Perforce in Houdini: check out, lock, sync and submit from the Dousen shelf

By Luca Vitiello · Updated 6 October 2026

Houdini has no Dousen panel. The Dousen shelf has Perforce tools to read file status, check out, sync and revert the open scene under your own Perforce user, and the HDA, VAT and Alembic export tools check for other users' locks first and use the Jira task's changelist.

What changes for artists

Launch the DCC from DousenDesktop. A DCC started from a desktop shortcut has no Dousen panel. DousenDesktop runs on Windows 10 and 11, and tasks come from Jira Cloud.

What Perforce status does Dousen show in Houdini?

Houdini has no docked panel. The Perforce actions are four tools on the Dousen shelf: Dousen: File Status (P4), Dousen: Check Out, Dousen: Sync & Reload and Dousen: Revert Checkout. The Perforce docs say the Dousen integration in Houdini reports the same p4 fstat status as the other DCCs: Locked by <user> (CL n), Opened by <user(s)>, Locked by you, Not at latest and Available, plus P4 error or Not in Perforce when Perforce can't answer. The docs don't describe a persistent status display in Houdini, a 30-second refresh there, or a Refresh button, so run Dousen: File Status (P4) when you want a current reading. The Perforce docs describe the stream label only for the Qt panels, so check the stream in the DousenDesktop status bar.

How do I check out, sync and revert a Houdini scene?

  1. Open a scene saved under your Perforce workspace root.
  2. Click Dousen: File Status (P4) on the shelf and read the result.
  3. Click Dousen: Check Out to edit an existing file. It opens in the selected Jira task's changelist, or in default if no task is active.
  4. If the file isn't at the latest revision, click Dousen: Sync & Reload and confirm. The reload discards unsaved changes.
  5. Click Dousen: Revert Checkout and confirm to discard your changes to an open file.

Each action is available only when it applies to the file's state. The docs list no add tool and no new-asset setup for Houdini. Newly created export files are added to the changelist after an export.

How do Houdini exports land in the task's changelist?

DousenDesktop sends the selected task's Jira key and changelist to every running DCC. Dousen: Export HDA, Dousen: Export VAT and Dousen: Export Alembic then publish through that task context. Before each export Dousen opens the scene and the files from your last export for edit in the task's changelist, and it adds new files afterward. The same pre-flight applies to Houdini auto-publish. Dousen: Send to Unreal does the same as Dousen: Export VAT. Nothing is submitted by a publish. Submit from DousenDesktop, as described in One changelist per Jira task.

Publish history in DousenDesktop doesn't list exports from the Houdini shelf tools. Use Show connection events there instead. After you restart Houdini, the first publish doesn't know the previous outputs, so check them out yourself if your workspace is read-only.

What stops a publish in Houdini?

If another user has locked a file that an export would write, the export tool stops and names the lock. The three export tools don't run validation, so that lock check is the only gate. Run Dousen: Validate yourself before you export. It prints results to the console and has no fix buttons.

How does the Houdini addon load?

You don't install the addon in Houdini. DousenDesktop ships it and loads it when you launch Houdini from the apps bar. Check the executable path under Settings → DCC Apps first. A Houdini started from a desktop shortcut has no Dousen shelf, and a running session needs a restart after you update Desktop. See How the addons load and the Houdini reference.

If your studio keeps DCC source files in a separate Perforce repository, possibly on another server, the same buttons act on that repository's server. See Source repositories for the admin binding and the artist workspace.

Dousen is free during the studio beta, with access by request, and free forever for teams of up to 5 users. Request early access.