The release archive contains everything you need to run HtoA, including the Arnold libraries, executables, and Python modules.
Houdini Apprentice, unfortunately, cannot run HtoA as they lack support for third-party renderers, see Houdini products comparison. |
Please download the .py3 version of the HtoA installer when installing the Python 3 version of Houdini 18.5, for example, Houdini 18.5.596.py3 |
Here are step-by-step instructions to install HtoA for the current user.
houdini.env
file and create a backup.If you need to have complete control of the HtoA installation, you can select to only extract the contents of the installer and configure Houdini to pick up HtoA as shown below.
Note the render delegate for Solaris is added automatically for Houdini versions 18.0 and above, so no action is required when using the installer.
The installation boils down to inserting the HtoA folder first in the HOUDINI_PATH
environment variable. On Windows, you also need to update the PATH
environment variable.
The path to the HtoA folder must be inserted before the factory Houdini folders in the |
Note that from HtoA 5.1.1 and Houdini 18.0.391, the render delegate for Solaris is installed into the dso/usd_plugins
directory so it is no longer necessary to set the PXR_PLUGINPATH_NAME
either in the houdini.env file or as an environment variable.
For previous versions, the Arnold hydra render delegate was added automatically by the installer to the houdini.env file, by adding the PXR_PLUGINPATH_NAME
variable, set to the location of the hydra
folder within the HtoA install tree as below.
The simplest installation is to insert the HtoA folder path to the houdini.env file. This file is created by Houdini after your first run, its location varies per platform:
Platform | Location |
---|---|
Linux | ~/houdini18.0/houdini.env |
Windows | C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\houdini18.0\houdini.env |
Mac | ~/Library/Preferences/houdini/18.0/houdini.env |
On Linux and Mac, append a single line to enable HtoA for the user:
HOUDINI_PATH = /path/to/htoa/htoa-5.0.2_raba8949_houdini-18.0.348;& |
HOUDINI_PATH = /path/to/htoa/htoa-5.0.2_raba8949_houdini-18.0.348;& |
On Windows, you need to set the PATH
to point to the scripts/bin
as well:
PATH = "$PATH;C:/path/to/htoa/htoa-5.0.2_raba8949_houdini-18.0.348/scripts/bin" HOUDINI_PATH = "C:/path/to/htoa/htoa-5.0.2_raba8949_houdini-18.0.348;&" |
|
The most flexible way to deploy HtoA is to use a wrapper to launch Houdini. On Linux for example, you could use this script:
#!/bin/bash # Sample bash script to launch Houdini with HtoA enabled # edit these to suit your environment HOUDINI_ROOT="/opt/hfs18.0.348" HTOA="/path/to/htoa/htoa-5.0.2_raba8949_houdini-18.0.348" # source houdini environment cd ${HOUDINI_ROOT} source houdini_setup cd - &> /dev/null # View docs in the default browser export HOUDINI_EXTERNAL_HELP_BROWSER=xdg-open # set HOUDINI_PATH export HOUDINI_PATH="${HOME}/houdini${HOUDINI_MAJOR_RELEASE}.${HOUDINI_MINOR_RELEASE};${HTOA};${HFS}/houdini" # launch houdini houdini $@ |
If you have already used the individual HOUDINI_*_PATH environments for other plugins and scripts, you may find you need to set them for HtoA instead of using only the HOUDINI_PATH environment.
In case you also set one of the following environment variables, make sure you are appending ";
@;&
", at the end of its value, or alternatively, add the corresponding HtoA subfolder path to it:
Environment variable | Sub-folder | Notes |
---|---|---|
HOUDINI_DSO_PATH
| <htoa_folder>/dso | |
HOUDINI_OTLSCAN_PATH | <htoa_folder>/otls | |
HOUDINI_SCRIPT_PATH | <htoa_folder>/scripts | |
HOUDINI_SOHO_PATH | <htoa_folder>/soho | It is critical that the HtoA soho sub-folder be placed before the factory Houdini folder. |
HOUDINI_TOOLBAR_PATH | <htoa_folder>/toolbar | |
HOUDINI_UI_ICON_PATH | <htoa_folder>/config/Icons | |
HOUDINI_UI_PATH | <htoa_folder>/config |
On OSX installing Houdini to a location other than the default install path e.g. /Applications/Houdini/Houdini 18.5.696 will result in an error whilst rendering:
unable to load dynamic library: dlopen(<htoa_folder>/arnold/drivers/driver_houdini.dylib, 5): Library not loaded: @rpath/libHoudiniUT.dylib Referenced from: <htoa_folder>/arnold/drivers/driver_houdini.dylib Reason: image not found |
If this is a requirement it is possible to update the rpath in libHoudiniUT.dylib to reference the libHoudiniUT.dylib in the new install location for example given an installation of Houdini in /Volumes/Houdini instead you can use:
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libHoudiniUT.dylib /Volumes/Houdini/Houdini18.5.696/Frameworks/Houdini.framework/Versions/18.5/Libraries/libHoudiniUT.dylib <htoa_folder>/arnold/drivers/driver_houdini.dylib |