I have 2 distinct OBJ files, this2.obj and say this3.obj ( example) , yet while it shows them individually as they are in file e xplorer in window 10 ( and ALL other 3d apps ), in houdini's import dialog its combining them as this$f.obj ( 2-3).

Odd ?

Is this some setting I accidentally hit, and why would one ever want to do this ? lol

NO other app has ever done this so it h as to be on houdihi's end.

Oh and btw I still can't get many obj's to load at all. One fbx is but the lighting is so bad I can't work with it ( shadows, lights, a mess )

On the loads that show nothing in viewport but in the node windows, I can see something bottom left ( where it normally indicates loading info on things that do work ( one fbx file as above) that flashes SO fast I can't see it. IS that itself indicative that houdini just doesn't know how to read the file somehow ?

The OBJ loads in zbrush, meshmixer and blender so I know its not on my end, getting weirder everyday



thx

Turn off “Show sequences as one entry” checkbox, then choose your OBJ file. Houdini detects the number in the filename and thinks it's a sequence by default.

Ok I did that, enabled ‘warnings’ so I could see why its not loading, and I get:

NOt cooked ( that was there before as well)
Then below, could not read file <Path shown>

Is houdini ‘touchy’ when it comes to obj files, does it expect a certain structure , just wondering because as noted, blender modo and zbrush can load it with no troubles.

Clearly the mesh is fine, so hoping somebody has some ideas as to why houdini is having difficulties reading it.

On another point, I can't see the grid anymore and don't see where to enable/disable it in preferences, - where might I have messed up there as well <argh>

ty

If it is not showing up, your file path is probably wrong. Did you look at the path in the File node to see if it was valid? It may have remnants of the $F which is supplied by the open dialog if you negotiate that dialog incorrectly.

Can you post the OBJ file?

I have not encountered a single OBJ that Houdini can not load.

Firstly I“m not a seasoned pro with Houdini.

I have no idea what you're talking about when you ask did I look at path in file node.

I doubled clicked on the node after the abrupt and far too quick ‘load’ of the OBJ , and the node that came up is where I got the info I posted above.

I can right click and go into extended info and the size of the mesh is all zero's, meaning it didn't load anything, hence the quick load without any information at bottom lower left of screen so I knew something was terribly wrong.

” It may have remnants of the $F which is supplied by the open dialog if you negotiate that dialog incorrectly. “ , I have absolutely no idea what that even means, again, as a completely new user to Houdini, and never meant, if I did, to give the impression anything else was true.

I”ve encountered several it won't load so I guess I"ve shattered some kind of glass ceiling

I won't post OBJ, but I will alter it sufficiently to make it non recognizeable and try to load that, and see if anything changes.

ty

Please see url, significantly altered topology, that still won't load in houdini, giving me the same error.

I'm seeing no way to attach so I"ll post to google drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzKg3Bfi6fRFY0lkQ2Fsa0FKSm8/view?usp=sharing [drive.google.com]

ty

seems fine to me
you'll have to scale it down - it's currently huge

THat doesn't answer my question, why am I getting ‘can’t read file', thusly if it can't read it, how on earth do I ‘scale’ it ?

I also asked why my ‘grid’ is gone and no one has answered that either.

Nevermind I found grid icon, one step at a time- Ive been a bit consumed by this OBJ file error…
thx

if you use
FILE > Import > Geometry
and browse to your file
make sure that you turn OFF “Show Sequences as one entry” - it's at the bottom/center of the dialog
what this does is allow you to list your files on disk in two ways:
1 - myObj_1.obj, myObj_2.obj, myObj_3.obj etc
2 - myObj_$F.obj - where $F is replaced with the current frame number
but if you only have one obj it will mess up the file path

HI and thx for reply,

OK well THIS is interesting. I thought , well HM I'll place obj file you can load, somewhere else wondering if its a permission issue, WHY I've no idea when other apps can load it just fine, but I need to get beyond this.

