Batch Render for Rhino

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

Let me explain things just a little bit more cause I think there's some slight confusion with the ini thing...The newest batch render tool has two components; one that creates the sequence, and one that actually renders it. Creating the sequence would involve loading up the files, selecting the views, and specifying locations/formats. The output of this component is the ini file that is tells the second component what to do. Its really easy to create these sequences, but if you're trying to batch tens or hundreds of files/views, it might be a little time consuming to do it all manually. The format of the ini file is pretty straight forward, so you could just automate creating the batch file yourself from all the 3dm files in a given directory if you wanted.

The second component, the actual render process, will read through the sequence and render everything out. A log of the render sequence is kept that will tell you a number of details about each render (how long it took, whether there was an error, whether a view was or wasn't loaded). Out of a large batch of renders there might be an issue or two, so the parsing that I was referring to was to read through that log file to check if there were any issues within the sequence. Just a suggestion if you're truly looking to automate as much as possible.

The other option is to just write your own batch renderer, which isn't really that hard, and can allow for a bunch of extra functionality (such as swapping objects, materials, settings and/or environments). Depending on how custom a solution you're looking for this may be a possible way to go. Either way you've definitely got some options.

[rdwells]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

I was side-tracked for awhile working on other things, and I'm finally back to working with the batch renderer.

First of all, is there any further documentation beyond the ReadMe that comes with the Batch Renderer plug-in? If so, please direct to that, and hopefully that will answer my current and future questions.

My current questions are:

(1) What should visCreateBatch do? When I execute it, it asks for the name of the batch render sequence (I specify "Mascots" as the filename) and whether I want to add views from an external file (I take the default answer of "No"), and then just returns to the Rhino command prompt. I was at least expecting a file called Mascots.visBatch to be created somewhere, but could find nothing (I checked the Plug-ins\VRayForRhino\BatchRenderFiles directory and all other obvious places I could think of).

(2) What does visBatchAdd do? I assumed it would add the currently open file to the current batch, but when I execute it, it silently does nothing.

(3) I just upgraded to Rhino 4.0 SR5b; is that a problem?

- Rich Wells

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

Nope, that's it for the documentation.

visCreateBatch will should be the initial way that Batch sequences are created. Batch Sequences are based on the named views that you have saved within the file, so if you don't have any saved views in the current file it will just ask you if you want to move to a next one. And if you don't move onto the next one, there are no views in the sequence.

visBatchAdd is meant to add views to an existing batch sequence from a different file.

The directory that you mentioned should be where the batch sequence is automatically saved.

From what you described, it looks like you just have to save some views within your file, and is should be good to go.

[rdwells]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

Thanks, that worked. I didn't realize that it required a saved view. (I'm not a "real" use of either Rhino or VRay, just a programmer looking at ways to automate some work we need to do, so I didn't even know about saved views.)

- Rich

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

No problem. If you're not a real user it would be hard to know that. Users, on the other hand, said exactly the opposite thing about the first batch renderer..."Why doesn't it use my saved views"...interesting how the world works.

[Bluebird]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

I have question, can anybody help me:

batchrender is not saving my cameras

I created seqeunce , than I wrote visBatchRender and loaded my seqeunce. Everything was fine, but after render when i looked in to the folder, where should be my pictures, it was empty. In the log was all fine....all views was saved to the folder, but when i looked, it was empty. Can anyone help me.

iRBi

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

Can you post or send me the batch sequence and the log file?

[kubbek]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

My rhino crashes just after the first view has been rendered. What can be the reason of it? What should I do to avoid it?

I have the new version of rhino and vray.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

Your going to have to provide more information about how you set up the batch render and the file. Just telling me that it crashed doesn't give me any information.

[kubbek]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

When I had the problem I used all deafult settings, only gave a name for the sequence and rhino crashed allways after rendering first view.
Today it works perfectly and I haven't noticed any problem. If I see what the problem was I'll let you know.

[kylefoster]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

Hi Dalomar, Im sure its something im doing wrong (its happened before but Im having trouble even downloading what I think is the correct version of the Batch Render plugin:

Which one? the updated version or the old version. If the file you've downloaded is an exe file then you've downloaded the old version. Running the exe file should install the plugin.

If the file you've downloaded is a zip file, then its the new one. There are instructiond in the readMe (as well as above), but you will want to save the plugin in a permanent location, then drag and drop it over Rhino. You can also install it via the Plugin Manager. DO NOT drag and Drop directly from winZip or winRar. This will extract the file to a temporary location and most likely be removed at a later point (depending on your computer's settings). If it is not installing, then please post information about how you went about installing it and any messages you see (look at the command line).

The only versions that are available in the download area of the new website are for Rhino 3 and the one for Rhino 4 is an exe and not a zip so this must be the old version. I assumed the one available for Rhino 4 in the download area would be the correct version but when I installed it, the commands listed such as visBatchcreate does not exist in my command line. Is this the correct version or is there a definitive place to download the actual version? I'm sure its something I'm doing wrong but I'm getting to the point where this tool is essential to getting my work done. I was not expecting to be so confused by the download and installation of the plugin but I'm sure its my fault.

Any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks
kyle

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

We're putting the new one up for download right now.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

http://software.asgvis.com/index.php...emid=439&uid=0

[wgc2005]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

No problem. If you're not a real user it would be hard to know that. Users, on the other hand, said exactly the opposite thing about the first batch renderer..."Why doesn't it use my saved views"...interesting how the world works.

that is interesting...

so now I have a question, why not give people a prompt of some kind so they *know* what to do as they work through setting up a batch render.

i.e. use: saved view_ persp view_ top view_ front view_ saved view from external file etc....

you have to pick one or exit before you can go on...

I'd really love to see a gui for the batch render where maybe you pick an internal view or you browse to an external file's views, maybe they could be checkboxed and each outputs an image

The same approach could be part of the gui with regard to rendering the same file and view but with different material or lighting choices (maybe an "advanced" tab or something)

So one file could be teapot rendered in blue glass with yellow car paint lid in a saved view from a different file, and the next teapot could use an internal view with a different material applied to the lid.

I know this entails a lot of work and considerations, but I also know what a time saver it would be to V-ray users.

[Lilmac024]

Re: Batch Render for Rhino

When I try to create a batch, I get the Error:

Source: Microsoft VBScript runtime error
Error: Permission denied
Line: 60
Char: 2
Code:

Anyone else get this error?

I have downloaded the BatchRenderV2 and am running it with the latest version of Vray and RhinoSR6.

Any help would be great!