Environment Variable Reference

HOME

The user's home directory.

This must be a unique location for each specific user. Softimage creates an /Autodesk/Softimage_X.X folder in this directory for storing custom scripts, toolbars, preferences, presets, and other personal Softimage files in various subfolders.

On Linux, HOME is a system variable and should already be set to the home directory of the current user.

We recommend that you do not change it.

Linux

System

LANG

Sets the environment language for Softimage on whatever Linux version you are using.

The default value is C which sets the language to English.

This variable sets the default for the shell from where you source the Softimage environment script. In the case where you run the xsi script (lowercase xsi) directly from Application/bin, the shell is not affected by the language settings.

If you are using an International version of Linux, the International settings will apply to everything else on your system.

Do not modify this value.

Linux

System

LOGNAME

The current user name on Linux.

If this variable is not set by the system, Softimage sets it to the string returned by whoami.

Linux

System

MI_FORCE_OLD_BSP

Causes Softimage to force the mental ray rendering software to use the older BSP acceleration method instead of the newer BSP2 (BIH) method.

Simply defining this variable uses the default BSP settings. Setting it to a pair of numbers, for example, 60 10, uses the specified maximum depth and size.

Note that certain newer mental ray features do not work properly with this setting, including irradiance particles, assemblies, the ambient occlusion cache, and some final gathering optimizations.

In some cases, if mental ray requires it, such as when your scene uses stand-ins or ICE animated instances, BSP2 will be forced on even if the MI_FORCE_OLD_BSP environment variable is enabled.

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MI_RAY_HOSTSFILE

The location and name of the .ray3hosts file for distributed rendering.

By default, MI_RAY_HOSTSFILE is set to a version-specific subfolder of the XSI_USERROOT directory. This allows you to have different rayhosts files for different versions of Softimage without any interference.

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MI_ROOT

The location of mental ray configuration files such as ray3rc.

The default location is the Application/rsrc subfolder of the directory specified by SI_HOME.

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MWHOME

The location of MainWin runtime and configuration files.

The default location is the Application/mainwin/mw subfolder of the directory specified by SI_HOME.

Linux

MainWin

MWREGISTRY

The path and file name of the MainWin registry file required by Softimage on Linux.

The default depends on the computer name and is located in the Softimage subdirectory of your home directory:

Linux

MainWin

MYMEDIAPATH

Used by My Media Shelf in the SDK Samples workgroup to display various types of media files. Set this variable to the path of a folder of your choice to enable the shelf in the Softimage user interface.

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PATH

A list of paths used by the system when searching for executable files.

On Windows, multiple paths are separated by semicolons. On Linux, multiple paths are separated by colons.

Softimage adds itself to the existing PATH value on Windows.

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System

PYTHONHOME

The location of the Python scripting engine.

On Linux, the default value is $XSI_HOME/Application/bin. This should not be changed.

On Windows, Softimage uses the version of Python installed in %XSI_HOME%/Application/python if Use Python Installed with Softimage (Windows Only) is on in your Scripting preferences. Otherwise, Softimage uses the version of Python specified by PYTHONHOME.

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System

SI_BROWSER_DONT_CHECK_CHILDREN_FOLDERS

Controls whether Softimage checks folders for subfolders when displaying the file browser. Setting this variable to 1 may speed up file operations on NFS systems, particularly on Linux. When set, folders are always drawn with an expandable '+' whether or not they contain subfolders.

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SI_HAIR_CHUNK_SIZE

The number of strands in each data chunk for rendering hair. See Setting the Hair Chunk Size for Rendering.

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SI_HOME

The location where the Softimage program files are installed, for example, C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Softimage 2014

It is important to declare SI_HOME at the beginning of the environment script because it is referenced in the environment variables that follow throughout the script.

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SI_LINKTAB_LOCATION

The location of the linktab file.

This file maps between the equivalent Windows and UNIX paths for textures and other external scene files when working on a mixed network.

SI_LINKTAB_LOCATION can define both the path and file name or just the path; if no file name is explicitly set, Softimage assumes the name is linktab.ini.

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SI_TXT_EDITOR_ENV

The external text editor used to edit expressions. On Linux, it is also used when you right-click on an HTML page in Netview and choose View Source.

