Network Rendering Manager

Command entry:Windows Start menu

Programs

Autodesk

Backburner

Manager application

The application version of the network rendering Manager provides a graphical user interface for control and monitoring purposes. It runs as a foreground process on your desktop, and remains active unless specifically shut down. Its components include a menu bar, list window, and status bar.

Once you initially set up the Manager using the application version, you can run it as a service from then on. The service version provides no user interface, but once it's installed as a service and started, it's always available when the system is booted. Whichever version you use, you can monitor and control the rendering queue and system with the Queue Monitor.

To start the Manager service, execute the following from a Command Prompt window or the Start menu Run function:

“[drive letter]:\Program Files\Autodesk\Backburner\managersvc.exe” -i

Replace "[drive letter]" with the letter of the drive Backburner is installed on. If you used a different install path, change the command line accordingly.

Then either reboot the computer or go to Control Panel Administrative Tools Services and start the service. Thereafter the service will remain resident and active, even surviving reboots.

NoteWhen you run the Manager program, you might see this warning message: “Job share not defined.” This happens if neither the 3ds Max folder nor the drive on which it resides is shared. Normally, the servers copy files to be network rendered from the source machine using standard Windows file-copy routines, which require sharing to be in effect. If sharing is not in effect, the manager issues the warning, and then the servers use TCP/IP to copy the files. To avoid getting the warning message, you can implement sharing, but it's not really necessary.

To remove the manager service from memory, execute the following from a Command Prompt window or the Start menu Run function:

“[drive letter]:\Program Files\Autodesk\Backburner\managersvc.exe” -r

TipYou can run multiple Managers on the same network. This is especially useful when using many rendering Servers, to lessen the burden on individual Managers. When using multiple Managers, it is best to turn off Automatic Search on the rendering servers and specify a Manager to which to connect, otherwise the rendering servers will connect to the first Manager they find.

Interface

Menu bar

The menu bar provides access to the functions available in the Network Rendering Manager application.

File menu

Close: Closes the window and minimizes the application to the taskbar tray. The application remains active when you close it with this menu item or the close box (X) in the upper-right corner.
Shutdown: Quits the application and removes it from memory.

Edit menu

General Settings: Opens the Backburner Manager General Properties dialog.
Log Settings: Opens the Backburner Manager Logging Properties dialog, which lets you filter the types of messages to appear in the list window, and specify whether the messages are sent to the list window or a log file.

View menu

Status Bar: Toggles the display of the status bar, which appears at the bottom of the Server window. When on, a check mark appears next to this menu item. Default=on.
Font Size: Lets you choose the size of text that appears in the list window. Choices range from Smallest to Largest.
Autoscroll List: Toggles automatic scrolling of the list window. When on, new items that appear in the list window cause previous contents to scroll up. When off, you must scroll the window manually to see the latest entries after it fills up. Default=on.

Help menu

About Manager: Displays information about the Manager program, including version and copyright.

List Window

This area of the Manager interface lists different types of information regarding the current status of the Manager. Depending on the selections made in the Logging Properties dialog, messages are displayed alerting the user, for example, to the following:

Connection and registration between the Manager and Server(s)
New job assignments
Which machine is the queue controller (that is, running Queue Monitor)
Frames assigned/rendered
Acknowledge packets sent between the Manager and Server(s)
Manager/Server(s) shutting down
Any rendering errors encountered
This information can be filtered using the Logging Properties dialog.

Manager General Properties Dialog
The Manager Properties dialog contains the configuration settings for the Network Manager. The default settings should work in most cases, but certain situations may require adjustments. The information specified in the Manager Properties dialog is written to and contained in backburner.xml (in the \Network subdirectory). If you run the Manager and the backburner.xml file does not exist, you're prompted to configure it with this dialog. When configuration is complete, click OK to run the Manager.

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