Noobie Manipulator / Network question :

According to hdox/houdini/content/base/handles_show.html

“To show the manipulators for an existing node, select the node in the network editor and press Enter.”

I'm using 8.2.13 (Apprentice) on Win XP, and I can't get this to work.

E.g. in SOP's, I add a Box, then a transform (Xform) operator, and then platonic (Teapot), then a transform. I then connect the Xform's to a Merge op.

If I then select either of the Xform's in the network editor, and press Enter, with either the mouse cursor over the network editor or the 3d viewer, nothing happens. Isn't the manipulator supposed to re-appear ?

The only way I've found to make the manipulators appear is to press “s”, then re-select the geometry I want to work with, but this keeps adding extra Xform opeators into the network pane.

Do I need to have “Make all Handles Persistent ” turned on (from the Operator / Persistent Handles menu?

Mike

To re-select for the current operation, use the back-tick ` key. What happens when you press enter is to get the handles for the current operation, maintaining the current selection.

Joe
To re-select for the current operation, use the back-tick ` key. What happens when you press enter is to get the handles for the current operation, maintaining the current selection.

I tried the back-tick, didn't work either.

I thought I explained it clearly, I'm trying to unselect everything … select the Xform node then have the transform handles / manipulator appear. Is it possible to do so ?

Mike

Make sure the flag is set on the transform node you want to work on. Highlighting the {xform} node only shows the parameters in the parameter pane. You need to set the node to for the handle to appear.

Michael

Two possible problems.

1. Make sure that you are pressing Enter in the viewer, not the network editor.

2. In SOPs, by default, you get the manipulator for the SOP with the display flag when you do this. That being the case, you'll want to move the display flag to the node in which you're interested. The other option is to go to the Operator menu in the viewer pane and change “Show Display Operator” to “Show Current Operator”, and then you'll just need to click on the node in the network editor without having to move the display flag.

WOW !
I didnt know that ! That makes your life easier.

Ondrej
The other option is to go to the Operator menu in the viewer pane and change “Show Display Operator” to “Show Current Operator”, and then you'll just need to click on the node in the network editor without having to move the display flag.

That's good to know indeed.

I've just bound these options to a couple of hot keys, but I'd prefer it if I could use just the one hot key as a toggle instead - is this possible?

Moose
[I've just bound these options to a couple of hot keys, but I'd prefer it if I could use just the one hot key as a toggle instead - is this possible?

Afraid not. However, in practice I think people don't often toggle between the two modes.

Ah, ok ops:. I haven't tried working with it in practice yet, but I thought based on how I like to work it'd have been something that I'd use frequently (…perhaps I should change how I work :idea.

Ondrej
The other option is to go to the Operator menu in the viewer pane and change “Show Display Operator” to “Show Current Operator”, and then you'll just need to click on the node in the network editor without having to move the display flag.

Thanks, that's just what I was looking for.

Mike