It is possible installing the other tools did something, but I find it unlikely.

From the error message it looks like there is a problem reading an "acute a", á (not sure that will show properly) in a file path. Is that possible? I haven't done a lot of testing with non-ascii characters, so I guess I wouldn't be surprised if there's a problem with it. If that's the issue try renaming the file or path to include only ascii characters. Does that work?

What was the error with "PARMmenu.xml"? WCB does use that file to add an action to the parameter menu, but I wouldn't think installing other tools would affect that.

Peter.

Hey, MirHadi, I can reproduce this issue and will fix it in the next version.

I noticed a second error in your log due to a failure loading an HDA. I was able to cause the error by trying to preview an Apprentice licensed HDA in Houdini Indie, which will fail due to the license incompatibility. Is it possible this is what you ran into?

Thanks!

Peter.

ophiuchus42
Apprentice licensed HDA in Houdini Indie, which will fail due to the license incompatibility. Is it possible this is what you ran into?

Hello
yes exactly.
thank you very much.

PS: floating Vray asset browser is very cool. would it possible to make it a float asset browser(dockable, maybe) and with favorite folder and with adjustable thumbnail's size etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2xpkq0S3Ko [www.youtube.com]

MirHadi
PS: floating Vray asset browser is very cool. would it possible to make it a float asset browser(dockable, maybe) and with favorite folder and with adjustable thumbnail's size etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2xpkq0S3Ko [www.youtube.com]

WCM is implemented as a python panel so you can float it like any other using "Tear off Pane Tab". Or do you mean within content browser itself? I haven't seen the need to add this capability since you can always create multiple tabs and dock them with the rest of the Houdini interface or float them as you see fit.

The current plan is to add the adjustable thumbnail size in the version after next, but we'll see as I have very little free time these days. A favorites folder would be pretty neat, but there's a lot of internal things that have to happen before that will work. It is something I'd like to do...

Anyway, thanks for the continued suggestions.

Cheers!

Peter.

hi

There's something that bothers me a lot and I decided to share it with you.
for the first time I open Houdini, right clicking on a parameter like ( Translate, Rotate.. etc) I get this kind of error:

Error while parsing a menu definition file
'C:/Users/***/Documents/houdini18.5/packages/content_browser_0.4.1/PARMmenu.xml':
Cannot find element 'revert_to_prev_val' needed for ordering of 'wormhole_load_file_parm_from_content_browser'.
Cannot find element 'revert_to_prev_val' needed for ordering of 'wormhole_load_color_parm_from_content_browser'.


this happens all the time, and I don't know what to do!

thank you

MirHadi
hi

There's something that bothers me a lot and I decided to share it with you.
for the first time I open Houdini, right clicking on a parameter like ( Translate, Rotate.. etc) I get this kind of error:

Error while parsing a menu definition file
'C:/Users/***/Documents/houdini18.5/packages/content_browser_0.4.1/PARMmenu.xml':
Cannot find element 'revert_to_prev_val' needed for ordering of 'wormhole_load_file_parm_from_content_browser'.
Cannot find element 'revert_to_prev_val' needed for ordering of 'wormhole_load_color_parm_from_content_browser'.


this happens all the time, and I don't know what to do!

thank you

That's pretty bizarre. Is there a node in particular you are seeing this with? The error is indicating that the name for the "Revert to Previous Value" context menu action is not "revert_to_prev_val" or maybe it isn't there. Have you customized your context menus? Or maybe another package you installed removes it for some reason? Do you see the "Revert to Previous Value" action at the top of the parameter context menu?

ophiuchus42
Do you see the "Revert to Previous Value" action at the top of the parameter context menu?

yes I see it.

This error occurs in office pc not in home pc. however C:/Users/***/Documents/houdini18.5 is almost identical.
I think I need to check office Pc again. as you suggested maybe there is something else causing this not sure though.

Hey peter,

I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this great tool so generously! It is very nice and should be a fixed addition to Houdini.
I have a feature proposition: Would it be possible to make the content roots to variables. For example, $ROOT1, $ROOT2, etc. so when a scene file switches systems/operators all stay relative and nifty?

Once again: Thank you!
and Cheers
CYTE

Happy Summer/Winter! Version 0.5.0 of Wormhole Content Browser for Houdini has been released. This version introduces a new experimental disk cache that should fix some of the problems with the previous version and adds support for non-ascii characters in file and directory names. Access the new cache implementation in the Edit Configuration dialog under the Cache tab.

0.5.0 Release Notes:

• Feature: Experimental new disk cache implementation.
  
• Feature: Copy data between disk caches when switching implementations.
  
• Feature: Process locking of new disk cache to ensure safety when running in multiple processes. This is only available in Houdini 18.0 or 18.5.
  
• Feature: Support for non-ascii characters in file paths. Note that Houdini 17.5 has some problems with non-ascii characters that are not related to Wormhole Content Browser.
  
