Set up command line rendering

Path to the Render command

The Render command is located at the following locations:

where <version> denotes the Maya version; for example: 2019.

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 macOS, 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 macOS.

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 macOS

You can render from the command line using the macOS Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal).

The Render executable exists in the following folder: 

/Applications/Autodesk/maya202x/Maya.app/Contents/MacOS/Render

Previously, the Render executable existed in /Applications/Autodesk/maya202x/Maya.app/Contents/bin. If you run the Render command from this location, a wrapper script will execute and call the Render command from /Applications/Autodesk/maya202x/Maya.app/Contents/MacOS.

Parent topic: Command line renderer