Export a .mi file and render with mental ray

There are two ways to export a .mi file for rendering with mental ray. The first method is to use the File > Export All option. The second method is to use the mi exporter from the command line.

To export a .mi file and render with mental ray using File > Export All
To export a .mi file using the command line

To export a .mi file and render with mental ray using File > Export All

Select File > Export All.
Choose a file name and path and click Options.
The Export All Options window appears.
Select mentalRay as the file type.
There are File Type Specific Options in the Export All Options window you can use to control file naming schemes and other details.
Click Export All.
Tip
You can use the key to cancel a mental ray for Maya export operation. This functionality cancels the export operation, but Maya remains running.

To export a .mi file using the command line

Use the -r mi flag. See Command Line Flags for more information. For example:
```
Render -r mi -rd "C:/images" -im "cmdTest" -of "tif" -s 10 -e 15 -b 1 -binary 0 -perframe 0 -exportPathNames "1111111111" -file "C:/temp/test.mi" mayascene.ma
```
The command above exports frames 10 to 15 (-s, -e, and -b flags), and exports one .mi file for the entire animation (-perframe flag). The exported .mi file is in ASCII format (-binary flag), with the path and filename C:/temp/test.mi. The .mi file uses the absolute path for its full name (-exportPathNames flag).

When the test.mi file is rendered with a Standalone renderer, the output image file is in tif format (-of flag) with the filename cmdTest (-im flag), and stored in the c:/images directory (-rd flag).