Project 6 - Final Projects, Houdini Tools with Python

The python script I developed when we were making the ice shader, was useful. Inside Houdini through a ROPoutput driver, when exporting a RibArchive of points, I have placed my code in the postrender scripts field. This automatically concats the files, strips the headers, and inserts new lines for vectors.

BEFORE RIB
AFTER RIB

This runs and prints status per rib in the python shell of Houdini, when specified in the Post Render Scripts line for the node. Here is a screenshot of said code in the postscript field, with the expression enlarged in its own window to the left.

Here is a list of what I would like to achieve from the GUI.

New Python updates and milestones

The code on the left simply includes the "sys" library, to utilize some basic calls to parse the module before running. This allows for editing and saving externally, without having to close Houdini to re-read the module. The last part of the code...

"stest.AppThread().start():"

is a reference to a channel within my "stest" module, which opens a new thread on the CPU for the window, so that both Houdini and my program can run simultaneously. Otherwise, you would have to minimize the window or close it, to access Houdini again.

Here is the code contained in my wxPython module, named "stest"

import wx, threading
if __name__ != "__main__":
    import hou
  
class TestApp(wx.App):
    def OnInit(self):
        frame = wx.Frame(None, wx.ID_ANY, "Create Sphere")
        
        button = wx.Button(frame, wx.ID_ANY, "Sphere")
        button.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.OnButtonClick)
        
        frame.Show(True)
        return True
    
    def OnButtonClick(self, event):
        hou.cd("/obj")
        node = hou.pwd()
        ball = node.createNode("geo", "ball", run_init_scripts = False)
        ball.createNode("sphere")
  
class AppThread(threading.Thread):
    def run(self):
        app = TestApp(False)
        app.MainLoop()
  
if __name__ == "__main__":
    AppThread().start()

Renderman Archive node creation, with prebuilt script

My last update for this project is the ability to create a RibArchive node with a button click, which loads in a python module, containing the code I used to strip the headers and footers of the rib file automatically inserted into the post-render scripts field of the RibArchive node.

The functionality of this is if I change the python code for the concatting of the files, the code linked to the button in Houdini will automatically refresh the module. It will also create a brand new ROP node, with the updated code pre-inserted to the post-render scripts field.

With this code I can create a new node, and source whatever python module I have into the postrender parameter.

   #node network            #node type        #parameter   #.set command to insert code
hou.node('out').createNode('ribarchive').parm('postrender').set(python)

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