Houdini 20.5 Reference Stand-alone utilities

Launcher

The Houdini Launcher downloads, installs, upgrades, and uninstall Houdini and its components.

On this page

Overview

You can download the Launcher app, then use it to install, manage, and run multiple versions of Houdini. You don’t need to reinstall the launcher when you install a new build of Houdini.

You can start Houdini from the Launcher, or using the traditional methods (desktop app icon, or from the command line in a Houdini shell). You do not need the Launcher to run Houdini.

When you use the Launcher to upgrade Houdini, it downloads the only the parts that have changed. This is a major benefit of using the Launcher, especially for users with slower home Internet connections.

The Launcher also supports offline installation from an ISO image file.

For more information on how to use the launcher to install Houdini, packages, or setup licensing see the Installation and Licensing guide.

Command line options

The general form for running houdini_installer is:

houdini_installer [global_opts] subcommand [subcommand_opts]

…where subcommand is install, modify, uninstall, repair, list, install-package, or uninstall-package. Most of the time, you only need to use the install and uninstall commands.

You can run:

houdini_install [subcommand] [product] --help

…to display help information.

The global options are:

-h, --help

Display help.

-q, --quiet

Suppress non-error output.

-v, --verbose

Print more progress information.

--settings-file ‹INI file›

Read configurations including login credentials and acceptance to EULA from INI file. The configuration file must be in INI format, with lines of the form key = value. Keys supported are username, password, client_id, client_secret, and accept_eula. Provide either username/password or client_id/client_secret if an action requires user to be logged in.

-o, --log-file ‹file›

Write a detailed installation log to file. This does not affect the progress information written to stdout.

Common options across the install, modify, repair, and install-package subcommands are:

--accept-EULA ‹SideFX-YYYY-MM-DD›

Indicate acceptance of the End User License Agreement with the given date.

--offline-installer ‹path›

The location of an offline installer file.

install subcommand

Installs a new product/version. If the product can only be installed once per machine (for example, HQueue Server) or the installation directory already contains an installation of that product, installation would not start.

houdini_installer [options] install [install_options] --product <<product>> --version <<version>> [--installdir <<installdir>>]

Mandatory Options:

--product ‹product_name›

One of Houdini, "Engine 3ds Max|Maya|Unity|Unreal", "License Server", "HQueue Client", or "HQueue Server". Note that product names containing spaces must be enclosed in quotes, for example:

houdini_installer install --product "Engine Maya"

--accept-EULA ‹SideFX-YYYY-MM-DD›

Indicate acceptance of the End User License Agreement with the given date.

Mandatory Options (Online Installation):

--version ‹version_number›

The product version to install, including the build number.

--settings-file ‹file_path›

Read configurations including login credentials and acceptance to EULA from INI file. Keys supported are username, password, client_id, client_secret, and accept_eula.

Mandatory Options (Offline Installation):

--offline-installer ‹file_path›

The location of an offline installer file.

Optional Options:

--installdir ‹file_path›

The directory to install to.

--platform ‹platform›

The platform identifier for the build to install. This is only required if there is more than one platform identifier (e.g. linux_x86_64_gcc6.3) available for the version.

--avahi

(Linux platform only) Install Avahi through native package manager 'apt-get' or 'yum'. Having Avahi installed allows License Server to be discoverable by other machines in same local network.

--for-houdini ‹houdini_version›

(Maya Plug-In Only) Install Maya Plug-In for <houdini_version>. Default to Maya Plug-In version if this option is not passed.

modify subcommand

Moves and/or upgrades or downgrades the version of an existing installation.

houdini_installer [options] modify [modify_options] installdir

Required argument:

installdir

The directory containing the installation directory.

Mandatory Options (Online Installation):

--settings-file ‹file_path›

Read configurations including login credentials and acceptance to EULA from INI file. Keys supported are username, password, client_id, client_secret, and accept_eula.

Mandatory Options (Offline Installation):

--offline-installer ‹file_path›

The location of an offline installer file.

Options:

--installdir ‹installdir›

The directory to move the installation to.

--version ‹version›

The version to update to.

--platform ‹platform›

The platform identifier for the build to install.

--for-houdini ‹houdini_version›

(Maya Plug-In Only) Install Maya Plug-In for <houdini_version>.

--accept-EULA ‹SideFX-YYYY-MM-DD›

Indicate acceptance of the End User License Agreement with the given date.

uninstall subcommand

Removes an installed product/version.

houdini_installer [options] uninstall [uninstall_options] installdir

Required argument:

installdir

The directory containing the installation to uninstall.

repair subcommand

Tries to fix problems with a broken installation (for example, missing files).

houdini_installer [options] repair [repair_options] installdir

Required argument:

installdir

The directory containing the installation to repair.

Options:

--settings-file ‹file_path›

Read configurations including login credentials and acceptance to EULA from INI file. Keys supported are username, password, client_id, client_secret, and accept_eula.

--offline-installer ‹file_path›

The location of an offline installer file.

list subcommand

Lists installed products/versions.

houdini_installer [options] list [directory]...

Optional argument(s):

directory

The install directories to list details about. If none are given, it will list details about all installations.

install-package subcommand

Installs a new Houdini package from a URL or an offline ISO file. Default URL is https://www.sidefx.com/download/download-labs/packages/, which hosts different versions of SideFX Labs. Houdini ISO file also has SideFX Labs shipped.

houdini_installer [options] install-package [install_package_options] [--installdir <<installdir>>]

Options:

--package-name ‹package_name›

The name of package to install. This is required if there are multiple packages available from download source.