• Feature: Initial support for thumbnails of image files supported by Houdini but not the GUI toolkit, for example TIF and EXR images. This is slow but will hopefully be sped up in a future version.
  
• Improved: Install using a package instead of editing houdini.env.
  
• Fixed: Content browser crashes with TIF files written out of Houdini.
  
• Fixed: Setting "Save Time Threshold" to 0 causes error on load.
  
• Fixed: Error loading thumbnail of file path containing non-ascii characters.
  
• Fixed: Errors with all actions from file path containing non-ascii characters.
  
• Fixed: Error loading thumbnail of HDA saved with incompatible license.
  

Here's a link to the gumroad project page: https://gum.co/whbrowser [gum.co]

Cheers!

CYTE
Hey peter,

I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this great tool so generously! It is very nice and should be a fixed addition to Houdini.
I have a feature proposition: Would it be possible to make the content roots to variables. For example, $ROOT1, $ROOT2, etc. so when a scene file switches systems/operators all stay relative and nifty?

Once again: Thank you!
and Cheers
CYTE

Thanks for the feedback!

Are you suggesting replacing the content root part of the path with a variable when the content browser fills in a path parameter? So instead of "/content/root/path/to/my/file.obj" in a File SOP, it would be "$ROOT1/path/to/my/file.obj"? That seems like a good idea.

Peter.

Hello

Thank you for your great tool and of course Update!
didn't check it yet, but does this version supports Favorite folders?

MirHadi
Hello

Thank you for your great tool and of course Update!
didn't check it yet, but does this version supports Favorite folders?

Sorry, this version doesn't include the Favorites folder yet, but it is "scheduled" for the next version.

Cheers!

Peter.

Hello

sorry to say but this version seems too heavy, almost chokes down Houdini and I need to restart it.
for me It's enough to switch to the wormhole panel to get this kind of error again more or less.

drag and drop .fbx files also is working weird.

don't know what is happening but my best guess is creating thumbnails process!

MirHadi
Hello

sorry to say but this version seems too heavy, almost chokes down Houdini and I need to restart it.
for me It's enough to switch to the wormhole panel to get this kind of error again more or less.

drag and drop .fbx files also is working weird.

don't know what is happening but my best guess is creating thumbnails process!

Huh, well sorry about that. I haven't seen Houdini bog down like that.

I had a couple questions if you don't mind:

1. Are you using the new experimental file cache? If you haven't changed it in Edit Configuration/Cache dialog then you're using the old one. I would not expect the old one to perform any differently.
2. What kind of files are there? This version introduces a preview mechanism for tif, exr, and Houdini image formats. It is pretty slow, though I haven't see it bog down like you mentioned. Does it bog down in a directory with only geometry files?
3. Are there a lot of files in the directory? I changed some things trying to get it to sort better on Linux that might be causing a problem for some reason.

Nothing should have changed with .fbx files, so I don't know what could go wrong there. What do you mean by "weird"? There is a limitation that you have to drop the files into an appropriate subnet (geo for .fbx) or Houdini will want to load the file directly. Is that what you're seeing?

Thanks!

Peter.

ophiuchus42
What do you mean by "weird"? There is a limitation that you have to drop the files into an appropriate subnet (geo for .fbx) or Houdini will want to load the file directly. Is that what you're seeing?

Yes. first Houdini opens the .fbx file and the second drop of .fbx file makes Houdini to open it like It normally does ( dialog box , ..etc) that I don't want!

I'm using the new cache, and the console complains about the cache is not accessible.. blah blah....
I'll look at it again to narrow down the error possibilities and diagnose it a little bit more, but overall performance is something that I need it to be untouched at least.

MirHadi

ophiuchus42
What do you mean by "weird"? There is a limitation that you have to drop the files into an appropriate subnet (geo for .fbx) or Houdini will want to load the file directly. Is that what you're seeing?

Yes. first Houdini opens the .fbx file and the second drop of .fbx file makes Houdini to open it like It normally does ( dialog box , ..etc) that I don't want!

That sounds like the default Houdini handling of FBX drops. The first one will do an "import as new scene", which will open the FBX as the hip file (this seems weird to me), then the second drop tries to do the same thing, but since the previous scene is dirty, it gives you that dialog. WCB only handles drops in this case inside of a Geometry network in the network editor, and it will create a File SOP with the FBX file. Any other place will be the default Houdini behavior. This is how it is currently implemented. Do you think it should work differently? Maybe do something similar to "Import geometry file" in the context menu?

MirHadi
I'm using the new cache, and the console complains about the cache is not accessible.. blah blah....
I'll look at it again to narrow down the error possibilities and diagnose it a little bit more, but overall performance is something that I need it to be untouched at least.

