Since I switched over to H16 I noticed that the menus won't stay above screen limits.
So if i hit tab in my node editor to drop down a new node it extends the menu way of into non existing monitor space where I can't select anything.

Is this a bug or do I have to check some setting on/off?

Thanks,

Chris.

It's likely a bug.

I'm using the latest production build and this doesn't happen to me.

Maybe you might try latest production or daily build and it might become resolved.

There may be some setting in one of the pulldown menus that is contributing towards this and is different than what I have set, hence no problem for me.

I've played around with different settings and still can't replicate the issue - oddly enough I've discovered when I select ‘options’ from the help menu it causes Houdini to crash; So I'm putting in a bug report for that one.

I've had issues before but in different context. It was with the menus going off the top of the monitor while using the light bank in the Data Tree.

So yeah, if you have recent production/daily build probably good idea to report as bug.


Edit: Looks like any catagory under Help menu of Network Editor causes crash.

I realized I am sometimes getting this warning in the console:

Qt Warn: Warning: QT_DEVICE_PIXEL_RATIO is deprecated. Instead use:
QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR to enable platform plugin controlled per-screen factors.
QT_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTORS to set per-screen factors.
QT_SCALE_FACTOR to set the application global scale factor.

Could this have something to do with my problem?
I saw there was a QT version of Houdini.
What is that?

As far as I know, and hopefully someon can correct me and/or expand upon this….

One use of QT is for say example someone who writes plug-ins/extensions through the hdk to determine the ‘look and feel’ of the actual user interface/screen output of their respective ‘application’.

I am assuming QT is more like the ‘common ground’ aspect that the developers of Houdini use, in the sense that because they also have Houdini for Mac and Linux, allows them to write to, say in windows, instead of directly to windows API ( window size, menus, move/keyboard input, etc. ) converses through QT which in turn converses with the API of the respective OS?

I am thinking it's much easier to write to QT for all OS platforms that in turn the QT “compiler” takes care of the conversion for the respective OS; Instead of having different sets of code for each OS.

I mention this in that I pretty sure if there is QT errors that are directly related to your issure at hand, it's not something from your perspective that you would need to do to rectify.

I sometimes see QT errors coming up but at the same time have not issues with using Houdini.

But those error messages would be helpfull to let support know about when you log your bug.

Otherwise, are you currently using some plug-in? that may be contributing? Otherwise, it may just be something ‘under the hood’ from Houdini itself that needs looking at.

Hello,

BabaJ
I've played around with different settings and still can't replicate the issue - oddly enough I've discovered when I select ‘options’ from the help menu it causes Houdini to crash; So I'm putting in a bug report for that one.

I gave this a quick try and the Network Editor Help menu entries work for me. But I tested on MacOS. Definitely submit a bug report if you are able to reproduce the problem. It could be specific to your OS.

BabaJ
I've had issues before but in different context. It was with the menus going off the top of the monitor while using the light bank in the Data Tree.

The drop-down menus in the Data Tree is a known issue. There's a bug report submitted already and I plan to take a look at it in my next round of bug fixes.


Cheers,
Rob

ChrisCarneval
I realized I am sometimes getting this warning in the console:

Qt Warn: Warning: QT_DEVICE_PIXEL_RATIO is deprecated. Instead use:
QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR to enable platform plugin controlled per-screen factors.
QT_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTORS to set per-screen factors.
QT_SCALE_FACTOR to set the application global scale factor.

Could this have something to do with my problem?
I saw there was a QT version of Houdini.
What is that?

I'm not sure what's up with the warning. I double-checked the Houdini code base and QT_DEVICE_PIXEL_RATIO is not used anywhere as far as I can tell.

For Houdini 16.0 there are two sets of builds. Both are built with Qt (a UI framework library) which drives Houdini's event and windowing system among other things. The main builds use Qt version 5.6.1 and the Qt4 builds use version 4.8.5. If you are unsure which build to use then best to stick with the main (Qt5) build.

