| name | houdini-interchange |
| description | Interchange skill — load-on-demand import/export of Houdini geometry and scenes through production formats (native bgeo/geo, OBJ, Alembic, FBX, USD) plus filesystem probing. Use these typed tools instead of hand-building ROP/LOP/SOP networks with raw scripts. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | dcc-mcp-houdini 0.1+, Houdini 20.5+, dcc-mcp-core 0.17+ |
| allowed-tools | Bash Read Write Edit |
| metadata | {"dcc-mcp":{"dcc":"houdini","layer":"domain","stage":"interchange","version":"1.0.0","tags":["houdini","interchange","import","export","usd","alembic","fbx","obj","bgeo","cache"],"search-hint":"import export usd alembic abc fbx obj bgeo cache save geometry interchange","tools":"tools.yaml"}} |
houdini-interchange
Typed import/export tools for moving geometry and scenes across DCCs. Exports
return structured written_files, skipped, and warnings fields so an agent
can tell what actually landed on disk versus what the installed runtime could
not produce.
Tool groups
interchange-probe: probe_file (affinity: any, pure filesystem).interchange-import: import_geometry (File SOP into a SOP network).interchange-export: export_geometry (native/OBJ via saveToFile),
export_alembic, export_fbx, export_usd.
Format selection guidance
| Goal | Tool | Notes |
|---|
| Round-trip Houdini geometry | export_geometry → .bgeo/.geo | Fastest, lossless, native. |
| Hand geometry to another DCC | export_geometry → .obj, or export_alembic | OBJ for static meshes; Alembic for animated/large caches. |
| Animated caches | export_alembic with frame_range | render: true to actually write frames. |
| Rigged/scene to game engine | export_fbx | root_node selects the /obj subtree. |
| USD/Solaris pipelines | export_usd | Exports a LOP node's composed stage(); reports root_layer. |
Tracer-bullet flow (local, no render farm)
houdini_geometry__create_primitive(parent_path="/obj/geo1", primitive="box")export_geometry(node_path="/obj/geo1/box1", output_path="/tmp/box.bgeo")probe_file(file_path="/tmp/box.bgeo") → exists: true, format: geometryimport_geometry(parent_path="/obj/geo2", file_path="/tmp/box.bgeo") → round-trip
Export tools that drive a ROP are async with generous timeout_hint_secs
because caches and FBX writes can be long-running.
