Houdini 20.5 Unreal HoudiniTools

HoudiniTools Panel

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User Categories

The User Categories feature allows you to define custom categories outside of any HoudiniToolsPackage. These user categories are defined in Editor Settings under the Houdini Engine plugins section.

You can add HDAs or Presets to a user category through the HoudiniTools Panel interface.

  1. on an HDA or Preset in the Tools Panel, and select Add to User Category entry.

  2. Add the HDA or Preset to an existing user category or create a new user category.

User categories are marked with the icon on the Category header in the HoudiniTools Panel. They will always be placed at the top of the HoudiniTools Panel.

Settings can be edited in Editor Settings → Plugins → Houdini Engine.

See User Categories Configuration for more advanced configuration information.

List View

The HoudiniTools Panel also supports List View which displays the tools in a vertical list. If a tool has an associated Help URL, the icon will be visible in the tool’s row.

HoudiniTools Panel List View

Search Field

The Search field filters HDAs in the HoudiniTools Panel by name. The Search field uses simple substring matching.

Category Filters

Category Filters allow users to show/hide specific categories. Category Filter selections are persistent.

Example: Category Filters

Hidden HDAs / Presets

HDAs and Presets can be hidden from categories. When hiding an HDA or Preset from a package category, the exclude pattern updates on the owning HoudiniToolsPackage asset’s respective category.

Hidden HDAs or Presets can still be forcibly shown in the HoudiniTools Panel by turning on the Show Hidden Tools item in the HoudiniTools Panel’s Options Menu.

HoudiniTools Property Editor

To access the HoudiniTools Property Editor, on any tool in the HoudiniTools Panel (or in the Content Browser) and select Edit Tool Properties.

Edit Tool Properties Panel

Property

Description

Name

The label of the tool as seen in the HoudiniTools Panel.

Type

Double-click on this tool in the HoudiniTools Panel, this type hint is used to determine how to assign selected objects to the HDA. See Tool and Selection Types for more information.

Selection Type

Whether selected actors, selected assets in the content browser, or both, should be used as inputs when you double-click this tool in the HoudiniTools Panel. See Tool and Selection Types for more information.

Tooltip

The description displayed when hovering the cursor over the tool in the HoudiniTools Panel.

AssetPath

The path to the source HDA. If this path is changed, the HDA will be reimported using the new file path. If the specified file path does not exist, the source HDA path will remain unchanged and the HDA will not be reimported.

Help URL

The URL to launch in the browser when the help for the tool is invoked.

Clear Cached Icon

When on, removes the cached icon from this HDA and clear the thumbnail in the Content Browser. If an Icon Path has been specified, this setting will have no effect.

Icon Path

If an image file path is specified here, the selected image will be cached on the HoudiniAsset and be used as the asset thumbnail in the Content Browser. If this file path is invalid, the default HoudiniAsset icon will be used.

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