User Guide > Overview > Desktop   

Houdini Panes

Panes in Houdini are where the parts of your scene are created, viewed, and managed. A desktop layout can be made up of one or more panes and you can also create floating panes that sit over the main desktop.

Topics covered:
A Typical Pane
Pane menus
Pane types
Pane linking
Network Colour Codes
Toolbars and Controls
Pop-up menus


A Typical Pane

At the top of each pane is the title bar which includes a menu bar that helps you work in the chosen pane.


Pane Menus

At the top of each pane is the title bar which includes a menu bar that helps you work in the chosen pane. When you are first using Houdini, the pane menus offer a good place to find all your tools and settings. As you become more familiar with their use, you can begin using the icon-based toolbars and the context-sensitive pop-up menus for quicker access.

The actual menus and their contents change with your pane type. In most cases one or more of the following menus will be available:

Pane menu - This menu contains options for setting up how the pane will work. This includes settings such as Pane type and Pane linking.

Network menu - This menu lets you navigate your Houdini networks and to determine which network type you are currently working with. This functionality is also found on the Network controls bar.

Operator menu - This menu gives you access to the tools that are used to create and work with operations and their interactive handles. Some of this functionality is also found on the Operator toolbar.

Select menu - This menu lets you set up selection options. This functionality is also found on the Selector and Handle controls bar.

View menu - This menu contains the pane's display and view options, as well as, construction plane, and snap settings. This functionality brings together the options found on the Display options bar and View controls bar.


Pane Types

At the far left of each Pane menu is the Pane type icon that indicates what kind of content the Pane is working with.

Viewer - This pane is where you view the results of your parameter settings. You can also use handles to manipulate operations interactively for more intuitive feedback.

Network Editor - This pane lets you view and manipulate the networks that are used to build your objects and scenes.

Parameters - This pane lets you edit parameters and set keyframes on selected operations.

Geometry Spreadsheet - This pane lets you view and edit a list of geometry points belonging to a operation.

Channel Editor - This pane lets you view and manipulate channels using either animation curves, dope sheet or table view.

Channel List - This pane lets you view the list of scoped channels and to create channel groups.

Custom Panel - This pane lets you view any custom panels that have been created.

Textport - This pane lets you navigate your network at a command line level and then work with Houdini's hscript language.

Handle List - This pane is where you can manage your persistent handles and HUD sliders.

Tree View - This pane lets you view a hierachical list of all the operators in a scene. This view does not show you how operators are connected but gives you quick access to them by name.

Help Browser - This pane lets you access online help. Click here to learn more about his pane type.


Pane Linking

In a typical desktop layout you may have several panes each showing different pane types. Pane linking make sure that as you make selections in one pane the other panes update to the correct network operation. In some cases you might want to have some panes update and others stay unaffected. This lets you work on more than one network operation and view the results of both.

To link panes, click on the circle with the number in it found on the right end of the Pane menu and give it a linking number. All panes that share the same number will update together. You can also set a pane to not link at all.


Network Colour Codes

The title bar of each pane changes colour depending on which network type you are working with. Here are the colours associated with the different network types:
 Objects OBJ Geometry SOP
Particles POP Shaders SHOP
VEX Builder VOP

Motion and Audio CHOP

Compositing COP Render Outputs ROP


Toolbars and Controls

Many of the pane menu items are also available on the various toolbars and controls. These can be revealed by either selecting Pane > Toolbars and Controls and choosing the desired control or by clicking on the control's stowbar to reveal it.


Pop-up Menus

Panes can contain pop-up menus that give you context sensitive support for your work. In the viewer pane, you can either RMB-click on an object to work with operator controls or RMB-click on a handle to work with the handle's manipulation options. You can also Ctrl-RMB-click anywhere in the pane to bring up another pop-up menu that contains controls specific to the chosen pane.