Houdini Edit in External Editor

Features

• Quickly edit parameters and snippets with your favorite editor.
• No manual setup required. Looks for popular editors installed in your computer and automatically sets them up for you.
• No longer a five step process to edit a parameter with an external editor.
• When deleting a parameter value it doesn't leave it in an error state.
• Works with Houdini 13, 14, 15, 16

Quick Installation

• Download

Add the following files to your Houdini home folder:

• PARMmenu.xml
• MainMenuCommon.xml

To try out the plugin without editing your home folder: Add the files where your .hip file is located.

If your current editor configuration is not working go to Edit > Configure External Editor.

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Hotkeys

Houdini 14+

• In Edit > Hotkeys...:
  • Search for Edit in External Editor
  • Set your hotkey to Cmd + E

Houdini 13

• In Edit > Hotkeys...:
  • Search for Edit in External Editor
  • Set your hotkey to Alt + E

Note: Don't disable the other Alt + E or Cmd + E hotkeys, since that will disable the hotkey for opening with external editor inside Edit Operator Type Properties.

Caveat

• Problem: Hotkey doesn't work when editing snippets (multiple line strings) such as Wrangle nodes. ^[1]
• Solution: Click outside the text input and hover the parameter name then use your hotkey, or use the right click menu.

^{[1] Houdini switches the context (grabbing the keyboard) when inside a text input therefore disabling the hotkeys of the parameter menu.}

Troubleshooting

• Go to Edit > Configure External Editor to edit your configuration.

• If manually configuring the editor make sure to add a wait or no-fork command if necessary.

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Tips

The best editors allow you to close the window and not the application to return to Houdini, and feature fast start up times.

If using Sublime add the following options to disable opening old unsaved edits:

"hot_exit": false,
"remember_open_files": false,

Houdini only supports ASCII paths.

Make sure to quote your path if it contains spaces or arguments, refer to wiki for help.

If you use TextEdit make sure to quit the application and not the window. If you accidently close the window, open TextEdit again and quit the application.

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Manual Setup

Refer to wiki for more information and examples.

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Editor Configuration

Refer to wiki for configuring your editor to support VEX, HScript, and HOM

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Uninstall

In your Houdini home folder:

• Go to Edit > Configure External Editor and set Use System Setting
• Quit Houdini.
• Remove PARMmenu.xml and MainMenuCommon.xml

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Upcoming Features

• Watching for changes and not halting the main thread! (Also removes confusion)
• Editing multiple parameters at the same time.
• If the parameter is a file provide option to open the file instead.
• Submit ideas or pull requests!

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Alternatives

• Expression Editor
• Multi Script Editor

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Houdini Home Folder

The default location of your Houdini home folder:

• Mac: ~/Library/Preferences/houdini/13.0
• Linux: ~/houdini13.0
• Windows: ~/Documents/houdini13.0

Also accessed by:

>>> hou.homeHoudiniDirectory()

Refer to docs for more help.

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License

Copyright (C) 2015 Arthur Yidi

BSD Simplified