Command line render

Command line render

You can render from a command line if you want to render an animation or single frame. Advantages include the following:

works with single images and animation
uses less memory than having all of Maya (UI) running
can be scripted
can be integrated into a rendering pipeline (render farms)
for Maya software rendering, you can override render settings using command flags (for other renderers, you must also write a MEL script)

For more information, see Command line renderer in the Rendering Utilities guide.

mental ray for Maya command line options

The following mental ray for Maya command line options are supported during IPR:

-rg/region: Update the IPR region to the selected one.
-rr/regionRect: Set a new IPR region explicitly (works together with -region).
-pt/pauseTuning: Controls actual rendering of IPR requests, shader changes are always recognized in all cases.
-q -imr: Returns true (1) if IPR is active.