Enables the OpenGL option of anti-aliasing all vectors in Houdini including the UI and the 3d viewports. You can see this immediately on the wires that connect tiles, the tile profiles, etc.

See also, the Smooth Lines option on the Wireframe subtab of the Optimization tab in the Display Options window.

The Pane header contains the pane tab and the path gadget, which has a gray background by default. If this is option is turned on, the background color of the pane headers will be changed to their representative network type color.

The default value for Show Images in image-based file browsers (in the menu over the files).

Build menus to the left, rather than the right of the mouse cursor. This is useful for right handed people using on-screen styli.

Enables or disables the sounds that play with message, warning, or error dialog windows.

Allows you to select a file chooser style.

Which desktop appears when Houdini starts up. By default it is Build.

Allows you to change the Size of the UI. Changes to this parameter will take effect in your next Houdini session.

Animates certain changes and transitions in the network editor for clarity (for example, moving nodes out the way when a new node is placed). Turn this off to disable animations.

In the network editor’s View menu, you can turn off display of custom node shapes. If that option and this option are both on, Houdini uses an even simpler default node shape (a simple rectangle instead of a rounded rectangle). This may speed up the display of extremely complex networks.

By default the network editor cuts off long node comments and descriptive parameter values (displayed below the node name) after a certain number of lines. Turn this on to always display the full text of comments and descriptive parameters no matter how long.

On VOP nodes, label inputs and outputs with the human-readable label instead of the internal name.

By default, nodes that users might want to dive into (such as unlocked assets, Geometry objects, subnets, and so on) are drawn with a stacked look to make it clear to new users they can dive into them. Turn this option off to never draw the stacked look for any nodes.

When this option is on, if you open an info window with the info button on the node ring, the window stays open until it loses focus, so you don’t have to manually close it. If you turn this option off, the window always stays open until you close it.

When this option is off (the default), flag hotkeys work by holding the key and clicking a node to set the flag. When this option is on, pressing a flag hotkey sets the flag on the selected node(s).

If you turn this off, you cannot dive into locked assets, unless they have a dive target node specified. A studio may want to specify that this option be turned off to prevent artists from accidentally diving into assets and getting lost.

The radius for snapping moved/placed nodes to align with other nodes. Increase this distance to make nodes more likely to move to align with other nodes when dropped.

The radius for snapping wires to connectors. Increase this radius to have wires jump onto connectors from farther away. Decrease it to have wires not jump to connectors until you get closer.

Shaking nodes disconnects them from their wires. This slider controls how far you have to move the mouse back and forth for Houdini to recognize a shake. If you are getting accidental disconnects because Houdini thinks you are shaking, you might want to decrease this. Turn the slider all the way down to disable shaking to disconnect.

You can show or hide the preview thumbnail on each individual compositing node. This checkbox controls whether newly created compositing nodes show or hide the preview.

You can set the compactness level on each individual VOP node. This menu controls what the initial level for newly created VOP nodes.

Various interfaces in Houdini show hierarchical lists of nodes (for example, the node picker or the tree view pane). Turn this off to not display icons next to node names in these tree views.

When one or more visualizers are attached to a node, display the visualizer settings in a separate tab in the parameter editor.

Allows you to tumble, dolly, track, tilt, zoom, and box zoom using the Alt key. See View the scene for more information.

Determines the default tumbling behavior for new viewers.

Determines the default dolly behavior for new viewers.

Determines the default zoom behavior for new viewers.

Controls what happens when you hit the home hotkey. The default is Oblique, which has a value of 45 degrees.

Allows you to change the shading mode. You can also do this by pressing the W hotkey in the viewport.

If this option is turned on, Houdini will delay inactive viewport redraws in the quad view. In the quad view, one section is active and the other three are inactive. When an action is done in the active viewport, it will be updated aggressively and the inactive viewports will lag behind. The inactive viewports will be redrawn once the active viewport is completely updated. Turning this option on improves performance.

Allows you to turn off the display of highlighting the component under the mouse in the viewport.

The number of least recently used menu items that are kept as history in the Tab menu.

Determines which variants of the same operator are displayed in the Tab menu. The operator variants share the same base operator name but differ in scope, namespace, and/or version.

Allows you to edit contents of locked assets in the auto take mode, overriding the interior parameters inside the current take.

Lists the render nodes available in Houdini that you can enable or disable.It is possible to override the preferences with the HOUDINI_DEFAULT_RENDERERS environment variable. Any render nodes thus overridden will be grayed out in the preferences. If a render node, which is not enabled in this list, exists in the scene, its temporary enabled state will be noted in the Enabled By column. Any render node enabled through that mechanism will not affect the session-to-session preferences.

If enabled, all render nodes will be shown in the output driver tool palette and tab menu. Otherwise, only the subset of render nodes selected in Available Render Nodes will be shown.

Keeps locked handle parts from being displayed. You will need to reload the file to take effect for existing handles.

If this option is turned on, the transform handles in the 3D viewer will display different colors depending on the axis they affect.

If this option is turned on, the transform handles in the 3D viewer will maintain the same orientation when different objects are selected.

Determines the initial orientation for transform handles in the 3D viewer.

Scales fixed-size handles in the viewports.

Specifies how far away the mouse cursor can be from a handle in order to pick and manipulate that handle.

Extends the translation handle axes in the negative direction.

Shows small draggable translate planes away from the center of the handle.

Allows you to select a drag plane between the translation handle axes in the 3D viewer.

Allows you to click and drag between the rings of rotation handles in the 3D viewer when no translation handles are available. This will allow you to perform rotations in all 3 axes simultaneously.

