Geo format

From Odwiki

The GEO format describes geometry in native Houdini format. Files on disk are either binary (bgeo) or ascii (geo).

The GEO format is most easily learned by looking at a geo file, and examining all pieces individually.

Structure

There are several major sections:

The header, which describes how many things we have
The point attributes list, which defines the size and kind of attributes that are attached to each point
The points list, which lists all points (X, Y, Z, w)
The primitive attributes list, which defines attributes that are based on primitives
The primitiveslist, which lists each primitive and it's type
The profileslist, which lists profiles attached to primitives
The groupslist, which specify group membership for both points and primitives
The extra stuff section, for miscellaneous items.

All these items comprise the GEO format. This format is not just what you store in a file. This format is exactly what gets passed from one SOP to another, all the way down the chain. In fact, when you mouse-middle on a SOP and it shows you how many points, primitives, etc. that you have, that is exactly the same information that you'll find in the header of a .geo file.