Houdini training day 2

http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/2078-Introduction-to-fluid-simulations-in-Houdini
http://tangdonna.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/digital-assets.html
http://www.digitaltutors.com/learningpath/44-How-to-Get-Started-in-Houdini

T: Translate
R: Rotate
E: scalE, select one of the arrows for uniform scale
Y: handle tool, cycle
L: center Layout

Change viewport
spacebar + 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

H to show all the nodes
view + A: frame All, to center the objects in the viewport

Keep CTRL pressed to Overlay Context Help. Finally I found it (sorry).

In Houdini the scale of the scene is extremely important. In Edit/Preferences/Hop File Options you can set the unit length and unit mass.
Default is 1m and 1kg. Unit time is always 1 second. It’s also better to NEVER change these settings, it’s better to change the object sizes, not the main settings.

Nodes or tools, it’s the same.

Houdini calls the polygons “primitives”. That’s really different from C4D!

spacebar + F: frame selected (in the viewport)

M: align the handle to world or selection. NICE!
If you select edges and you want to move them, you can also select “slide on surface“. That’s a brilliant feature that C4D is TOTALLY missing. So handy!

Select Edge loop: A + MMB. WOW!

PolyExtrude to extrude polygons. Do not use Extrude.
In the PolyExtrude there’s a checkbox “Transform Extruded Front” to manually transform the front primitive.
Q: select one primitive (polygon), if you press Q, it’ll duplicate the node you’re selecting and apply this new node JUST to the primitive you’ve selected.