Houdini 20.5 Nodes LOP nodes

Store Parameter Values

Lets you store temporary (unsaved) data in the stage.

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Since 18.0

Overview

Sometimes you want to store some data that gets passed to downstream nodes. For example, one node might parse relationships between polygons in a mesh, and create a cache that downstream nodes can access for fast lookups.

USD does not provide for temporary/unsaved data storage. USD is expected to be immutable (you can only make changes by layering new information), and all data in USD is expected to be saved.

However, Houdini needs to store temporary data (mostly about how in-memory layers should be written to disk). It stores this temporary data in the /HoudiniLayerInfo prim. When Houdini writes out USD, it knows to skip/strip this particular prim.

This prim provides a convenient place in the stage to store your own data (as attributes) that should not be saved to disk.

The Store Parameter Values node works on a model of copying the contents of a parameter on this node (usually generated by a script) into a property on /HoudiniLayerInfo, then, in a downstream node, generating the value of a parameter by reading the stored value. This is why the name of the node references parameter values.

Note

This node is a workaround to allow you to store arbitrary temporary data. A future version of Houdini may have a more straightforward, dedicated way of passing temporary data down through the network.

How to

To...Do this

Store temporary data using Store Parameter Values node

The node works by saving the contents of a parameter. You will usually generate the parameter’s contents using a Python script.

  1. In the Store Parameter Values node’s parameters, set the Name to the name you want to store the temporary data under.

    This should be a valid USD property name that doesn’t conflict with existing property names. You may want to add a double-underscore at the start to make it more unique. For example, __indices.

  2. Use the pop-up menu to the right of the Name to set the USD data type of the value you want to store.

    • You should probably stick to int, float, double, or string. If you have more complex data, choose string and encode it as JSON (see Tips below).

    • If you want to store an array, set the type to “auto”.

  3. Right-click the Value parameter and choose Expression ▸ Change language to Python.

  4. Right-click the Value parameter again and choose Expression ▸ Edit expression.

    This opens a floating multi-line editor where you can create/edit the Python expression driving the parameter’s value.

  5. Write the Python script so it returns the value you want want to store.

    • For scalar numbers (int, float, double) and strings, just return the value.

    • For more complex data (such as dictionaries and/or nested data), encode the data as a JSON string (see Tips below).

Set the value of a parameter downstream using stored data

A convenient way to use the stored value is to use it to set a parameter value.

  1. In the downstream node’s parameters, right-click the parameter you want to drive using the stored data, and choose Expression ▸ Change language to Python.

  2. Right-click the parameter again and choose Expression ▸ Edit expression.

  3. In the Python script you can retrieve the stored value using a function loputils.fetchParameterValues(input_node, property_name) on the node’s input. The script should return the value you want to set the parameter to.

    import loputils

# Get a reference to this node
this_node = hou.pwd()
# Get a reference to the node connected to the input
input_node = this_node.inputs()[0]
# Get the value we stored under a certain name
value = loputils.fetchParameterValues(input_node, "__indices")

# This script should return the value you want to set the parameter to.
# Note that the parameter has its own expected data type, which might
# be int, float, or string.
return str(value)

Tips

  • If you want to encode something more complicated than a string, scalar number, or array (such as a Python dictionary), you should JSON-encode it, store it in a string, and JSON-decode it in downstream nodes to access the data.

    Store Parameter script for “foo”

    from json import dumps

mydict = build_cache_dictionary()
jsonstring = dumps(mydict)
return jsonstring

    Retrieve dictionary in downstream node

    from json import loads
import loputils

this_node = how.pwd()
input_node = node.inputs()[0]
jsonstring = loputils.fetchParameterValues(input_node, "foo")
mydict = loads(jsonstring)

    Warning

    Never use Python’s eval() function to extract data from a string. Encode and decode the data as JSON.

  • If you want to use the stored value in a VEX snippet:

    • Create a parameter for the value on the Bindings tab, or (if the node doesn’t have a Bindings tab), create a spare parameter to hold the value.

    • Put a Python script on the the new parameter to get its value from the stored value.

    • In the VEX snippet, use the bound attribute (if the node has a Bindings tab), or if you created a spare parameter, read the parameter value using a ch() function.

  • You can’t store an array of mixed data types in a native USD array. If you use “auto” and return a list with floats and ints, it will store them as a float array. If you really need mixed types in a list, encode the list as a JSON string.

Parameters

Parameters

You can store multiple parameter values in a single node. Set this to the number of values you want to store, or click the plus and minus buttons to add or remove values.

Enable

For each value, whether to actually compute and store the value.

Name

The property name to use to store the value. This should be a valid USD property name that doesn’t conflict with existing property names. You may want to add a double-underscore at the start to make it more unique. For example, __indices.

Type

USD data type of the value you want to store. If you want to store an array, set the type to “auto” and return a string that looks like a Python list literal (for example "[1,2,3]"). You should probably stick to int, float, double, or string. If you have more complex data, choose string and encode it as JSON.

Value

A string representation of the value to store. You will usually want to drive the value of this parameter with a Python script (see “how to” above). If you want to store an array, set the type to “auto” and make this a string that looks like a Python list literal (for example [1,2,3])

LOP nodes

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