Keeping mats and rops separate from objects seems sensible enough at first, to keep stuff organised. Different contexts - different network types, with different sets of nodes etc etc.

It's a pain when you're working on different parts of a scene in separate files, and then need to pull them together into one, as you have to cut and paste (and reload and reload) each context's nodes separately.

But we can make Material and ROP networks within the /obj network if we want. (Otherwise we couldn't make HDAs that contained, say, a mesh and its material together)

So is there a good reason not to just ignore the /mat and /out nets and do everything in /obj?

It'd mean you could cut and paste in one go. Which would be nice.

Just seems strange: the whole scene sits in a single hierarchical address space, but the node editors won't let you go up to the root level. (Sure, you can see it in Tree View, but you can't cut and paste from there)

Am I going to hit some issue if I just stay in /obj, making a ROP net there (etc)?


* edit to add: if I'm making a thing in Houdini, doesn't it make sense to develop the thing's materials right there by it? If I do as I've been taught and create the materials in /mat, I'm only going to have to move them into the /obj context if I want to HDA the thing later. So why are we taught to use /mat? I don't get the thinking.

it's all up to your personal workflow…I never use /mat, /out etc - I put everything in /obj using the manager nodes

Cool - that's good enough for me

Thanks!

I find picking up a scene were the outputs could be anywhere is annoying, as you have to find them. Putting them in /out makes it simple. I never really need to copy all nodes from one scene into another, but if I do I would use the file merge option. If a setup needs to be moved from scene to scene it make sense to make it a self contained asset or subnet.

For /mat, I tend to use it when doing quick dev work and experimentation, but for proper assets, it would be co-located with the associated assets. There are numerous issues with building multiple materials in the same mat container anyways, so they lend themselves to being in separate matnet containers.

everything being one or two clicks away.

Each context has it's own copy paste queue so it's easy enough to click through each and copy copy copy, then go to the new file and paste paste paste. I very much appreciate outputs always being in /out when sharing hipfiles between people because rop nets can be hard to find, especially when people bury them.

Hi Dan!

with all that being said, it's really only a workflow preference and you should not experience issues by using matnet or ropnet in other context networks

the only network I recall having issues with is using Object Network in any other contexts as opposed to having all objects in /obj directly
as for some reason Mantra doesn't seem to be aware of objects in such networks and possibly some other issues

There's a render property to set set an alternate object root for mantra. Perhaps if set, the issues with a different objectnet go away?