--url ‹URL›

A URL hosting packages.json file. By default, Launcher checks packages hosted on https://www.sidefx.com/download/download-labs/packages/

--installdir ‹file_path›

The directory to install to.

--settings-file ‹file_path›

Read configurations including login credentials and acceptance to EULA from INI file. Keys supported are username, password, client_id, client_secret, and accept_eula.

uninstall-package subcommand

Removes an installed Houdini package.

houdini_installer [options] uninstall-package package_path

Required argument:

package_path

Path of the package JSON file. For example:

houdini_installer uninstall-package "/Applications/Houdini/sidefx_packages/SideFXLabs18.5.json"

Stand-alone utilities

  • abcconvert

    Convert between Alembic formats.

  • abcecho

    Print information about an Alembic file.

  • abcinfo

    Print information about an Alembic file.

  • chchan

    Copies channel collection to/from action channel format.

  • chcp

    Copies channel collection file to another format.

  • chinfo

    Prints information about a channel collection file.

  • claudio

    Copies CHOP data (clip) to/from audio formats.

  • clchan

    Copies CHOP data (clip) to/from action channel format.

  • clchn

    Copies CHOP data (clip) to/from channel collection format.

  • clcp

    Copies CHOP data (clip) to another format.

  • clinfo

    Prints information about a CHOP data (clip) file.

  • dsmconvert

  • dsmmerge

  • dsparse

    Parses and displays dialog scripts.

  • gabc

    Convert between Alembic and Houdini geometry.

  • gconvert

    Convert between Houdini polygon formats.

  • gdxf

    Converts DXF polygons to/from Houdini format.

  • geodiff

    Display Geometry Differences.

  • geps

    Converts EPS files to Houdini polygon format.

  • giges

  • ginfo

    Prints polygon file statistics.

  • glightwave

    Converts LightWave files to/from Houdini format.

  • gpdb

    Converts .pdb files to/from Houdini format.

  • gplay

    Geometry viewer.

  • gply

    Converts .ply files to/from Houdini format.

  • gptex

    Makes a ptexture image file from a geometry file.

  • greduce

    Reduces polygons in a file.

  • gwavefront

    Converts .obj files to/from Houdini format.

  • hcollapse

    Collapses a directory structure.

  • hcpio

  • hexpand

    Expands hip files into a directory structure.

  • hkey / License Administrator

    Opens a graphical user interface for viewing and managing licenses and license server options.

  • hoiiotool

    Swiss-army knife of image operation tools.

  • hotl utility

    Command line utility to work with .hda/.otl files.

  • hrender

  • hsc

  • hscript

    Command line HScript interpreter.

  • hserver

    Houdini communicates through this proxy server to the sesinetd licensing daemon.

  • htexcache

    Query or modify the disk texture cache.

  • husk

    Command line utility for rendering a USD file using Karma or some other Hydra client.

  • i3dconvert

  • iautocrop

    Crops images based on pixel values.

  • icineon

    Convert images from 10-bit Cineon format to an 8 bit format.

  • icomposite

  • iconvert

    Converts an image of one type to another type.

  • icp

    Isolate a region of an image in a new image.

  • idenoise

    Removes noise from an image file.

  • idiff

    Display Image Differences.

  • iflip - Flip Image

  • iinfo

    Outputs information about an image.

  • ilut

    Generates a lookup table (LUT) from standard channel formats or another LUT.

  • ilutcomp

    Generates a single lookup table (LUT) from from two LUTs.

  • ilutinfo

    Prints information about a lookup table (LUT) file.

  • imaketx

    Creates mipmapped .exr or .rat textures from image files.

  • imdisplay

    Sends an image to an mdisplay window.

  • iprint

    Prints the RGBA values for an image as text.

  • iquantize

    Reduces the number of colors in an image.

  • isixpack

    Generates an environment/reflection map from six images representing the six sides of a cube, or a cross image.

  • itilestitch

    Assemble a series of image files with crop windows into a single image.

  • izg

    Converts Z-depth images to 8-bit grayscale images.

  • Launcher

    The Houdini Launcher downloads, installs, upgrades, and uninstall Houdini and its components.

  • mcacclaim

    Converts an Acclaim motion file to a Houdini script and channel file(s).

  • mcbiovision

    Converts a BioVision motion file to a Houdini script and channel file(s).

  • mcmotanal

    Converts a Motion Analysis TRC motion file to a Houdini script and channel file(s).

  • mcp

    Convert an image sequence to a movie file.

  • minfo

    Prints information about movie files.

  • mqserver

    Message Queue Server for PDG/TOPs

  • py23convert

    Convert Python 2 expressions in HDAs to Python 2/3.

  • renderstatsoverlay

    Generates a (possibly scaled down) version of a rendered image with render statistics baked in.

  • renderstatsreport

    Generates an HTML page containing render statistics from an EXR image.

  • sesictrl

    Sets Houdini license server options from the command line.

  • sesinetd

    The Houdini license server. This program runs in the background managing Houdini licenses.

  • siminfo

    Prints simulation cache file statistics.

  • spiff

    Display Text Differences.

  • spy

    Shell utility for navigating the UNIX filesystem.

  • usdview

    Command line utility for viewing and inspecting USD scenes.

  • vexcache

    Query or modify the VEX compile cache.

  • vexexec

    Execute a cvex shader.