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Smedge2

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NUMBER 37.3
16 September, 2004

Information
A brief summary of what Smedge does, and how it works.
Screenshot
A screenshot of Smedge in action.
Licensing
Smedge licensing and download
Builds
Download the latest version, or an older version if you desire.
Manual
The on-line user's manual. (Work In Progress).
FAQ
The Smedge2 Frequently Asked Questions page.
Known Issues
A list of known bugs and workarounds, as well as plans for future development.
Report a Bug
Use this form to report bugs in Smedge.

Smedge Information

 Smedge allows you to queue and distribute renders on Windows NT.

Philosophy

Smedge provides a handy graphical interface to launching renders. However, it is not a replacement for the Render Globals window. While you can override some of the options for a render, it is my feeling that you should set your render scene up correctly before you go rendering it. Thus, there are minimal dialog box options to turn on motion blur, or ray tracing, or other scene parameters. Of course, you can put any Render command line options into the extra attributes section.

How Does It Work

Smedge2 is a peer to peer network application that will queue and distribute your renders across any machines on your network with Smedge2 running. All elements of Smedge can be controlled from any other machine running Smedge. Here's a list of the features of Smedge2:

Powerful

  • Smedge can control renders from many products
  • Smedge gives you options for controlling job execution
    • Jobs have a priority. Higher priority jobs go first. Jobs with the same priority are executed first come first served.
    • Jobs can be made dependent on the completion of other jobs
    • Machines can be grouped into Pools to control which machines render which jobs
    • A job can be paused by setting its priority to zero
  • Smedge is Packet based for better utilization of CPU cycles
    • Smedge automatically divides the packets up and maintains the status of each packet
    • Inidividual packets can be aborted, requeued, or sent as new jobs
    • The user can control the packet size as needed for different types of scenes
  • Smedge gives you feedback
    • View frames as they render
    • Smedge maintains a thorough history of each job
    • Render output and the history can be saved after a job finishes
    • Email notification of job completion includes the complete history of the job
    • Smedge jobs can have notes attached to better coordinate between different users
    • Execute a program or a script after a job finishes
  • Smedge is completely multi-processor aware

    Flexible

  • Any Smedge client can control any other job or client
    • Configure clients from the desktop or across the network
    • Most options can be set for multiple clients at the same time
    • Change a job's priority, pool, or condition from any client
    • Configure all of your pools from any client
    • View a frame in-progress, or see the render diagnostic output from any client
    • A license for Smedge is only needed to actually perform renders, so even unlicensed clients can control the network
    • Smedge has simple security to limit this powerful control when needed
  • Smedge is integrated into the Windows environment in a useful and powerful way
    • Smedge has a command line interface allowing script control to submit jobs
    • Smedge has drag and drop options for submitting jobs
    • You can remove Smedge from your taskbar to free up desktop space if you leave it running all the time
    • Send an email or play a sound when a job finishes
  • Easily resubmit all or part of a job
    • Smedge can save the settings to re-create a job on disk
    • Smedge keeps a history of the last 20 jobs you've submitted for easy recall
    • You can choose to submit only selected packets from a job
  • Most of the GUI interface is modeless, which gives you much more flexibility in submitting and controlling jobs

    Easy to Use

  • Peer-to-Peer networking requires no central server, but you can choose to use a dedicated server if you wish
  • Smedge uses TCP/IP for reliable communication
  • Smedge has multiple levels of crash and error detection to requeue failed packets
  • Smedge can install itself just from running the executable
  • Smedge has very few network setup requirements

    Command Line Operation

    Smedge can also be run from a command line. For full syntax, see The Command Line Interface in the Online Manual.

    The Command line ability allows you to integrate Smedge into your workflow and rendering pipeline using by scripting it. Take a look at the smedgeRenderSession.mel script included in the distribution for an example of integration of Smedge and Maya.

    If you are interested in the out-of-date Smedge 1 product line, click here to visit the old Smedge 1.4 homepage.