Run this python in Houdini, do you get the same error?
from arnold import * paramValueMap = AiParamValueMap() #AiADPDialogStrings(paramValueMap, str("in the HtoA menu item Help | Autodesk-Analytics").encode("utf-8")) AiADPDialogStrings(paramValueMap, str("in the HtoA menu item").encode("utf-8") ) allText = '' titleText = AtStringStruct(None) AiParamValueMapGetStr(paramValueMap, 'title', ctypes.byref(titleText)) introText = AtStringStruct(None) AiParamValueMapGetStr(paramValueMap, 'introduction_intro', ctypes.byref(introText)) allText += str(introText) + "\n\n" print( str(introText) )
The UnicodeDecodeError is a bug, and I'll log it.
It has nothing to do with your other problems.
Please ask a new question for your other problem.
And please include the Houdini details from Help > About Houdini > Show Details, and anything that is logged in the Houdini Console at startup.