9

Command-Line Rendering 209
patharenotautomaticallysavedandonlyappear
in the rendered frame w indow (page 3–5).
Cancel—Cancels the batch rendering.
Command-Line Rendering
The command-line rendering tool lets you
performbatchrenderingjobswithouthaving
to manipulate parameters by hand in a MAX
file. Simple, “one-shot” rendering jobs can b e
submitted from the Start > Run dialog. More
elaborate, batched jobs can be rendered through
the use of text files; for example, MyRender .bat or
MyRender.xml. The ability to edit text files is what
provides the power to this tool. You can quickly
make changes to your rendering parameters, or
output formats, simply by opening your text editor
and editing the b atch settings.
Command-line rendering is provided by the
3dsmaxcmd.exe program, found in your program
install folder.
You can submit command-line rendering jobs that
are rendered on a single workstation, or you can
take advantage of network rendering (page 3–173)
and let the Backburner utility manage the jobs
across multiple systems.
The Batch Render tool (page 3–203) is another
way to quickly create BAT fi les that can be used
w ith the command-line rendering. The Batch
Rendertoolletsyoucreateaqueueofcameratasks
with specific output parameters, rendering presets
or automatic loading of scene states. Once your
queue is complete, you can export the t asks to a
BAT file that is stored in the \scenes folder.
Wa rn in g : Command-line rendering is a professional
feature and can perform destructive operations. You
will not see messages or warning dialogs informing
you about potential mistakes, such as overwriting an
existing frame on your drive.
Procedures
To view the 3dsmaxcmd help file:
The 3dsmaxcmd.exe file contains a built-in help
system that you can access from a command
prompt.
1. Open a command prompt window (for
example,WindowsStart>Run>enterCMD).
2. Enter the following: “c:\program
f il e s\autode sk\3dsm ax9\3d smaxc md”
-? and press
Enter .
Thelistofswitchesandoptionswillscrollonto
the window.
To v iew a list of sample command lines with
descriptions of what they do:
The 3dsmaxcmd.exe file also has an extensive list
of sample text strings that describe many of t he
most common scenarios you’d use command-line
rendering to accomplish.
1. Open a command prompt window.
2. Enter the following: “c:\program
f il e s\autode sk\3dsm ax9\3d smaxc md”
-x and press
Enter .
Setting up the simplest r endering:
In its simplest form, just a render command using
all the settings that are stored with a scene, would
look like this:
1. Open a command prompt window.
2. Enter the following: “c:\program
f il e s\autode sk\3dsm ax9\3d smaxc md”
“c:\prog r a m f i les \autodesk\3dsma x9\scenes\
myscene.ma x” and press
Enter .