Hi all,

I've made a sop level hda. I want 2 transform handles to pop up when the sop is selected (actually I'd really love those new light transforming handles… possible?) How is this done? In the Handles tab of type properties?… and if not, what is the handles tab used for?

I'm guessing this has been asked before so a just a link would be great.

Ta
H

You can certainly add handles in the handles folder in the Type Properties but you may get confused as to what channels control what behaviours. You can certainly add the light handle. Any handle on any operator in Houdini is accessible for you to use.

There is a nice set of tutorials that ships with all Houdini builds on Houdini Digital Assets. Just open up the embedded browser page ( Question mark at the very top right) and in the browser heirarchy go to Leraning Houdini/Houdini Digital Assets/Building Digital Asset Controls. It is best to quickly run through those tutorials as they cover the creation of handles.

To get familiar with how to wire up a particular handle, just select an operator with a like handle and put it inside your asset either temporary or permanently. Now get the handle up in the viewport and RMB (Right Mouse Button) hold on the handle to get the menu and choose the option that says “export handle to type properties”. Now all the parameters and the handle will be present in your asset. Study it. Next try pulling away certain channels disabling parts of the handle to see what controls what.

If you make that particular handle persistent, you can access another handy tool called the Persistent Handle Manager located in the top Tools menu. There you can adjust certain handle properties for persistent handls. I usually do this first before doing the step above “export handle to type properties”.

If hooked up correctly, the handles are very powerful.

Ta Jeff,

Got it working and have now create my own transform handles.. which is great. But I still cant create the orientation handle used for lights. Exporting the handles from the lights or camera isn't working. Because the parameters are uneditable?

Cheers
H

Hmmmm. It seems that light and camera handles are only available at obj level subnets. Prehaps this was because its actually impossible to put lights and cameras at the sop level?

Any other input?

CHeers
H