I moved the file you could load, to my desktop,,loaded it, spacebar G, and boom it shows up.

What else could this be if not a houdini bug as relates to windows 10 ?

I'll try a few more and see if they load by moving to desktop.

ty

OK I copoied test2.obj and its mtl and while when its in its usual DIR on C drive, trying to load from desktop and at least while its not refusing to load ( file error from before), its causing houdini to crash so it won't do anything, it just sits there spinning, ‘not responding’ in top frame of UI.

So we solved one issue (?), created another.

Oh, ok I see, a crash. Are you overclocking your system?

Why don't you post the specs for your hardware, perhaps your machine is not able to effectively run Houdini. Check the minimum hardware requirements page.
http://www.sidefx.com/Support/system-requirements/ [sidefx.com]

if you ever crash - please submit a bug report with as much info as you can
there is no reason Houdini would be able to load an obj from one directory but not another - all things being equal…
and make sure you don't have spaces in your file path…this can often mess things up.

Enivob
Oh, ok I see, a crash. Are you overclocking your system?

Why don't you post the specs for your hardware, perhaps your machine is not able to effectively run Houdini. Check the minimum hardware requirements page.
http://www.sidefx.com/Support/system-requirements/ [sidefx.com]

I meet every one except this:

AMD Radeon 7990, 7970, 7950, 7870 (plus Boost, XT, and GHz Edition variants)

Mine is a HD 7750 2gb , but yes while I know I need to upgrade, soon, its not like I"m THAT far removed from the offically supported gpu's

I expect crashes, some often some not, from most 3d apps so thats not really a shocker.

arctor
if you ever crash - please submit a bug report with as much info as you can
there is no reason Houdini would be able to load an obj from one directory but not another - all things being equal…
and make sure you don't have spaces in your file path…this can often mess things up.

It would be nice if like unrealengine 4, houdini created a crash report on exit All things being equal I realize not everyone does that, but its incredibly useful.

I did have a _ in one of them, so I renamed to jusdt OBJ , and at least its not refusing to load, but just like when the test.obj was copied to desktop, houdini is ‘not responding’ as per text on top frame of UI.

It continues to do that as long as I let it try to load it.

I don't know, but I do know blender can load it as well as meshmixer and cinema 4d ( MODO as well, but it too struggles eventually loading it and I have to zoom out a lot to see it ), no ‘not responding’ from them.

Thats' just a heads up, not a condemnation

One thing you can try is turning of the Material Cube for the viewport before you import the OBJ. It is the checkered cube icon right under the series of light bulb icons in the vertical center toolbar (on the right side of the 3D viewport).

That icon controls if the viewport will try to use graphics card capabilities. I have an Intel HD card on my MacMini, which is out of spec, but if I leave that icon off I get less crashing on unsupported hardware.

Turn off the icon and then try to reload your OBJ file.

Houdini's viewport code supports OpenGL 3.x or better, Blender and those others only support OpenGL 2.0.

I unticked the checkerd looking icon, under the lightbulb icons, and loaded and it stil does ‘not responding’ and never loads it.

This time I checked out task manager, and houdini ( gwavfront(s) and console(s) , were taking 96%-99% cpu usage.

Yup, I know about blender OLD gl code , which is why I avoid it due to very sluggish edit mode on high triangle count objects, and I even have noticeable slowness on sizes such as 66k. I"ve seen i7 systems that had similar if not same issues.

Tha'ts why I'm here looking into alternatives.

It's probably your graphics card ram causing issues. That mesh hits ~2.6gb Vram usage when editing full screen on a 4k monitor. It's totally smooth to work with on Nvidia 980, OsX.

Houdini does generate crash reports. Try looking in your /tmp or /TEMP folder (I can't remember where it is on Windows)

send a crash report to support@sidefx.com and maybe arrange to upload the obj (we're under every NDA you can imagine).
please include all the info from Help > About Houdini > Show Details - you can just cut and paste that txt.

I have a feeling it's your graphics card but I'm not the best person to say…