How to deploy Vray for Revit to Workstations

[pcheng]

Any ideas? Thanks

[Ana Lyubenova]

Can you please clarify your question?
Do you mean how to install it?

[pcheng]

Yes, but in a networked deployment. To push it out across several machines at once. These are usually performed via a .msi file with switches like \quiet or something to that effect.

[brian.russell]

Hi pcheng,
The answer depends on your network environment, but I will make some basic assumptions about you having a Windows based domain. Typically IT admins will create a powershell script in a group policy object in for deploying the software. (Microsoft has more info on this on their website). You can run the Revit installer in silent mode. Using the following command line switches you can customize what installs:

-auto -gui=0 -VARIABLE_INSTALL_REVIT=1 -VARIABLE_INSTALL_SWARM=1 -VARIABLE_INSTALL_LICENSE_SERVER=1 -VARIABLE_INSTALL_REVIT15=0 -VARIABLE_INSTALL_REVIT16=1 -VARIABLE_INSTALL_REVIT17=1

Some notes; -auto means automatically install -gui=0 means no user interface for installer (silent install) the rest of the switches: 0 is off 1 is on. In the example above the installer will install V-Ray for Revit 2016 and 2017, Swarm, and License server.

Hope this helps,
Brian

[pcheng]

Hi Brian,

That's exactly what I was looking for! The example you provided is really helpful. Is there a switch to indicate the license server name? Is there a list of general switches I can reference?

Thank you
Paul

[brian.russell]

Hi Paul,
We dont have specific switches for providing license server variables. In a case like this you would typically stand up your license server, create a vrlclient.xml file that points to the license server IP or domain name, then distribute that vrlclient.xml to the individual machines on your network. This would overwrite the existing vrlclient.xml file on the individual machines so you want it to be the last thing in your script. Then when you set up the silent install in your script, you would simply set the license server install to 0. (unless you want every machine to have a license server installed on it.)
You can find the vrlclient.xml file in Windows directory: "C:\Program Files\Common Files\ChaosGroup"
Hope this helps,
Brian

[pcheng]

Hi Brian,
That'll work just fine. Thank you again for your help!
Paul