The new cache mechanism is definitely slower than the old one, which is the main reason it is "experimental" and isn't the default. If you turn off Use process lock in Edit Configuration/Cache it will speed it up, but there is a concern about race conditions when you have multiple Houdini's modifying the cache at the same time. When I get a chance to optimize the new cache, I would expect the speed to be comparable to when Use process lock is turned off.

What is the error message about "cache is not accessible"?

Peter.

ophiuchus42
WCB only handles drops in this case inside of a Geometry network in the network editor

I'm importing two .fbx file in sop level, the first one drops as expected but the second one triggers the Houdini import dialogue box with this error!

"C:/Users/.../Documents/houdini18.5/packages/content_browser_0.5.0/python2.7libs\wormhole\houdini.py", line 1191, in _import_file
import_node = parent_node.createNode(type_name, name)
File "C:/PROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini 18.5.596/houdini/python2.7libs\houpythonportion\ui.py", line 1081, in decorator
return func(*args, **kwargs)
File "C:/PROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini 18.5.596/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py", line 13132, in createNode
return _hou.Node_createNode(self, node_type_name, node_name, run_init_scripts, load_contents, exact_type_name, force_valid_node_name)
OperationFailed: The attempted operation failed.
Invalid node name


are FBX files treated differently or maybe something's wrong with the file itself!?


- for the cache file I switched to old one. I lost the warning for the cache though!.

MirHadi
I'm importing two .fbx file in sop level, the first one drops as expected but the second one triggers the Houdini import dialogue box with this error!

"C:/Users/.../Documents/houdini18.5/packages/content_browser_0.5.0/python2.7libs\wormhole\houdini.py", line 1191, in _import_file
import_node = parent_node.createNode(type_name, name)
File "C:/PROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini 18.5.596/houdini/python2.7libs\houpythonportion\ui.py", line 1081, in decorator
return func(*args, **kwargs)
File "C:/PROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini 18.5.596/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py", line 13132, in createNode
return _hou.Node_createNode(self, node_type_name, node_name, run_init_scripts, load_contents, exact_type_name, force_valid_node_name)
OperationFailed: The attempted operation failed.
Invalid node name


are FBX files treated differently or maybe something's wrong with the file itself!?

Ok, this is making some sense. If the handler throws an exception (as it appears to be doing) then Houdini's default handler will take over, so you see the import dialog afterwards.

I haven't been able to reproduce this. Are you dragging two files in at once or one and then the other? Is it always the second file, or is it a specific file?

That error is indicating that the automatically generated name for the file is not a valid node name. I haven't see that happen since adding unicode support. Is there anything unusual about the file name?

Peter.

ophiuchus42
Is there anything unusual about the file name?

sorry for delay, I'm on a project.
I double checked, No, there is nothing wrong with it!
I get this drag/drop Errors again:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "<stdin>", line 10, in dropAccept
File "C:/Users/.../Documents/houdini18.5/packages/content_browser_0.5.0/python2.7libs\wormhole\houdini.py", line 2349, in handle_drop_accept
return handler.import_files_at_cursor(paths)
File "C:/Users/.../Documents/houdini18.5/packages/content_browser_0.5.0/python2.7libs\wormhole\houdini.py", line 1249, in import_files_at_cursor
extra_args
File "C:/Users/.../Documents/houdini18.5/packages/content_browser_0.5.0/python2.7libs\wormhole\houdini.py", line 827, in _execute_undoable
command(*args)
File "C:/Users/.../Documents/houdini18.5/packages/content_browser_0.5.0/python2.7libs\wormhole\houdini.py", line 1203, in _import_files
self._import_file(*parameters)
File "C:/Users/.../Documents/houdini18.5/packages/content_browser_0.5.0/python2.7libs\wormhole\houdini.py", line 1191, in _import_file
import_node = parent_node.createNode(type_name, name)
File "C:/PROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini 18.5.596/houdini/python2.7libs\houpythonportion\ui.py", line 1081, in decorator
return func(*args, **kwargs)
File "C:/PROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini 18.5.596/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py", line 13132, in createNode
return _hou.Node_createNode(self, node_type_name, node_name, run_init_scripts, load_contents, exact_type_name, force_valid_node_name)
OperationFailed: The attempted operation failed.
Invalid node name


I checked several .fbx files and those were fine! but this one with no apparent reason is not!
so I think there is something wrong with its description or something.. don't know!

MirHadi

ophiuchus42
Is there anything unusual about the file name?

I checked several .fbx files and those were fine! but this one with no apparent reason is not!
so I think there is something wrong with its description or something.. don't know!

Could you send me a private message with the file name? Just copy it from the normal file browser (including extension) and surround it with quotes. Alternatively, if you can't do that (for IP reasons or whatever) I can send you a custom version of WCB that will print out the name it wants to use for the node, and then maybe you can see what it's doing wrong. Just let me know.

Thanks!

Peter.