raymairlot / batch-render-tools

A series of tools to help with doing batch renders in Blender.

Batch Render Tools

Note: Currently Windows only. An untested 'Linux and OSX Support' branch is available. More info here.

Also, while I have used this add-on on very long renders without any problems, please be advised that you use this at your own risk. I suggest doing a short test render before anything big to make sure it works as you expect it to.

Intro:

Batch Render Tools is a series of tools to help doing batch renders of single or multiple files in Blender. Batch render tools can render many different files at once, each with their own frame ranges if desired (otherwise it uses the frame range in the target file). Simply add a batch job and browse to the desired blend file, re-order the jobs if you want them rendered in a specific order (render happens from top to bottom) and then press 'Run batch render'. If you want, Blender can now be closed and the render will continue until either it is finished or the Command Prompt Window (which opens when rendering is started) is closed.

If you have a folder of blends and want to quickly add them as jobs then you can use 'Batch jobs from directory' in the 'Additional Tools' menu (shown below) to browse to a folder and generate the batch jobs. Alternatively, also from the 'Additional Tools' menu, you can export the batch jobs as a Windows Batch file (.bat) using the 'Generate .bat file' tool.

Enabling the add-on adds two panels to the 'Render' tab of the 'Properties Editor':

• Batch Render Tools - The main panel for adding, managing and rendering batch render jobs.
• Command Prompt Tools - a small panel for quickly opening the command prompt in the Blender installation directory.

Batch Render Tools Panels:

Batch Render Tools Panel:	Additional Tools Menu:	Command Prompt Tools Panel:

Batch Render Tools Options:

• Run batch render

  Renders all the batch jobs. The button will be disabled if there are no render jobs or if one or more jobs has an invalid filepath. Blender will not only remain active while rendering, but can be completely closed. To cancel the render close the command prompt window.

• Hibernate

  Option to hibernate the computer after batch rendering. (Don't know if you have to explicitly enable this in Windows first)

• Batch jobs summary

  A summary of all the batch jobs: Number of batch jobs, Number of batch jobs set to render, Number of total frames that will be rendered.

• Add batch render job

  Adds a new batch render job using the current blender file as the filepath (if blend file is saved, otherwise will be blank and display an error).

• Expand all batch jobs

  Changes the display mode of all batch jobs to 'expanded'.

• Collapse all batch jobs

  Changes the display mode of all batch jobs to 'collapsed'.

• Generate .bat file

  Generates a windows Batch file with all the commands necessary to render the batch jobs.

• Batch jobs from directory

  Loads a directory of blend files as separate batch jobs.

• Delete all batch jobs

  Deletes all the batch render jobs.

Batch Job Options:

• Name

  Name of the batch job to identify it. Will use the name of the blend file when using 'Batch jobs from directory'.

• Render

  Whether or not the batch job will be included in the render. Means you don't have to delete a job (and lose its settings) if you want to temporarily keep a job from rendering.

• Copy

  Make a copy of the batch job.

• Move Up/Down

  Re-order the batch jobs. Order affects the render order (top to bottom).

• Delete

  Delete the batch job.

• Filepath

  Filepath to the blend to be rendered. By default this will be set to the current blend file (if the blend file is saved, otherwise will be blank and display an error until a valid filepath is supplied).

• Frame range from file

  Use the frame range set in the target file (specified by 'Filepath') instead of specifying a custom one.

• Start

  If 'Frame range from file' is disabled you can set which frame to start rendering from.

• End

  If 'Frame range from file' is disabled you can set which frame to rendering to.

• Render Options

  An expandable panel containing additional rendering options

  • Output path from file

    Use the output file path set in the target file (specified by 'Filepath') for the rendered image/animation instead of specifying a custom one.

  • Output filepath

    If 'Output path from file is disabled you can set an output path to render to.

Command Prompt Tools Options:

• Open Command Prompt

  Opens a command prompt window in the blender installation directory.

• Copy path

  When 'Open Command Prompt' is clicked the path to the current blend file will be copied to the clipboard.

• Background

  If 'Copy path' is enabled then the background option can be enabled which will mean blender's background command (blender -b) will also be copied to the clipboard. E.g. with this option enabled you will be able to paste this into the newly opened command prompt:

  blender -b "PATHTOBLEND"

batch-render-tools's Issues

Currently doesn't support OSs other than Windows

I am trying to open a new terminal window, run Blender and be able to pass it some arguments so that I can commence background rendering and be able to see the progress of this render in the newly created terminal.

I'm currently using os.system to open a Command Prompt, which is the Windows specific part. The advantage of opening a command prompt over using something like subprocess.call is that it is a) Non-blocking, b) Shows feedback from Blender on the progress of the render, c) Allows the render to be cancelled by simply closing the Command Prompt window and d) Doesn't require Blender to be open during rendering (aside from starting the render).

I have this working on Windows and I know how to get it to work on Linux (though I haven't yet updated the add-on) with:

command = 'xterm -e ' + bpy.app.binary_path + ' -b ' + PathToBlend + ' -a'
os.system(command)

But, what I can't seem to do is work out how to get it to work on Mac OSX. This works:

command = 'open -a /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app ' + bpy.app.binary_path'
os.system(command)

It opens a Terminal and runs Blender, but I don't know how to pass additional arguments to Blender. If anyone knows how to do that, please let me know.

Update

An untested 'Linux and OSX Support' branch now exists thanks to the contributions from antoniochiurla. I still intend to make my own attempt at OSX and Linux support in the main branch at some point.