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HDA and asset path handling

Just thought it would be great if we could have the option to make a HDA folder per project and have the path automatically appended to the OTL_SCAN_PATH in the houdini.env

Also, it would be awesome to be able to set a path in the settings for a global hda folder that works across projects.

For example:

PRISM_ACTIVE_PROJECT = "C:/users/magnus/Dropbox/prism_projects/multiverse_shared"

PRISM_GLOBAL_HDA = "K:/resources/prism_global_hda"

HOUDINI_OTLSCAN_PATH="$PRISM_GLOBAL_HDA;$PRISM_ACTIVE_PROJECT/04_Assets/HDA;&;"

 

 

Actually there is a folder where you can place HDAs per project. It is the "HDAs" folder in your Assets folder in your project, e.g. /04_Assets/HDAs (it is not created by default)

I guess I should add that to the documentation 😉

The problem with the OTL_SCAN_PATH variable is that it is set during the Houdini startup. If you change the Prism project in Houdini you would have to restart Houdini in order load the HDAs of the new project.

That's why Prism doesn't add the /04_Assets/HDAs path to the OTL_SCAN_PATH variable, but Prism takes care of installing/uninstalling the project HDAs when you switch the Prism project in Houdini.

For the global HDA path, I'm not sure if that would be a big advantage. If you configure the path once in your houdini.env or if you configure it once in Prism doesn't sound like a big difference to me.

Oh cool, I didn't know that. Is there a setting somewhere to add it, or should I just create a new folder manually?

Regarding the global path, you are right, it's not a big deal. It's just one less thing that can go wrong when working with a team and setting projects up on multiple computers. Just a sort of "nice to have" feature.

Just create it manually. Prism will recognize that it exists the next time you start Houdini.

Alright, I note the global HDA folder as a "nice to have" feature.

Thx