The default value is notepad.exe on Windows, xterm -e vi on Linux.

Note that no error message is given if Softimage cannot find the editor defined for this environment variable. Check for typing errors or that the editor does actually exist on your system.

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SICOREPATH

The location of some required libraries.

This variable should be set to the Application/bin subfolder of the directory specified by SI_HOME.

Do not modify this value.

Linux

Softimage

SPDLDISABLECACHE

Disables SPDL caching and forces a reload of the SPDL file for each use.

This variable may be useful if you are doing heavy development work with scripted operator presets or other plug-ins that use SPDL, such as shaders.

To turn off SPDL caching define the environment variable as follows:

Setting this variable may slow down the running of Softimage, so it is not recommended for machines that are actively being used for production.

Note that it is also possible to reload SPDL files manually or by using the Softimage object model.

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SUMATRAPATH

The location of some required libraries.

This variable should be set to the Application/bin subfolder of the directory specified by SI_HOME.

Do not modify this value.

Linux

Softimage

USERNAME

The current user name on Windows.

Softimage uses this variable to define XSI_USERROOT on Windows systems.

USERNAME is set by Windows and should not be changed.

Windows

System

XSI_AUDIO_OPENAL_DEVICE

OpenAL is the only supported audio for Softimage on Linux. It uses the default playback device installed on your system, but you can set this environment variable to specify another OpenAL device driver to use. The following values are supported:

" ALSA Software"

" OSS Software"

" PortAudio Software"

" PulseAudio Software"

" Solaris Software"

" Wave File Writer"

" DirectSound Software"

Linux

Softimage

XSI_BULLET_GPU_MAX_BODY_CNT

Use this variable to set a higher body count than the maximum available count of 1 million.

Windows

Softimage

XSI_CACHE_ASCII

Outputs .icecache files in ASCII format. Although this format cannot be read, it can be useful for understanding the format for the purpose of creating plug-ins. To use, set this variable to any value.

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XSI_CPU_OPT

Identifies the CPU version in the machine.

The CPU version is auto-detected and set during installation.

Under normal circumstances, you should not modify this value. However, you can force Softimage to use p3 instead of p4 binaries by setting XSI_CPU_OPT to "linux-x86-p3" instead of "linux-x86-p4" (Linux) or "nt-x86-p3" instead of "nt-x86-p4" (Windows). You also need to disable the autodection in the environment script.

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XSI_CURVER_VERSION

The version number of the version of Softimage used when double-clicking on .scn files. This variable can be set using the Softimage Chooser application.

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XSI_DISABLE_HIGH_QUALITY_VIEWPORT_PASSES

Set this variable to any value to completely disable High Quality display mode. This can be useful if your graphics card and driver do not support this feature.

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Softimage

XSI_DO_NOT_USE_COMPOUND_NODE_CACHE

If you set this environment variable, then Softimage does not use cache for the ICE compound nodes. Using cache for ICE compound nodes may significantly increase the ICE editing performance.

Windows

Softimage

XSI_EMULATE_OPENGL

Specifies the version of OpenGL to use when starting Softimage. For example:

Runs Softimage without support for Vertex Buffer Objects.

Runs Softimage with support for Vertex Buffer Objects (as for all versions above 1.5).

The highest OpenGL version supported by Softimage 7.01.

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XSI_EXT

Identifies the file name extension used by shared libraries.

This value should be dll on Windows or so on Linux.

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XSI_GTK_INIT_ON_STARTUP

Performs gtk_init() when Softimage starts up. This can avoid some compatibility problems with plug-ins that use the GTK library.

To activate it, set this variable to any value. The default is unset.

Linux

Softimage

XSI_HIGH_QUALITY_VIEWPORT_MAX_DOF_SAMPLES

Set this value to an upper bound for the number of samples used for depth of field in High Quality display mode. Setting this value too high may cause slow refreshes or crashes.

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XSI_HIGH_QUALITY_VIEWPORT_MAX_SHADOW_SAMPLES

Set this value to an upper bound for the number of samples used for shadows in High Quality display mode. Setting this value too high may cause slow refreshes or crashes.