Also, as BabaJ mentioned, I would try the latest daily build since there was a cutoff menu bug that was fixed very recently.

Cheers,
Rob

BabaJ
As far as I know, and hopefully someon can correct me and/or expand upon this….

That's a pretty good assessment!

Just to further expand/reinforce the points…

Qt is a cross-platform UI framework that Houdini uses for various UI elements such as window management, event handling, Python Panels, character tools, etc. It does allow us (developers) to write code that works across Mac, Linux and Windows and also frees us from maintaining a lot of code dealing with low-level user and system input and output.

For Houdini 16.0 we made a big jump from Qt 4.8.5 to Qt 5.6.1 to match the VFX Platform (http://www.vfxplatform.com). [vfxplatform.com] Since the move to Qt5 was a big architectural change we decided for H16 to keep around Qt4 builds to help with the transition period.

As a user, it is best to stick with the main (Qt5) build. The main motivation for using the Qt4 build instead is if you have HDK plugins or Python code built with Qt4 that can't be ported to Qt5 at the moment. Or if the main build is completely hosed on your system (Qt5 introduces a different set of system requirements).

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Rob

Thank you Rob for the elaboration on this topic of QT.

Although this is starting to get off topic from the OPs questions.

Are there actual UI elements and controls one can do with a combination Python Scripts and QT without having to dig into the HDK?

I've never done something like create a simple shelf tool and I am neither looking for a ‘how to’ at the moment.

Just wondering about the general context of QT and python for possibilities.

It's like in another topic I've read recently there was a user who was wondering if they could just plot points with their mouse.

I am wondering as an example if this sort of thing is entirely possible with Python and QT; Again, without one having to dig into the HDK.

Probably less efficient, but if possible; Seems like it would be a good way to ‘test’ one developing their own tools that has UI functionality with things like mouse/keyboard input and window displays.

Then if satisfied that it works well ( a certain plugin/shelf tool ), take it further for better efficiency and develope it under HDK?

BabaJ
Are there actual UI elements and controls one can do with a combination Python Scripts and QT without having to dig into the HDK?

Yup. There's PySide2:
https://wiki.qt.io/PySide2 [wiki.qt.io]

PySide2 is a Python binding to the Qt5 API. So you can create UI from Python.

This help page has a simple example for creating UI in PySide2 that can be opened in Houdini:
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini16.0/hom/cb/qt [sidefx.com]

BabaJ
It's like in another topic I've read recently there was a user who was wondering if they could just plot points with their mouse.

Yup. This is possible though I don't think you need PySide2 to do this. There's enough functionality in HOM (Houdini's Python API) to accomplish this task.

If you get access to the scene viewer in HOM, then you could call selectPositions()to prompt for choosing a position in the viewport. Then call createPoint()on your geometry to plot a point at the chosen position.

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini16.0/hom/hou/SceneViewer#selectPositions [sidefx.com]
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini16.0/hom/hou/Geometry#createPoint [sidefx.com]

That's just a rough outline without any details. In any case, it should be possible.

Cheers,
Rob

Back on the original topic of the tab menu in the network view (and other gui) going off screen. I am seeing this issue too. I am running windows 10 and the latest production build of 16.0.557. Did you find any fix yet or file a bug report?

This was fixed in a daily build (16.0.561) shortly after the production build went out. Upgrading to any recent daily should solve the problem.

as far i know its still there, once you use anything else then default size of icons (for example i like to use GUI set to Large) then it works fine, but once you change it, you open whole can of worms.

Is there a bug report submitted for menu cutoff problem? If so, what's the bug id?

And can anyone confirm that it's still an issue with the latest daily build?

No cut offs on Linux in 16.0.590, in High DPI, but make sure to only use one monitor. Using a 2k and 4k monitor the menus can be quite offset, and, the cursor can lose the plot too! (bug #81592)

Welcome to the world of QT.

might be also part of Houdini Bug #81719