Render from the command line

Path to the Render command

The Render command is located at the following locations:

(Windows) C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2011\bin
(Mac OS X) /Applications/Autodesk/maya2011/Maya.app/Contents/bin/
(Linux) /usr/autodesk/maya2011-x64/bin

To render using the command on Linux, you must include the path as part of the command. On Windows, you can include the path as part of the command or set your system path to include the path. On Mac OS X, you can include the path as part of the command or use the Maya Terminal window. See the following sections for more information on command line rendering for Windows and Mac OS X.

Set up command line rendering for Windows

If you want to run the Render command from the Windows command line prompt without entering the command path each time, you can add the command path to your system Path environment variable.

To set the PATH environment variable

Open the Control Panel and double-click the System icon.
In the System Properties window that appears, switch to the Advanced tab.
Click Environment Variables.
In the Environment Variables window, select the Path variable and click Edit.
In the Edit System Variable window that appears, edit the Variable value by adding C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2011\bin.
NoteThe variables in this field are separated by semi colons.

You can now run the Render command using the Windows command prompt without entering the path to the command.

Set up command line rendering for Mac OS X

You can render from the command line using the Maya Terminal window, which has all the proper path information to run Maya command-line applications.

The Maya Terminal.term file is provided in your Maya directory when you install Maya, and launches a Terminal window that has all the proper path information to run Maya command-line applications (such as Render) and licensing tools. Using this .term file makes it easier to use command-line Maya applications on Mac OS X.

Note

Maya Terminal.term sources a simple (Bourne) shell script to set up the environment: /Applications/Autodesk/maya2011/Maya.app/Contents/bin/MayaENV.sh

This could be used in a custom environment instead of using Maya Terminal.term directly; for example, when accessing the Maya environment remotely or from an alternative term application.

Render from the command line

To render from the command line

Do one of the following:
At the command prompt, shell, or Terminal window, type:
```
Render -r <renderer name> <options> <filename>
```
where <renderer name> is the name of the renderer:
- mr = mental images^®mental ray^®
- mi = exporting .mi files using the command line
- sw = software renderer
- hw = hardware renderer
- vr = vector renderer
- file = use the renderer stored in the Maya file
and where <filename> is (generally) a Maya ASCII or Maya Binary file, and <options> is one or more of the options or flags.

This renders the image or animation using the renderer you specify in the command line.

NoteIf you do not explicitly specify a renderer, Maya uses the renderer specified in the scene file. This behavior is different from that of Maya 2010.
At the command prompt, type:
```
Render <options> <filename>
```
<filename> is (generally) a Maya ASCII or Maya Binary file, and <options> is one or more of the options or flags.

This renders the image or animation using the renderer defined in the file.

For descriptions of the common command line renderer flags, see Common flags for the command line renderer.

For descriptions of the renderer-specific command line renderer flags, see Renderer-specific flags for the command line renderer.

NoteThe following command line rendering scripts are now unsupported:

mayarender_with_mr
mayaexport_with_mr
mayaVectorRender

The software rendering command line (mayaSWrender.exe) is unsupported as of Maya 7.0.