Houdini Windows Toast pop up notification

Description

This tool allows you to safely alt-tab to a different window while Houdini is processing a node change or cooking. It’s something that I found myself doing a lot lately, the moment Houdini takes a longer time to process something, I alt tab and get lost in endless scrolling or just simply wait with no visual/audio cue its done. (Yes I have a golden retriever attention span)

So here comes my tool that I’ve been using for a while now… its a toast notification tool that installs its dependent python library, you can customize it and add an icon and an audio cue to it if you want. I personally use a sound notification as well as a funny warcraft 3 peon as my personal assistant toaster.

Features

Toast notification when a node finishes cooking
Installs required Python dependency automatically
Customizable notification title and message
Optional audio notification
Optional icon display
Supports local audio and icon paths

Parameters

Title
The notification title text
Message
The main notification message
Toggle Audio
Enable or disable sound playback
Audio Path
Path to the local sound file
Toggle Icon
Enable or disable icon display
Icon Path
Path to the icon file (ICO or PNG)

Usage

Fill in the parameters and add the HDA at the end of your network or where you want to be notified Houdini passed that node.

The sound and icon will only play or show if their toggles are enabled.

Troubleshoot

Make sure the audio and icon paths are valid local paths
Check file permissions to ensure Houdini can read them
If the toast does not appear, verify the win11toast Python package is installed

Screenshots or GIFs

GIF

Updates

17/07/25
Released tool version 1.4 (main release)
18/07/25
Released version 1.5 which should fix the python sop transforming into a merge node

Download

Get it here:
https://ianistor.gumroad.com/l/ian_hou_notify