Allows you to drag handles with the without starting the drag on the handle itself.

Not all handles support this option. When multiple handles are displayed, the one closest to the mouse cursor that does support it will be chosen.

If this option is turned on, rotate handles will hide any rings edge on to the current view direction. Turning this option off will only affect rotate handles without any translate axes.

If this option is turned on, rotate handles will draw an outer ring for rotating about the current view axis.

If this option is turned on, the initial mode of rotation handles in the 3D viewer will be in Gimbal Mode. In gimbal mode, the rotation circle handles will always be aligned so that manipulating them will only affect the rotation angle of their respective axis.

This setting affects the orientation handles for manipulating lights and cameras. There are two ways to manipulate the handle: in local space or in global space.

If this option is turned on, the default mode will be in global space. To manipulate in local space, hold down the shift key when manipulating the handle. If this setting is turned off, the default mode will be in local space, and the shift key needs to be held down for global space manipulations.

When scoping from handles, it will open up a new Animation Editor (if one is not already open).

Specifies whether SOP tools update the component selection type to match the type of component the tool operates on.

This addresses the situation where you've selecting one component type, say edges, but the node takes that edge selection, and generates output of a different type, say faces. In that case, you would see a faces selected in the viewport, but if you started selecting, you would still be selecting edges. When this option is on, if for example the node generates faces, Houdini automatically switches the selection mode to faces.

If you change this preference while a tool is active, you may need to leave and re-enter the tool for this to take effect. Not all tools support this preference.

Toggle which interactive tools automatically turn on the construction plane when started with it off but the reference plane on.

Bypasses the generation of info in the pop tiles' info pop-up (click tile with ). This speeds up the particle simulation, at the expense of generating more informative feedback.

This option allows you to limit the size of a Time Slice, expressed in frames. The default maximum is 60 frames. This is useful if you only need a few frames of history, and the Playbar is jumping ahead by large intervals. If a Time Slice is larger than this maximum size, it will be clipped from the current frame backwards (causing a gap between this slice and the previous one). The slice will always end on the current frame.

Sets the default behavior for when you place a CHOP in the Layout Area.

All chops with Time Slice capability created while this option is on will have their Time Slice flags enabled by default. Otherwise, all chops are created with the Time Slice flag turned off. This is a convenient option to leave on when creating and working with large Time Sliced networks. This option is off by default.

Some Time Sliced chops can minimize their cooking, rather than cooking every frame. When cooking is unnecessary, or it produces the same output, these chops will stop cooking until an input changes.

chops that have this feature are:

• Copy chop

• Count chop

• Envelope chop

• Lag chop

• Spring chop

• Trigger chop

Minimal Cooking will not apply to these Time Sliced chops if they have non-constant chop inputs or time dependent chop inputs. This option is off by default. It can speed up puppeteering and chop networks that respond to isolated inputs or events.

Entry boxes for parameters, such as those in the parameter editor.

Multiline text editors, such as those located in Edit Comments.

The textport.

Changes to Panes within Desktops are saved automatically.

Shows files that are marked as hidden (whose filename starts with a period).

Shows all files, regardless of what type they are.

Allows you to define the path menu behavior when you open the Desktop Manager window and use the drop-down menus to switch the Location of a desktop, instead of being prompted each time (default behavior).

This preference is helpful for reducing file bloat.

Specifies the interval for the auto save feature.

If enabled, Houdini will open a warning dialog box with the list of nodes using operators that have been marked as deprecated. Toggle off if you prefer not to see such warnings.

The length in meters of one Houdini unit. This value is used by some unit-specific DOPs parameters.

The mass in kilograms of one Houdini unit. This value is used by some unit-specific DOPs parameters.

Notifications, such as errors, warnings, prompts, and help tips can be displayed directly in the viewport or the status bar. Only messages related to the viewport will be shown in the viewport; cook messages and progress will be still be reported in the status bar.

Notifications that act purely as help tips and do not direct actions or reports warnings or errors can be treated differently than other notifications.

Commands executed by hotkeys will have their action displayed in the viewport or status bar.

Help tips, messages, and hotkeys will be shown for a short time if this option is enabled, otherwise they will be shown until the next message replaces it. The duration of the display can be specified as well.

This setting controls the color values used to display relative cook times for node when using the performance monitor.

For more information on how to use the ramp, see Ramp parameters.

External GUI compare (diff) program.

External GUI compare program that supports comparing folders. See File Compare for more detailed information.

Restricts the HScript commands that can be run from the Houdini embedded web browser. Turning on this option can help prevent malicious scripts from running commands through Houdini.

Opens the Houdini help documentation in your system’s default web browser instead of Houdini’s built-in browser.

Specifies how much memory should be used for Houdini’s Undo system - the more memory you allocate, the more Houdini can Undo.

Causes the Revert to Defaults operation to delete any channels on the parameters changed by this operation.

Specifies whether or not invisible parameters should be affected by a Revert to Defaults operation.

If this option is turned on, spare parameters are created to hold the values of extra parameters that are not in your version of Houdini so that you can see what changed and possibly rescue the values, rather than discarding those parameters into the bitbucket. This is useful when your hip file is from an older version or if the otl defining the node is older. However, you can turn this option off if you do not want to clutter your nodes with obsolete parameters.

When you are in a Type Properties and you delete one of your parameters, there might be parameters inside the asset that point to that parameter.

The default is to Automatically Delete all References that are found. Automatically Delete only Simple Channel References does a more conservative job which could leave some references, but is less likely to destroy complicated expressions. Do Not Automatically Delete any References leaves dangling references, yet eliminates the possibility of expressions being affected.