{section:Rendering Maya Projects with HTCondor} This was known to work in 2004. {subsection:Using condor_render to produce a submit file} =condor_render= will examine a Maya scene file (binary or ascii format) and produce all of the files necessary to run the rendering using the HTCondor batch system. {subsection:How it works} In order to render a Maya scene file on a remote machine, HTCondor must be able to provide the remote machine with all the files necessary to perform the rendering. This includes the following: *: External texture files *: External file references *: Texture files specified by the external file references *: File references specified by other file references Once all of these dependencies are gathered, new temporary copies of the Maya files are created with all of their file and texture references pointing to the current working directory. Finally an HTCondor submit file is created that carves the animation up into small blocks so that each block can be rendered in parallel. {subsection:Installing condor_render on Windows NT/2000} First, {link: ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/condor/maya/crWin32.zip download the latest copy of condor_render}. Next, unzip the file, placing the new files in the =C:\condor_render= directory and add this directory to your =PATH= environment variable. If you wish to install the condor_render files someplace else, make sure that the directory is in your search =PATH= and that you set the environment variable =CONDOR_RENDER_PATH=[install directory]= with no trailing slashes. {subsection:Installing condor_render on Linux} First {link: ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/condor/maya/cr_src.zip download the source}, unzip and type =make=. Copy =condor_render= to =~/condor_render= and add this directory to your =PATH= environment variable. If you wish to install the condor_render files someplace else, make sure that the directory is in your search =PATH= and that you set the environment variable =CONDOR_RENDER_PATH=[install directory]= with no trailing slashes. {subsection:Preparing the HTCondor Submit File Header} In the condor_render installation directory there is a file named =condor_render.hdr=. This file contains the default behavior for every HTCondor job you create using condor_render. Most of the defaults in the file should work fine for most situations, with the exception of the =Executable= line. This line should contain the full path to the Maya renderer (=render.exe=). Because of the current limitations of CondorNT, if =render.exe= is located on a network drive you must create a batch file on the local drive that calls render.exe on the network drive, e.g. =@T:\cs.wisc.edu\s\maya-3.0\i386_nt40\bin\render.exe= and give the path to the batch file on the =Executable= line. In the same manner, the environment variables listed in the =Environment= line, =MAYA_LOCATION= and =MAYA_ALT_EN=, should be set appropriately for your site. {subsection:Running condor_render} If condor_render is run without any arguments, a help screen is displayed that explains all of the currently available options. If condor_render is successful, it produces an HTCondor submit file called =condor_render.sub= and calls =condor_submit= to add your rendering jobs to the job queue. If =condor_submit= is not in your search PATH, condor_render will inform you that the submit failed and you will have to run =condor_submit= manually.