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Submit from Houdini
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In Houdini, go to
/outand create a
HQueue Render node or HQueue Simulation node. -
Configure the render node with the following information:
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The address of the HQueue server.
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Set the render node you want to actually do the rendering (for example, a
Mantra node) or simulation (for example, a 
Geometry ROP). -
Set Target HFS to the Houdini install directory to use on the farm.
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Click Render.
Submit a job from a script
Use the XML/RPC interface to script creating and managing jobs.
Submit sliced simulations
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Use the Distribute shelf tool to create and configure the
HQueue Simulation render node.The shelf tool is on most dynamics shelf tabs such as Particle Fluids, Fluid Containers, Cloth, Wires, etc.
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Set the Slice Divisions parameter on the HQueue Simulation ROP to break up the simulation into slices.
The number of slices determine the number of client machines required to process the simulation. For example, if Slice Divisions is set to 2×2×2, then a total of 8 client machines are required on HQueue to simulate the scene.
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On the HQueue Simulation render node, click on the Render button to submit the job.
Submit cluster simulations
There are 2 methods to setup your cluster simulation for submission to the HQueue farm.
If you created a cluster simulation using one of the shelf tools like Smoke Cluster or Pyro Cluster
Use the Distribute shelf tool, and choose “Clustering” as the distribution method when prompted. The Distribute shelf tool is on most dynamics shelf tabs such as Particle Fluids, Fluid Containers, Cloth, Wires, etc.
If you manually created a cluster simulation without using a shelf tool
You need to manually prepare your cluster simulation for distribution.
(The following procedure assumes that you have at least a Cluster Points SOP in your geometry network and that the clustered geometry is exported to DOPs for simulation.)
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Attach a ROP Output Driver SOP to the end your cluster simulation network. Specifically, the ROP Output Driver should be connected to the network chain that contains the Dop I/O SOP which imports the cluster simulation back into the SOP context.
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On the ROP Output Driver, set the Output File parameter so that it contains
${CLUSTER}in its name. This is necessary so that the output of each cluster simulation is written to a different file. Likewise, the name should also contain$F. -
Put down a File Merge SOP in the same context as the ROP Output Driver. The merge node will be used to load the cluster geometry files back into the scene.
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On the File Merge node, create a channel reference from the File parameter to the Geometry ROP’s Output File parameter. Set the first value of the Merge Range parameter to 0 and create a channel reference from the second value of the Merge Range parameter to the Cluster Settings->Clusters parameter on your Cluster Points SOP. Finally, set the Merge parameter to 'CLUSTER'.
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Navigate to
/outand put down anHQueue Simulation render node.Set the Output Driver to point to the ROP Output Driver that you put down earlier. Set the Partitioning Type to “Clusters”. Finally, set the Cluster Node to your Cluster Points SOP.
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Configure the HQueue Simulation ROP to point to your HQueue server and the location of Houdini on the farm as usual.
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Click the Render button to submit the cluster simulation job.
Submit wedged simulations
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Navigate to
/outand create anHQueue Simulation render node. -
Set the Output Driver parameter to point to your Wedge ROP.
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Set the Partitioning Type to Wedges.
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Configure the HQueue Simulation ROP to point to your HQueue server and the location of Houdini on the farm as usual.
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On the output driver node pointed by the Wedge ROP, set its output file parameter so that the filename contains
${WEDGENUM}. This is necessary so that the output of each wedge is saved to a different file. -
Go back to the HQueue Simulation ROP and click the Render button to submit the job.
Submit from a non-shared folder
When you submit jobs from Houdini, the .hip file does not necessarily need to be saved under the shared folder. You can work on a file in a non-shared directory and then automatically copy the file to the shared folder and submit it.
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On the
HQueue Render node or HQueue Simulation node, change the Render Current HIP File menu to “Copy Project Files to Shared Folder and Render”. -
Set the Project Path to where you would like to copy the
.hipfile to. -
When click Render a file dependency dialog will pop-up like the following:
Choose the files that you want to copy to the shared folder, then click OK.
Submit a job remotely
You can configure the HQueue Render node or HQueue Simulation node to submit a job for some other .hip file. This might be useful if you want to render a .hip file that’s already on the shared folder, but you don’t have access to it.
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On the ROP, change the Render Current HIP File menu to “Render Target HIP File”.
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Set the Target HIP to the location of the
.hipfile on the shared folder. You can use$HQROOTin the path to represent the root of the shared folder. -
Click the Render button.