Alembic import

   13084   18   1
User Avatar
Member
147 posts
Joined: 3月 2014
Offline
Hi,

I have this small, but working pipeline in Maya with Alembic files.
Animation is cached out, and imported back in. Than shading and rendering is set up.

But I cannot seem to import any of these Alembic files into Houdini 15.5.
I get a warning right away about not being able to evaluate the file.

tried every setting in the node, but no luck. Tried to find answers here, but so far no luck.
Is there a certain way to write out Alembic files for Houdini from Maya?

cheers!

rob
Apprentice Attribute / Houdini 17.0.381 / GTX 970 - driver 411.63
User Avatar
スタッフ
3459 posts
Joined: 7月 2005
Offline
are you writing Ogawa?
Michael Goldfarb | www.odforce.net
Training Lead
SideFX
www.sidefx.com
User Avatar
Member
147 posts
Joined: 3月 2014
Offline
Hi Michael,

Yes, I am.
This works for other 3D apps, not sure why Houdini is throwing me an error.

We normally have the geo inside a little hierarchy when exported, and is imported back into the same structure.
Maybe that is the problem here?

rob

Edit: Just to add, it's Maya 2016SP5 on Win7

Edit2: Copied some of the alembic files to the desktop to see what happens, and it works. I can load both Ogawa and hdf5 files from there. So it's something network related, and it looks like Houdini cannot find the path or something.
One down, one to go ;-)
Edited by RobW - 2016年5月27日 04:40:47
Apprentice Attribute / Houdini 17.0.381 / GTX 970 - driver 411.63
User Avatar
Member
147 posts
Joined: 3月 2014
Offline
OK,

Back at this.
Houdini refuses to import any files, Alembic and/or FBX, from server locations. We checked all relevant rights on folders and files, and there's no problem there. It doesn't matter if the files are inside, or outside the project structure.

We tried the File>Import route, and the direct approach of getting a Alembic/File node and loading the file from there.
In all cases we get an error in Houdini.

The File>Import route gives me a ‘Import failed, Z\Projects\Goat\caches\goat.abc does not exist’
The direct approach with a node gives a ‘Error: Unable to read file “Z\Projects\Goat\caches\goat.abc”’

Also, when browsing to the cache files, they are all grayed out, until you check the sequence box. Than you can select Alembic files with a number in the name.

Really stumped on this one.

rob
Apprentice Attribute / Houdini 17.0.381 / GTX 970 - driver 411.63
User Avatar
Member
133 posts
Joined:
Offline
Do you load it from a NAS Server brand Synology?
We also had issue loading assets in Houdini.
If so I would need to ask what our network specialist has changed.

User Avatar
Member
147 posts
Joined: 3月 2014
Offline
Hi,

No, it's a Win2012 Ess. server with basic shares and all the common rights set for users.
Like I said, we checked it all twice now, but Houdini just refuses to read in the files :\

But please just ask the network guy/gal, as there could be a ‘a-ha’ moment here

cheers!

rob

edit: It is something specific to Houdini, as Maya and Softimage can read in these files just fine. Odd.
Edited by RobW - 2016年5月30日 05:20:46
Apprentice Attribute / Houdini 17.0.381 / GTX 970 - driver 411.63
User Avatar
スタッフ
3459 posts
Joined: 7月 2005
Offline
strange - please log it as a bug with as much info about your network as you can gather…
just to get this out of the way - are there any spaces in the path/filename?
Michael Goldfarb | www.odforce.net
Training Lead
SideFX
www.sidefx.com
User Avatar
Member
147 posts
Joined: 3月 2014
Offline
Hi Michael,

Everything has a ‘proper’ path and filename, so no spaces in between.

Not sure what to log here, but I'll pass it along to your team.

Is there any way to log stuff from the command window or such? To help with the search?

rob
Edited by RobW - 2016年5月30日 09:51:43
Apprentice Attribute / Houdini 17.0.381 / GTX 970 - driver 411.63
User Avatar
Member
133 posts
Joined:
Offline
Hi,

I asked this guy, he hardly could remember. There were some issues with ALC Server Settings.
In our case it was a problem with rights, all other software worked, just Houdini had it's read
problem…

I hope this might help. It was a very strange issue..

User Avatar
Member
147 posts
Joined: 3月 2014
Offline
Hi,

Just got word from the support peeps.
It has to do with the HOUDINI_ACCESS_METHOD environment variable.

So if you add this line to your houdini.env file, it will work as expected:
HOUDINI_ACCESS_METHOD = 2

More on this to be found here. [archive.sidefx.com]

cheers for the reply though, much appreciated!

rob
Apprentice Attribute / Houdini 17.0.381 / GTX 970 - driver 411.63
User Avatar
Member
1 posts
Joined: 7月 2013
Offline
tomtm
Do you load it from a NAS Server brand Synology?
We also had issue loading assets in Houdini.
If so I would need to ask what our network specialist has changed.


Thanks a lot! you just saved me a lot of time- I had this exact problem. I moved the alembic file from the nas to a local disk and it worked straight away. Cheers
User Avatar
Member
126 posts
Joined: 10月 2015
Offline
I know this is a little old but for anyone with a Synology drive on a network with Windows 7 and Windows 10 machine, adding the access method to the env file worked!

Alembic files read on my render machine!

Thanks!!
User Avatar
Member
1 posts
Joined: 8月 2016
Offline
Confirming in Feb 2020 that while using a Synology NAS, accessing Alembics gives an error in the alembic sop. Adding this line to houdini.env worked for me as well.

HOUDINI_ACCESS_METHOD = 2
User Avatar
Member
4 posts
Joined: 8月 2019
Offline
How is this still not fixed?!
I just made an ABC (and an FBX to compare) in Syntheyes and saved to the server (Windows mapped drive). The alembic and fbx both fail to import. They both import fine to Maya.
I found this thread. I thought, surely not... that is from 5 years ago
I copied the files to my D drive and boom they both import fine.

Yes there is an environment variable patch - I tested and yes that fixes it.
But this should have been fixed years before I have to spend 20 mins fighting, testing, cursing, searching...
Please fix this.
At the very least put a note in the docs when you click on the '?' in the Alembic Import Window

thanks to RobW for posting the solution.

Houdini Indie v19.0.383
User Avatar
Member
1268 posts
Joined: 3月 2014
Offline
Haha. Same problem here.
I just found this post, and glad that it works.

Thanks for this.

H19.0.510
Werner Ziemerink
Head of 3D
www.luma.co.za
User Avatar
Member
147 posts
Joined: 3月 2014
Offline
Still giving people a solution after I started this almost six years ago....

rob
Apprentice Attribute / Houdini 17.0.381 / GTX 970 - driver 411.63
User Avatar
Member
2 posts
Joined: 11月 2021
Offline
Agreed, this should be fixed by default.
User Avatar
Member
7 posts
Joined: 2月 2016
Online
This is an inside joke or something?? Will never get this hour back.
User Avatar
Member
147 posts
Joined: 3月 2014
Offline
sheez... can we get a lock on this one?
it keep calling me from the grave
Apprentice Attribute / Houdini 17.0.381 / GTX 970 - driver 411.63
  • Quick Links