Houdini is a 3D computer graphics software developed by Side Effects Software in Canada, which allows artists to work freely, create multiple iterative works, and quickly share workflows with colleagues.

Import the 3D object into Houdini and open the Houdini software.

 

 

The system will automatically create a new scene.

Right click in the lower right window pane to open the TAB Menu (or select the Tab key).
Select Import from the TAB menu, and then choose File to place a file node in the geometry pane.

 

 

Double click the file1 icon (or press I) to navigate to the file selection section of this node step by step. Select the open floating file selector button, and then choose the file to import.

 

 

In the pop-up window, browse to the file to import, select the file, and then choose Accept.

 

 

At this point, the model will be displayed in the viewport.

 

Reduce 3D objects

To achieve application specific goals, you may need to 'shrink' 3D objects. The reduction process refers to recalculating the surface polygons of the model to create similar shapes with fewer polygons. This will reduce visual fidelity, but improve performance. The following example image shows the difference between a high-quality model for low complexity Microsoft HoloLens scenarios and a low-quality model for high complexity scenarios.

To reduce 3D objects

In the geometry pane in the bottom right corner, press the Tab key to open the TAB menu.
Select Polygon>PolyReduce, and then press Enter to select the PolyReduce node. Select or click on the area below the file node to place a PolyReduce node.

 

 

A node named polyreduce1 immediately appears in the geometry pane near the imported geometry node.

 

 

Select the bottom gray point on the node of the imported geometry, and then drag the connecting line to the leftmost top point on the polyreduce1 node. A red arrow immediately appears at the point on the polyreduce1 node.

 

 

Select the center of the polyreduce1 node and view the options in the tabs above the geometry pane.

 

 

Next to the target, select the number of polygons to output. In this way, you can specify the number of polygons that meet the desired polygon target.

 

 

To view the results, first select the polyreduce1 node, then choose the template (pink) bar and display (blue) bar to the right of the node.

The model will display fewer details.

 

 

Mixed reality devices provide a certain amount of space for experimenting with the number of polygons to be used. You can use the Number To Keep slider to fine tune the appearance of the model. You can try using this slider to obtain the desired appearance based on the required number of polygons.

Add materials using Principled Shader

To give the model a more realistic appearance, you can add shaders to define the glossiness and smoothness of the model.

Open the Material Palette tab (in the same window pane as the Node System), select the Standardized Shader, and then drag it to the blank space in the right pane.

 

 

Right click on the standardized shader and select Assign to Selected Objects or Geometry.

 

 

Highlight the entire model. To perform this operation, select the corresponding window and then choose Assign.

 

 

In the geometry pane, you will see that a Material1 node has been created below the polyreduce1 node and a link has been added.

 

 

Select the Open Floating File selector button in the top pane, choose Principalshader, and then select Accept.

 

Adjust material properties

When the normalized shader is highlighted, you can adjust visible attributes such as material color in the window above the Materials palette. For example, for CAD objects, the starting roughness is 0.8 and the starting metallicity is 0.2.

 

To change the color of a 3D object, select the color toggle button to the right of the basic color.

 

 

Select a color from the color editor dialog box. You can choose colors that you have previously used, or use a color mixer or slider to select colors.

 

 

After selecting a satisfactory color, please close the color editor dialog box.

Export the model as a GLB file

You need to export the model as a GLB file in order to use it for Dynamics 365 Guides and Power Apps.

In the Geometry pane, press the Tab key to open the TAB Menu.

Select Export>ROP GLTF Output, press Enter, and then select the rop_gltf1 node below the Material1 node to place it.

 

 

Connect the Material1 node to the rop_gltf1 node.

 

 

Select glb in the Export Type field in the top pane.

 

 

Next to the output file field, select the file selector button, and then choose a name and destination folder for the GLB file. Make sure to add. glb at the end of the file name.

 

 

Select Save to Disk to end the export operation and create the GLB file.

 

Create template

Now that the node tree has been set up, you can use it as a template to quickly prepare 3D objects.

The first thing you need to do is replace the geometry you are currently using with the default geometry. This can make the template file lighter so that it can load quickly when opened.

Select the file icon to activate the geometry file menu in the top pane.

Change the geometry file field to default.bgeo and select reload geometry.

 

 

This will refresh the geometry and make it a universal cube.

Change the file name to a more common name, such as a template.

In the file menu, select Save, and then save the file with a name that is easy to remember, such as Prepr_Template.

 

 

The template is ready. Close Houdini and try the template.

Use template

Start Houdini, select File>Open, open the template file, and then select the template.

 

 

Select the center of the geometry file node to switch to the file context menu, then choose the Open Floating File selector button and select the 3D object you want to prepare.

 

 

After loading the geometric shape, select the red sphere on the polyreduce1 node, and then choose the blue tab on the far right side of the polyreduce1 node.

 

 

This displays the appearance of the simplified polygon model in the view window and provides access to the simplification tool.

When the quality of the model meets your requirements, select the rop_gltf1 node, choose the open floating file selector button, and then select the location and name for the file you want to export. Make sure to add the. glb extension to the file name.

 

 

Choose to save to disk and create a 3D object.

 

 

Repeat this process for other 3D objects to quickly generate optimized objects that can be used in Dynamics 365 Guides and Power Apps.