Noob Question…

When I import an OBJ file into Houdini, a reference to the file path is stored in a File node. The geometry is not embedded, it is only referenced. Consequently, the OBJ file must continue to exist for as long as my Houdini file exists. If I accidentally delete, or move, the OBJ file, my Houdini file will fail, as the OBJ file can no longer be accessed by the File node. This is very problematic for me.

In Maya, I simply import an OBJ into my Maya file and it becomes an embedded object in that Maya file. There is no longer a dependency on the original OBJ file. This is what I want with Houdini. How can I achieve this behavior in Houdini?

while I wouldn't advise storing geometry in the hip file, you can do it easily by locking the node, just use lock flag for that

tamte,

That worked like a charm. Thank you.

By the way, is your recommendation based on using Houdini as a support application (e.g., FX only) rather than a primary? If Houdini were the primary application (i.e., modeling, animation, FX, rendering, etc.), similar to the way Maya is used, would your view change?

EDIT:
I checked out your work on your site. Very cool! Do you use Houdini for modeling? If not, which package do you use?

while you can store geometry in the hip file using a lock - most Houdini users avoid this.
you hip file will get bigger and bigger the more geometry you store in it

if you

JabbaTheNut
If Houdini were the primary application (i.e., modeling, animation, FX, rendering, etc.), similar to the way Maya is used, would your view change?

if you use Houdini as primary application, there is usually no need to lock the nodes as the hip file would contain construction history, but if there is a need to freeze the geo, I'd definitely rather save it to disk, and reference from there than lock the node
the main reason is as arctor mentioned the size of the hip file, there is no need to save heavy geo every time you version up your file, so if it can be stored outside of hip file, it's always a big advantage, at least I was much happier to have tiny .hip files compared to insanely huge .max or .mb files, but even for Maya or Max if you want to manage large data sets or characters you better use xrefs

and yes, all school projects on my website used Houdini as a main CG app, with the same logic of storing static or animated geometry to disk instead of locking the node (well lock would always store just current static frame of the geo anyway)

there are definitely uses for locked geo as well as Data Parm or the new Stash SOP which can store the geo and include it in hip file, but I'd definitely avoid doing that for heavy geometry

tamte and arctor,

Thanks for the advice. I see the wisdom in keeping the geo outside of the hip file. I intend to change my workflow to accommodate.

I am seriously considering a move from Maya to Houdini as my primary application. This move is inspired by Autodesk's recent treatment of long standing maintenance customers, like me. I have heard a lot of good things about Houdini. However, it was always in the context of a supporting application (e.g., Houdini coupled with Modo, Blender or other modeling software). It is encouraging to see that Houdini can be used as a primary application. In the few days I have been using Houdini, it seems to me that Houdini has meaningful modeling capabilities. Enough so that I am not sure another modeling software is required.