Using hou.RopNode.render()?

[JMR]

I'm learning command-line rendering through Python, but I can't get RopNode to work. When I use hou.RopNode.render() I get "unbound method render() must be called with RopNode instance as first argument (got nothing instead)". When I try to add "mantra1" in the parentheses (the file I want to render is the one open) I get the same error except "got str instance instead" in the parentheses. For all my Googling I haven't found any examples of how to successfully use this. What am I missing?

[symek]

HOM, like Python, is strongly object oriented, thus most methods live and operate on objects. hou.RopNode.render() is a prototype of a class method, and similarly to most cases, you can't call it directly. It's meant to be used as follows:

ropnode = hou.node("/out/mantra1")
ropnode.render()
#btw:
print(type(ropnode))
<class 'hou.RopNode'>

render() is the same method you saw in hou.RopNode, but it's now bounded to the instance of a node of type hou.RopNode

 

ps There are some methods free standing in hou module which don't belong to any objects, but that's different story.