Set up command line rendering

Path to the Render command

The Render command is located at the following locations:

• (Windows) C:\Program Files\Autodesk\<version>\bin
• (Mac OS X) /Applications/Autodesk/<version>/Maya.app/Contents/bin/
• (Linux) /usr/autodesk/<version>/bin

where <version> denotes the Maya version; for example: Maya2016.

To render using the command on Linux, you must include the path as part of the command. On Windows, you can include the path as part of the command or set your system path to include the path. On Mac OS X, you can include the path as part of the command or use the Maya Terminal window. See the following sections for more information on command line rendering for Windows and Mac OS X.

Set up command line rendering for Windows

If you want to run the Render command from the Windows command line prompt without entering the command path each time, you can add the command path to your system Path environment variable.

To set the PATH environment variable

1. Open the Control Panel and double-click the System icon.
2. In the System Properties window that appears, switch to the Advanced tab.
3. Click Environment Variables.
4. In the Environment Variables window, select the Path variable and click Edit.
5. In the Edit System Variable window that appears, edit the Variable value by adding C:\Program Files\Autodesk\<version>\bin.
   Note: The variables in this field are separated by semi colons.

You can now run the Render command using the Windows command prompt without entering the path to the command.

Set up command line rendering for Mac OS X

You can render from the command line using the Maya Terminal window, which has all the proper path information to run Maya command-line applications.

The Maya Terminal.term file is provided in your Maya directory when you install Maya, and launches a Terminal window that has all the proper path information to run Maya command-line applications (such as Render) and licensing tools. Using this .term file makes it easier to use command-line Maya applications on Mac OS X.

Note: Maya Terminal.term sources a simple (Bourne) shell script to set up the environment: /Applications/Autodesk/version/Maya.app/Contents/bin/MayaENV.sh

This could be used in a custom environment instead of using Maya Terminal.term directly; for example, when accessing the Maya environment remotely or from an alternative term application.