Managing Background Rendering

You can select some options to manage render in the background and produce the output of your image or movie.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin: Stellar jobs are versioned and the different versions are not compatible. Therefore, a job created on a given 3DEXPERIENCE release fails if it is restarted after an installation update.

Render Objects Using Background Rendering

You can use the background rendering process to activate the image production. This capability is available when you work offline.

Before you begin: For the Distributed Stellar render mode, you need to install and start the cluster to be able to connect to it from the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. For more information, see Ray Tracing Cluster Monitoring.
  1. From the Live Rendering section of the action bar, click Setup Background Render .
    The Setup Background Render dialog box appears.
  2. Optional: Define the parameters.
  3. To start the background rendering process, click Submit Background Render .

    The current geometry, the materials, and the lights in the scene are captured. They are taken into account in the background render, even if they are modified afterward.

    Notes:
    • You can monitor the job using the addresses of:
      • the local server: http://localhost: 10001
      • the remote server: http://computer_name: 10001

      You can change the port in Me > Preferences> Shape > Live Rendering > Batch.

      The computer_name is either the name or the IP of the rendering server.

    • You can stop or suspend the current job.
    • You can remove all the jobs.

Name a Job

You can define a custom name that is initialized with the product name, the ambience name, and the camera name.

  1. From the Live Rendering section of the action bar, click Setup Background Render .
  2. To specify a name for your job, do one of the following:
    • Keep the default name corresponding to the product name and the date. For example: My_Product-2021_01_07.
    • Enter a custom name.
    • Use tags that are replaced by their equivalent name. When you hover over the name box, the list below is displayed in a preview.
      • $p: Root name
      • $c: Camera name
      • $a: Ambience name
      • $s: Number of stereo eyes
      • $w: Width
      • $h: Height
      • $u: Unit
      • $d: Date
      • $t: Timestamp.
      Important: Keywords are defined when the job is created.

    When using the Stellar engine, images are stored in a directory having the job name and are named as follows:

    • For images in the output directory: camera name-timestamp-layer name. For example: Camera.1-2021_01_22-15-30-36-beauty.png.
    • For stereo effects, there is a one-digit number. For example: Camera.1-2021_01_22-15-30-36-beauty-Eye2.png.
    • For animations, there is at least a three-digit number at the end. For example: Camera.1(Move Around)-2021_01_22-15-58-59-beauty-009.png.

    When using the Iray engine, images are always stored in a directory named with a timestamp (for example, 2021_01_25-15-57-17). The job name is never used for the directory name.

Monitor a Job

You can verify the progress of a job in a queue view.

  1. From the Live Rendering section of the action bar, click Monitor Background Renders .
  2. To monitor a job, use the following commands:
    TaskDescription
    Visualize the full name of a job. Hover over the truncated name.
    Visualize the job on a web browser. Click the job image in the thumbnail.
    Modify the background rendering parameters. Double-click the thumbnail.
    Modify the name of a job. Double-click the thumbnail name.
    Stop the current job. Click Stop Current Job.
    Pause the rendering process. Click Pause to momentarily stop the job queue.
    Important: The Stellar render mode does not support pausing a job while it is running. The job keeps running to completion and the following job does not start until you click Resume.
    Restart the rendering process. Click Resume.
    Clear the rendering queue from the jobs that are already finished. Click Remove Jobs.
    Display the background rendering information. Hover over .
    Display the error information and (optionally) corrective actions. Hover over .
    Important: Error information is available for Stellar jobs only.
    Remove a job in the rendering queue. Click .
    Note: The images are not deleted from the disk.
  3. Optional: Click to switch to the list view.

    The information about background rendering is displayed in columns instead of thumbnails, and the Status column gives a visual feedback on each job.

    Icon Description
    The job is pending.
    The job is running.
    The job ended successfully.
    The job has stopped.
    The job failed.

    To go back to the thumbnail view, click .

  4. Right-click a job to display the context menu, and then click the appropriate command.

    Command Description
    Edit job... Lets you edit the selected job parameter. You can then restart the job afterward.
    Delete job Deletes the selected job.
    Download production Creates and downloads the .zip folder that has the same job name and contains all the output images and videos.
    Open production folder Opens the job folder.
    Note: This folder is available only for the local server.
    Reload page Refreshes the monitoring window.
    Download server log Downloads the server log as a text file.

    Important:
    • The context menu is available in both the list and thumbnail views.
    • If you do not select any job, the context menu only displays Reload page and Download server log.

Modify a Job

You can edit a job and modify its parameters.

  1. From the Live Rendering section of the action bar, click Monitor Background Renders .
  2. To edit a job, double-click the blue background of a thumbnail.
    A new dialog box appears.
  3. Optional: Edit the parameters according to your needs.
  4. To save the modifications:
    • If the job is pending, click OK.
    • If the job is in progress or finished, click Restart.