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Houdini8ToHoudini9
From Odwiki
Houdini9.0 was released with the biggest interface change since Houdini 4.0 - with a significantly different workflow intention. Here are some tips to help existing Houdini users make the hop up to H9 without too much agony.
I find the keys to navigate in Houdini 9 harder to use. What can I do?
It's recommended firstly to give the new keys a chance as it doesn't take too long for your muscle memory to get used to the button swap. The issue with it not being as easy to zoom on the NetworkEditorPane is you're meant to rely much more on the mouse-wheel for that - or hold down space while you RMB.
If you're really desperate, there is also an environment variable called HOUDINI_MMB_PAN which, if you set, will swap the mouse buttons. I'd keep away from this for as long as possible though as the button swap becomes a non-issue in a matter of days.
Where did the Pane colors go? I'm lost without knowing which context I am in.
The intention here is that you shouldn't really need the context colours as the default workflow (including how the Panes are set up by default) as is that the context you are working in follows the selection type you've made. That is, hit "1" and select an Object in the Viewport: you're in the ObjectContext. Hit "2" and select points and, whammo, you're in the GeometryContext (the new term for SOP context) because points are geometry components. The idea is to make the experience more driven by the user, instead of driving the user by the limitations of the context.
However, after all that, you can still get a color hint for the context by going to the "Preferences > General > Color Pane Headers by Network Context" and you'll see a light shade of color on the panes.
SESI would like to think that if you're unsure of what context you're in, their selection paradigm is failing; so try it without the pane colors for a while first.
How do I link my Panes like I have set up in Houdini 8?
You can still do this. RMB on the "Pin" icon on the right side of the Pane. You'll see the Pane numbers in that list. Again, this is counter to the intention that your networks quickly and easily follow your selections in the viewport - but do what you need to do!
How do I span across dual monitors?
You can resize the application across dual monitors but now it's an awkward fact that Houdini9 no longer stores the window size you saved your desktop with - and as well it auto-maximizes upon startup (and almost all Linux window managers maximize to one monitor; a good thing, really). We're not sure if this is going to change but if you're happy with manually resizing Houdini after every launch then you're OK already!
Wondering why your Parameters turn to dashes when you interactively edit them?
Just turn on the "Flan" button in the bottom right corner of the Houdini9 UI.
OR
Go Edit > Update Parameter Interactively (near the bottom - toggle it on).
OR
The hotkey is Pause.