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XSI_LOG_LOAD_TIME

Logs the load times for installed libraries and plug-ins at startup. This can be useful for diagnosing problems with long startup times when launching Softimage.

To activate logging load times, set this variable to 1.

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XSI_NO_DEFAULT_SHADERS

Allows you to open the preset manager and the render tree Node menu without any of the default factory shaders being displayed. This is usefull if you have a complete library of custom shaders and these are the only shaders that you want to work with in the render tree.

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XSI_NOSIGNAL_CATCHING

Removes all signal trapping which disables Softimage's automatic crash recovery mechanism on Linux. This allows the system to produce a core dump file so that you can debug plug-ins more easily. You must also enable the core dump mechanism on Linux, by typing the following in a csh shell:

To disable signal trapping and Softimage's crash recovery on Linux, set this environment variable to any value.

The environment variable overrides the Enable Crash Recovery option set in the Data Management preferences.

Linux

Softimage

XSI_OPERATOR_EVALUATION_TRACKING

Provides low-level access to the operator trace. As an alternative to using this environment variable, see Analyzing Scene Performance and Memory.

Prints the operator ID and the time span for computing each operator called during a Softimage session to the script editor history pane.

The following output shows that the computation inside the secondaryshapemarker took about 4 milliseconds (54.30355 - 50.33573), but a total of about 50 ms to pull all its inputs:

secondaryshapemarker<15907>, BeginEval {
  animationmarker<15906>, BeginEval {
  shapemarker<15905>, BeginEval {
  modelingmarker<15904>, BeginEval {
  customop<4513>, BeginEval {
  customop<4513>, } EndEval, EvalTimeMs:37.85397, itself:37.85397
  modelingmarker<15904>, } EndEval, EvalTimeMs:41.98550, itself:4.13153
  shapemarker<15905>, } EndEval, EvalTimeMs:46.04496, itself:4.05946
  animationmarker<15906>, } EndEval, EvalTimeMs:50.33573, itself:4.29077
secondaryshapemarker<15907>, } EndEval, EvalTimeMs:54.30355, itself:3.96782

Custom operators should take between 4 and 10 ms to compute. In some cases you can speed up the computation of custom operators by recompiling them in C++. The optimization can be particularly good for custom operators that modify geometry or cluster properties.

The operator ID (customop<4513>) can be cut and pasted into the object-selection text box in Softimage's main command panel to quickly locate and select the operator in the scene hierarchy.

The data can also be put into a spreadsheet and sorted to identify, for example, how many operators of a certain type are computed or which are the most expensive operators in the evaluation sequence.

To set operator evaluation tracking, set XSI_OPERATOR_EVALUATION_TRACKING to 1. To unset it, set it to the empty string.

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Softimage

XSI_PRELOAD_DLLS_LIST

The location of the file containing the list of libraries (dlls /.so) you want to preload at startup (one library listed per line).

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XSI_SHAVEINSTANCES

You can set the environment variable XSI_SHAVEINSTANCES to control the number of hair (shave) instances used when you need to split the hair generation into batches for rendering.

There is support for up to 8 hair (shave) instances, which is the default.

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XSI_USERROOT

The user's home directory.

This must be a unique location for each specific user. Softimage creates an /Autodesk/Softimage_2014 folder in this directory for storing custom scripts, toolbars, preferences, presets, and other personal Softimage files in various subfolders.

On Linux, XSI_USERROOT is set to the user's $HOME directory by default.

On Windows XP and earlier systems, XSI_USERROOT is created by Softimage. The default value is:

On Windows Vista, the default value is:

which is normally %SystemDrive%\users\%USERNAME% anyway.

By default, XSI_USERROOT is set to a local drive. However if individual users often move between machines or work on several machines each, then you may want to set XSI_USERROOT to a user directory on the network, for example:

Because multiple users cannot share the same user directory, make sure you include the current user name (%USERNAME%) in the variable definition.

You also need to change the setenv.bat file on all applicable machines. Note that the shared drive on the server must have read and write permissions.

Note: use a workgroup to share plug-ins and add-ons across multiple machines. Do not share a user's home directory for this purpose.

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