running a ROP from DOS, with a frame range argument

[mattd]

Ok, I am coming down with a cold so I am not thinking totally straight...

I have been searching but most related topics are either on linux or via cygwin, I have neither

I need to distribute a chain of complex SOP ops that write to a bgeo sequence across a farm using Muster, and it only supports single dos commands.

I need to run a command like: hscript render -f 1 10 /obj/geo/out/geometry

In muster I have to use a wildcard to replace the 1 and 10 to do the slicing. Therefore, calling an external script does not work.

I hope the question makes sense.

MD

[stevenong]

Hi,

Have you tried using hrender instead? hrender -h will give you the options.

Cheers!

steven

[mattd]

hrender needs csh to run, and I cannot get the render queue to run it properly from a single dos command. I can start the csh, but then i cannot pass the command with the frame overrides.

however, I did find a python solution, and I have it working now. I'll post it in a bit to help future queries.

MD

Hi,

Have you tried using hrender instead? hrender -h will give you the options.

Cheers!

steven

[mattd]

ok here is a solution:

in muster, I have a 'custom job' that launches cmd.exe

muster then wants a arguments string, with <SF> and <EF> to distribute chunks to machines.

these have dos backslashes

/C "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 9.5.379\bin\hython" \\10.1.2.10\chicagowip\_PROJECTS\2009\blahblah\06_3D\houdini\render.py <SF> <EF>

here is the script, with hard coded paths to get this running quick:

import sys, os, hou

args = sys.argv

start = args.pop()
end = args.pop()

os.chdir("\\\\10.1.2.10\\chicagowip\\_PROJECTS\\2009\\blahblah\\06_3D\houdini")
hou.hipFile.load("blahblah.hip")
hou.hscript("render -V -f " + start + " " + end + " /obj/particle_emitter1/ropnet1/mentalray1")

I know I should use the new HOM render command, but I have not gotten into it quite yet.

Hope it helps someone,

MD