OUT Null Creator v1.0

A simple script to rename, recolor and reshape your OUT nulls. Setup your preferences using the UI window (First launch only). Create a corresponding object merge as a bonus!

Tool Description:

1. Asks for User Preferences (first launch only) and saves it into a text file in User Documents folder.
2. Modifies an exisiting selected null based on saved User Preferences.
3. If selected node is not a null, Creates an OUT Null and connects to last selected node based on saved User Preferences.

Note

The setup process for this script in Houdini is explained further down in this readme file.

UI Preview

When the script is run for the first time, you can setup your preferences for auto-adding a prefix to the node name, color of the nodes and the shape for the null node and object merge node.

Once the preferences are saved, you can start modifying or creating nulls and object merges and it will do this based on your user preferences.

Tool Setup and Demo

This section goes through the initial setup of this tool and showcases it's tested use-cases.

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Setting up the shelf tool and configuring hotkey to call the script

To get started:

1. On your shelf tools tab, create a new shelf tool.
2. Set the Name to OUT_Null_Creator_v1.0 and the Label to OUT Null Creator v1.0.
3. Copy the code in OUT Null Creator v1.0.py and paste it in the script tab of the new tool dialog box.
4. Finally, under hotkeys - edit the Network Pane hotkeys and set it to your chosen shortcut to call the script.

Tip

You can use Numpad 0 key or the back-tick (`) key as a hot key to call this script!

Here's a quick setup guide:

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Running the script for the first time

• When you run this script for the first time, the user preferences UI window should pop-up.
• You can select the color for the nodes, set a prefix for the null nodes that get created or modified by the script.
• You can also set node shapes for the null nodes and object merge nodes individually.

Tip

The node shape names correspond to the node shape menu in the network bar (Z key). You can use that for reference.

Here's a quick UI setup guide and tool demo:

Note

You only need to set this up once. To change your preferences in the future, simply delete the "outNullUserPref.txt" in your documents folder and re-run this script.

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Caution

• This tool is only designed to run in the geometry/ SOP context and hasn't been tested for other houdini contexts.
• A node needs to be selected before running this script. You will be greeted with a info dialog asking you to do so.