Houdini 20.5 Nodes Geometry nodes

Null geometry node

This node passes its input through to its output unchanged. It can act as a fixed place in the network for path references.

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Overview

Some common uses of the Null node:

  • If you point a path reference to a node in the middle of a network, you may later need to add more nodes below the referenced node to further process the geometry, and then you would have to update all the references to the original node to point to the new node that now outputs the “finished” geometry. Instead, it is good practice to insert a Null SOP below the node whose output geometry you want to grab, and then reference the Null SOP. That way you can add more nodes above the Null without having to change any references to the Null.

  • You can crate spare parameters on a Null and channel reference them from elsewhere in the network as a simple way to add some parameters to control things in the network.

Tip

Adding a Null to the network does not increase memory usage (unless you turn on the Cache Input parameter).

Parameters

Copy Input

When this is on, the Null cooks its input, but not copy the result. This is useful if you want to enforce the cooking of a node at a certain time, but don’t need the result. You can use a Merge SOP to collect dependencies into a single input this way.

Cache Input

The Null caches its input in memory. This makes it possible to unload the Null’s input.

See also

Geometry nodes