BabaJ

baszermaszer
Changing HIP to my unique folder is an absolute nightmare horror show. I'm now couple hours in down the rabbit hole chasing ghosts. Apparently Houdini developers wanted to absolutely avoid anyone changing the $HIP variable.
We have 3ds Max: in 10 seconds you set your user project folder easily, then Max saves your work into that folder.
Not Houdini.

You didn't read the second post from the top 'circusmonkey'.

You 'don't' want to change $HIP - It is automatic to whereever you save your .hip.

It allows you to have a flexible $HIP location for each .hip file you create.

What 'you' really want is to change $JOB, which can be done very quickly, just like other 3D software:

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/basics/project.html [www.sidefx.com]

It's twisting because your points twist.
Each face(polygon) are made of the 4 points - so if you turn 2 of those points it would naturally twist.
If you want a turn in direction you could add corner square polygon that would allow you to continue the change of direction.

If I missed something in what you are trying to do, just to let you know, two of your images don't have the proper links and are not showing; you could also post a hip file which makes it easier for many to see what you're trying to do and offer different solutions.

Maybe provide a hip...something is 'odd' about that.

I routinely use the Join SOP and haven't as of yet run into the issue you have.

It always 'works' for my situations.