Backburner Command Line Control

The Backburner command line plug-in allows you to submit batch, executable, or script files to Backburner as “custom” jobs. This cmdjob.exe tool, found in the Backburner program folder, provides more flexibility in running custom jobs than is offered by the 3ds Max3dsmaxcmd.exe plug-in.

For a list of the command-line switches that you can use with the Backburner command line plug-in, see Command-Line Rendering Switches. Some examples of how these commands can be used with 3ds Max are listed below.

NoteIn order to use command-line rendering, you should be familiar with DOS and understand the structure of command lines.

Examples of CmdJob Usage

Setting a registry value on all render servers

The following command line string will run regedit on all machines and add the registry key and string value specified in the bb.reg file (see below).

cmdjob -jobname "set bb registry" -manager managername -perserver regedit /s \\fileserver\pcsetup\bb.reg

The bb.reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\backburner\2012]
"CfgPath"="c:\\Program Files\Autodesk\Backburner\\Network\\nrapi.conf"

NoteAs Autodesk Backburner is a 32-bit application only, this key will be found in the 32-bit registry of a Windows x64 system. Consult the Windows x64 documentation for accessing the 32-bit registry.

Getting registry values on all render servers and reporting it back to a central location

Runs regedit on all machines and saves the registry settings from Backburner keys to a file on \\fileserver\pcsetup.

cmdjob –jobname “get bb registry” –manager managername –perserver regedit /e \\fileserver\pcsetup\%computername%_bbregistry.reg “HKEY_Local_machine\software\Autodesk\Backburner\2012”

Batch Export of Objects in a Series of MAX Files

Running the following batch file export all objects out of a series of 3ds Max files on a file server using 3ds Max and MAXScript.

The export.ms file:

exportFile (maxfilepath + maxfilename + ".obj") #noPrompt using: Wavefront_ObjectExporterPlugin

The batch file:

rem begin batch filedir
\\fileserver\maxfiles\*.max /s /b >c:\fileslist.txt
c:
cd "\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2010"
cmdjob -jobname "batch export objects from max files" -manager managername -tasklist c:\filelist.txt 3dsmax.exe %%tp1 -U MAXScript \\fileserver\scripts\export.ms
rem end batch file

The second line of the batch file (dir) writes out the list of files to fileslist.txt. (see image below) This text file is used as the tasklist. In the cmdjob line, the –taskname parameter has the value 1 which, means that each task will get its taskname from the first column of the taskfile. The %tp1 parameter specified after “3dsmax.exe” tells the cmdjob plugin to use task parameter 1 (column 1) from the tasklist as an argument to pass to 3dsmax.exe.

The tasklist text file

The Task Summary in the Queue Monitor.

Controlling Adobe After Effects Rendering

The concept for controlling After Effects rendering is similar to creating a batch export of objects. To effectively control After Effects, you need to use a tasklist. For example, you want to render frames 0 to frame 250 of an After Effects file named aetest.aep. This file has one comp (Comp1). In your render farm, 10 servers are available to use for rendering. So the tasklist is defined in a tab-delimited file with three columns: The first column is used as the taskname –taskname 1; the second column used is referred to as %tp2; and the third column is %tp3. The last two parameters are passed as arguments for the start and end frame for aerender.exe

cmdjob –jobname “after effects test” –manager managername –taskfile c:\aejobs\tasklist.txt –taskname 1 c:\ae6.5\aerender.exe –project c:\aejobs\aetest.aep –comp “comp1” –s %tp2 –e %tp3

The tasklist.txt file:

frames 0-24	0	24
frames 25-49	25	49
frames 50-74	50	74
frames 75-99	75	99
frames 100-124	100	124
frames 125-149	125	149
frames 150-174	150	174
frames 175-199	175	199
frames 200-224	200	224
frames 225-250	225	250