What to do first?

I started out wanting to learn everything...or at least translating my Maya knowledge into Houdini.  It took me a while to get over the fact that they just aren't the same.  Yes they are both 3D packages but one is polygonal based and the other is node based.  So of course the way to get the same result is going to be different.

But I had to start somewhere so I had to shake off my Maya hands and convert them to Houdini hands.  By that I mean the way your hand is positioned on the keyboard, mouse and tablet.  I had to relearn my shortcuts and how to work in the Houdini UI. 
 
First and one of the most important things I learned is that the position of the cursor in the UI activates different things.  Keep this in mind when using shortcuts

Handy Shortcuts to note

In the network view

• shift + click on a node in a node tree will move the node and all the above nodes attached to it.
• ctrl + click on a node will move the node and all the nodes below it.
• l to organize the nodes
• n cycles between the given name of the node and changed name
• w will open tree view
• p will open parameters
• x will open groups
• c for color
• o for network navigation

In all views:

• ctrl + b will maximize the pane
• u key to go up a level
• i key or enter to go into a level

In the viewport:

• when you have the selection tool in use l key will select the loop, f key will select the adjacent point (2) /edge (3) /face (4) in the direction of the pink arrow head. To change the direction of the pink arrow shift + r.
• when you have the handle tool in use you can cycle through the manipulator with the y key
• q to repeat the previous tool
• when you have the selection tool in use the 5 key activates the vertices this is used for picking UV coords. 
• space + 1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5 activates different views
• ctrl + 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 activates multiple views
• ctl + n to select a view (you can tell what's selected by the yellow text in the top right corner).  If you have multiple views and you want to do a flipbook you will need to select the view you want to use.

I must say of all my shortcut keys my favorite is the TAB key.  It brings up all the available nodes for the network you're in.  I love that you can just type in the name of the node you want to use instead of having to visually find it.  Thanks python!

For more shortcuts check out the GO|Procedural Guide  (most of the the shortcuts are on the last page)

UI Setup

Below are some Preference changes I found useful:

If you work in a dark environment, Houdini Dark might be better on the eyes

Enabling Color Pane Headers will give visual ques as to which network you're in

Enable Drop-on-wire is really handy when moving nodes around

Turn off Auto-Commit, it acts like auto-key on keyed frames even if auto-key is off

Houdini uses Meter units by default, if you need to change that here it is

This is one of my favorites:

• you can setup your own custom global variables, similar to default $HIP (example below)
• this is very handy if you are writing/reading multiple files to disk.  You can give a custom variable name and set the value to the path that you're storing all your caches. If you change that folder name or move it somewhere else in your computer, you can just come to this and change the path instead of going through each parameter to change the path.

If you find that you like your nodes a certain way, by default, you can also change them with the gear symbol in the parameter pane:

I like having my Remove Inline Points enabled every time I use the dissolve node