| On this page |
How to
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Control the display of badges |
In the network editor, choose View ▸ Display options or press D. In the display options, for each possible badge you can set three different display styles: Hide Don’t show the badge at all. Normal Show the badge in the row of badges below the node name. Large Show a large version of the badge behind the node. This is to make important badges (such as errors) more prominent and easier to spot zoomed out. |
Badges
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Error |
This node has an error and could not cook. Show the info window to read the error message. |
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Warning |
This node cooked but generated a warning. Show the info window to read the warning message. |
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Comment |
This node has a comment. Show the info window to read or edit the comment. You can also use the checkbox in the info window to show the comment below the badges in the network editor. |
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Node Locked |
You have frozen this node’s output geometry or channels. See the lock flag on SOP nodes or on CHOP nodes |
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Node Unload |
This node does not cache its output geometry. See the unload flag |
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Node has data |
This node has cached its output geometry. This badge is hidden by default since it would normally be on most nodes, but if you are trying to debug unload flags you might want to make it visible. |
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Node needs to cook |
This node needs to recompute its output because the inputs or parameters have changed (or, the node has not computed its output for the first time yet). This badge is hidden by default, since Houdini normally cooks nodes automatically as needed. However, if you turn off automatic cooking you might want to make it visible. |
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Locked HDA |
This node is a locked (synced) digital asset. |
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Unlocked HDA |
This node is an unlocked (editable) digital asset. |
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Time dependent |
This node changes based on the current frame. For example, it might have keyframe animation, or it might have an expression that uses the current frame or time. |
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Cached VEX |
The contents of this VOP network have been replaced with cached VEX. If a network can be cached but is not cached, the badge shows a dimmer version. |
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Not compilable |
This node hasn’t been updated to be compilable. This can be useful for checking whether all the nodes in a certain branch of the network can be grouped into a compile block. |
Parameter badges
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Constraints |
One or more parameters on this node are constrained/overridden by a CHOP network. |
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Kinematics |
The bone has kinematics (FK or IK) on it. |
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Has take data |
One or more parameters on this node have overrides in the current take. |
Text badges
The controls on this tab let you choose how "text badges" appear on nodes. You can hide them, show the full text, or show the text truncated to a few lines.
Comment
Each node can have a text comment you can display near the node’s name. You can edit the comment in the node info window.
Descriptive parameter
Each node type can specify the most important parameter to understand what the node is doing. For example, for the 
File node this is the filename. You can display that parameter’s value near the node’s name.
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When you create a digital asset you can specify the asset’s descriptive parameter on the Node tab of the type properties window.
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You can use scripting to set a
descriptiveparmitem in a node’s user data dictionary to a parameter ID to give that node a custom descriptive parameter:hou.node("/obj/geo1/blast1").setUserData("descriptiveparm", "group")This will override the descriptive parameter set on an asset. However there are some nodes it will not override that generate their own descriptive text.