

Have you tried reading the new non ikea style hdk help docs?

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hdk10.0/

[keltuzar]

Thanks for the quick replies guys

It isn't the documentation, but rather trying to get hcustom to work correctly.

I set my Path as:

C:/visualstudio8/VC;C:/visualstudio8/Common7/Tools/Bin;C:/visualstudio8/Common7/IDE;

And MSVCDir as:

C:/visualstudio8/VC;

I also switched the slashes around but no luck. The apps are in the right place and when I type devenv it loads visual studio 5. However when I try hcustom it says the MSVCDir isn't right I keep getting:

The MSVCDir environment variable is set, but does not point to a valid

directory. Please set it correctly and try again.

Why does one need hcustom? Can't a simple linking of libraries and header files be sufficient?

Edited September 7, 2009 by keltuzar

[eloop]

Try removing the trailing semicolon from MSVCDir.

-Drew

And MSVCDir as:

C:/visualstudio8/VC;

[keltuzar]

Try removing the trailing semicolon from MSVCDir.

-Drew

Holy shite... that did it... thanks Drew

Would you know how I can call hcustom in visual studio rather than calling it over a command prompt?

Thanks again

Edited September 7, 2009 by keltuzar

[eloop]

Study the commands that hcustom is using (hcustom -e) then replicate that environment inside of VisualStudio. You will need to have a good understanding of the cl.exe and link.exe command options.

-Drew

Holy shite... that did it... thanks Drew

Would you know how I can call hcustom in visual studio rather than calling it over a command prompt?

Thanks again

Edited September 8, 2009 by eloop

[Aearon]

Any chance someone who has managed to set up a visual studio project post their solution?

I'm lacking the good understanding of cl.exe and link.exe eloop mentioned, but i'd still like to use visual studio!

[edward]

My bet is that no one has set one up. I concur with Drew. If you're confused about the corresponding text description from the command line options, run "cl /?" and "link /?".