Houdini 20.5 Nodes TOP nodes

Text Output TOP node

Writes text to a new file or appends to an existing file.

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Since 18.0

This node allows text to be written to a file. It can optionally append to an existing file.

Parameters

Text

Generate When

Determines when this node will generate work items. You should generally leave this set to “Automatic” unless you know the node requires a specific generation mode, or that the work items need to be generated dynamically.

All Upstream Items are Generated

This node will generate work items once all of the input nodes have generated their work items.

All Upstream Items are Cooked

This node will generate work items once all of the input nodes have cooked their work items.

Each Upstream Item is Cooked

This node will generate work items each time a work item in an input node is cooked.

Automatic

The generation mode is selected based on the generation mode of the input nodes. If any of the input nodes are generating work items when their inputs cook, this node will be set to Each Upstream Item is Cooked. Otherwise, it will be set to All Upstream Items are Generated.

Cache Mode

Determines how the processor node handles work items that report expected file results.

Automatic

If the expected result file exists on disk, the work item is marked as cooked without being scheduled. If the file does not exist on disk, the work item is scheduled as normal. If upstream work item dependencies write out new files during a cook, the cache files on work items in this node will also be marked as out-of-date.

Automatic (Ignore Upstream)

The same as Automatic, except upstream file writes do not invalidate cache files on work items in this node and this node will only check output files for its own work items.

Read Files

If the expected result file exists on disk, the work item is marked as cooked without being scheduled. Otherwise the work item is marked as failed.

Write Files

Work items are always scheduled and the expected result file is ignored even if it exists on disk.

Write During

When to write the text

Generate

The file will be written during the work item generation stage. When this is on, the file is written whenever the node generates items (when the network starts cooking, or when you explicitly ask to generate static items).

Cook (In-Process)

The file will be written during the cook and within the graph cooking process.

File Path

The full path to the file to be created or appended to.

File Tag

The result data tag to apply to the file result.

When File Exists

What to do if there is an existing file. This option is only available if the Cache Mode is set to Write Files, since append is not possible when file caching is enabled.

Overwrite: An existing file will be overwritten.

Append: An existing file will be appended to.

Text

The text to be written to the file.

Files

File Dependencies

A list of files that should be copied to the PDG working directory before the first work item in this node is executed. This can be used to ensure that supporting files like digital assets and custom scripts are available for the work item job.

The specified paths can be absolute or relative to HOUDINI_PATH.

Examples

TextOutput Example for Text Output TOP node

This example file demonsrates how the Text Output TOP can be used to write out a text file with work item attributes in it.

See also

TOP nodes