SideFX Houdini 16 features:

User Experience – New Node Network and Radial Menus

For a fast and fluid experience, the new network editor has been redesigned from scratch to include custom node shapes, alignment and layout tools, ‘dot’ nodes and much more. New context-sensitive and fully customizable radial menus provide quick access to common tools, making Houdini more accessible for artists.

– Brand new architecture for better performance, user experience, and control

– Completely redesigned look and feel
– ‘Dot’ connections to help route wires
– Customizable node shapes
– Resizeable color palette
– ‘Flyout ring’ to quickly access node flags and node info at any zoom level
– Persistent node info dialog with live links and cut-and-paste capabilities
– Visual ‘badges’ to indicate certain properties of the node
– Multi-selectable and multi-assignable wires
– Ability to knife-cut wire connections
– Snapping guides for fast and easy node alignment
– Automatic shifting of nodes to accommodate new entrants
– Intuitive, gesture-driven network layout tools
– Quickmark hotkeys to jump between networks or within one network
– Dimming of long wires to prevent obstruction of nodes
– Visual indication of non-local dependencies, with handy jump-to controls
– Background image support for network boxes or the entire canvas
– Font size, color and background controls for sticky notes
– Optional display of the node type
– Powerful search engine

Modeling – Artist-Friendly Tools and Procedural Techniques

The modeling toolset in Houdini continues to grow – with new Boolean tools, Smooth and PolyFill. These tools make it easier to create a good surface topology for use in Film, TV, Games and VR, and can be used interactively in the viewport or procedurally in the network editor.

Fast Boolean with exact predicates and arithmetic

– 3D and UV smoothing with advanced surface analysis kernels
– PolyFill with quads, fans, and more
– Enhanced PolySplit and PolyBevel
– Redesigned Copy/Instance and Group
– Intersection analysis and stitching
– Robust 2D triangulation
– Selection enhancements
– Fast tool access via customizable, gestural radial menus
– Infinite reference plane with rulers
– Medial axis snapping
– Vertex normal support in the viewport for cussing
– Pseudo-bevelling with Normal SOP
– Aggressive geometry compression
– Extensive OpenCL support
– ‘Compiled SOP’ architecture: parallel cooking and memory savings
– 3D Mouse support

Home Page - https://www.sidefx.com/community/sidefx-releases-houdini-16/