With all its panes and tabs, Houdini can look intimidating at first launch. Don’t worry: learn a few key parts and you’ll be productive quickly. In this article, we tour the main panes and tabs in Houdini.

1. Viewport

Role: Displays your 3D scene.

How to navigate:

• ALT + Left Mouse (LMB) : Rotation autour d'un point.

• ALT + Middle Mouse (MMB) : Déplacer la caméra horizontalement ou verticalement (Pan).

• ALT + Right Mouse (RMB) or Mouse Wheel : dolly in/out (zoom).

  

Tip:

• Press H to frame/reset the camera on the scene center or the selected object.
• If the camera behaves oddly, right-click the small camera icon on the left of the Viewport and check which modes are enabled.

2. Network Editor

Role: Houdini’s procedural heart where you create and manage nodes.

Useful tips:

• Press TAB to create a node quickly.
• Hover a node to reveal handy icons:
  1. DISPLAY – show this node in the Viewport.
  2. TEMPLATE – show this node in wireframe alongside the display node
  3. BYPASS – disable the node without deleting it.
  4. INFO – view details (primitive counts, groups, attributes, etc.).
  5. LOCK – lock the node to prevent changes.