Q: When I submit to backburner, the dialog says ‘Connecting to 255.255.255.0’ and then ‘Failed to connect to manager’. How do I have RPM connect to my manager?
A: In the Network tab of RPManager, you can set RPM to find the manager either by auto-connecting using the subnet mask parameter, or alternatively by IP or network name. (You have the same options from say monitor when connecting to the manager - same parameters).
Try this: change to the Network tab, turn off the ‘auto search’ checkbox in the manager group, enter the IP address of your manager and try to submit again.
Auto search may not work depending on your network setup, but by IP address should work fine.
Q: I would like to be able to assign a prefix to my network render jobs automatically based on the max file name. Would it be possible to specify a standard string like #date, #username, to achieve this. If so does anyone know what that string might be? We are trying to automate the pass building process as much as possible and it would be nice for the job name to be assaigned automatically.
A: RPM gives you the ability to set a default for the 'Prefix' paremeter in the RenderPassManager.ini file in the maxroot/scripts/RPManager/ directory. The key needs to be created, but in the
[Defaults]
section add:
PrefixDefault=whateveryouwanthere
Where this is useful, is if you set it to
#filteredscenename_3_1
the string used as the prefix is the max scene name, divided up using any of these characters: “_-.”, and the
first 3 elements as well as the last of the filtered result is used. ie WE_CC_190_testing_tk101 would end up as a prefix of: WE_CC_190_tk101 - it is the first 3 elements + the last element, put back together using underscores.
#filteredscenename_2_1 on the same thing is WE_CC_tk101
and
#filteredscenename_2_0 on the same thing is WE_CC
Note that you need the _x_x at the end of the string else it will just use “#filteredscenename” as the prefix
You can also use
#scenename
which inserts the entire scene name, or
#username
which uses the login name.