Alexey Vanzhula releases Modeler 2023 for Houdini
Originally posted on 29 August 2022, and updated with details of the commercial release.
Alexey Vanzhula has unveiled Modeler 2023, the next version of the modelling toolkit for Houdini.
The release adds a new Crease tool and reworks the add-on’s UI, grouping tools into a single global menu and user-customisable context-sensitive menus.
A classic hard surface and Boolean modelling toolkit for Houdini
First released in 2018 under the name Direct Modeling HDA, Modeler is a ‘classic modelling environment’ for Houdini, intended to make modelling workflow more similar to that in other DCC applications.
The add-on features a range of tools for polygonal and subdivision modelling, and for retopology.
New global tools menu and customisable context-sensitive menus
Modeler 2023 features a further redesign of the user interface – previously reworked in Modeler 2022 to make it possible to use the software with a pen device rather than a keyboard.
The latest change groups Modeler’s tools into an overall global tools menu and a series of context-sensitive on-screen menus, the tools included in which can be edited by the user.
Other changes under the hood mean that modelling is done in a single Houdini SOP container, and that the “regular tools work more accurately in retopology mode”.
New modelling and retopology tools
New tools include a Crease tool, for controlling the smoothness of creasing at selected edges.
Other tools shown in the teaser video at the top of the story, although not listed in the new features summary on YouTube, include Extrude and Bevel, Quad Flow and Flood Fill and Select Similar.
Tested on macOS and Linux as well as Windows
Equally significantly, the update is described as the “first release thoroughly tested by a team of beta testers” and as working “equally under Windows, Linux, and macOS”.
It follows less than five months after Modeler 2022, which had a number of usability issues on macOS and Linux, as reported on the software’s Discord server.
Pricing and system requirements
Modeler 2023 for Houdini is available now. Individual floating licences cost $100; unlimited-seat Studio licences cost $400.
Read more about Modeler for Houdini on Alexey Vanzhula’s Gumroad store
Homepage image: a Phantom Instinct e-bike modelled by Dejan Soskic using Modeler 2023 for Houdini.