Category Archives: Installation

Troubleshooting HtoA installs

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If you have a problem like this:

  • HtoA does not show up in Houdini
  • the HtoA material nodes are missing
  • or you get node type errors such as
    • Failed to match node type definition
    • Error: bad node type found
    • Unknown operator on load

that is almost always because the environment (PATH and HOUDINI_PATH) is not set up correctly for HtoA and Houdini.

First, how to do you start Houdini? Don’t double-click on a hip file, because the Houdini environment won’t be set up correctly.

Second, what’s your houdini.env look like?
You want something like this (PATH is for Windows only):

# htoa config start
PATH = "$PATH;C:/arnold/htoa/htoa-5.6.0.0_r370661f_houdini-18.0.597/htoa-5.6.0.0_r370661f_houdini-${HOUDINI_VERSION}/scripts/bin"
HOUDINI_PATH = "C:/arnold/htoa/htoa-5.6.0.0_r370661f_houdini-18.0.597/htoa-5.6.0.0_r370661f_houdini-${HOUDINI_VERSION};&"
# htoa config end

Third, check Help > About Houdini > Show Details
You want to see the HtoA location at the start of HOUDINI_PATH

If you have other renderers and plugins, I would remove all other plugins from HOUDINI_PATH, get HtoA working, and then put the other stuff back.

If you need more help, please send support your houdini.env file (or json package if that’s what you’re using) and the Houdini info from Show Details.

HtoA silent installs

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The HtoA installer supports silent installs and silent extractions (an install will update houdini.env, an extract does not).

htoa-6.0.0.0_r6c54f59_houdini-18.5.696_windows.exe -h

htoa-6.0.0.0_r6c54f59_houdini-18.5.696_windows.exe [options]

Options:
  -?, -h, --help      Displays help on commandline options.
  --help-all          Displays help including Qt specific options.
  -v, --verbose       Verbose mode. Prints out more information.
  --extract           Extract installation contents in the current directory.
  --extract-to <dir>  Extract installation contents in <dir>.
  --accept-license    Do not prompt for license acceptance in silent mode.
                      IMPORTANT: By using this option, you accept the end-user
                      license agreement
  --silent            Silent installation (no GUI).

For example, this command silently installs HtoA on Windows. The –verbose gives you a log in the command prompt window.

htoa-6.0.0.0_r6c54f59_houdini-18.5.696.py3_windows.exe --accept-license --silent --verbose

[clm] product key not found (44)

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The Problem

To use Autodesk licenses for Arnold when you batch render with Maya, Arnold must be registered in the Product Information file (aka the PIT file).

Normally the MtoA installer does this for you. But if you’re running Maya and MtoA from a network install, then Arnold won’t be registered in the PIT file, and you’ll see this in the Arnold log:

00:00:00 381MB WARNING | rendering with watermarks because of failed authorization:
00:00:00 381MB | [rlm] error initializing license system:
00:00:00 381MB | [rlm] * Can't read license data (-102)
00:00:00 381MB | [clm] product key not found (44)

and you’d see something like this in the Adlm.log:

337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 Reason=Fatal error
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 ComputerName=WORKSTATION
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 OS=6.1.7601.Service Pack 1
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 File=AdlmIntLicense.cpp,Line=594
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 VendorID=6 [ADLMPIT]
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 VendorError=12 [The root information in Product Information Table XML file is missing]
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 Reason=Fatal error
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 ComputerName=WORKSTATION
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 OS=6.1.7601.Service Pack 1
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 File=AdlmIntLicense.cpp,Line=595
337296 2017/11/03 12:29:54 AdlmIntError=25 [The product key was not found]

Solution

MtoA includes pit/pitreg for registering Arnold in the PIT file, so you just need to run pitreg on the local machine, like this:

C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2017\pit\pitreg.exe
Succesfully added Arnold information to PIT file

Don’t do this:

cd C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2017\pit\
pitreg.exe

because you’ll get this error:

Failed to add Arnold information to PIT file (Error 26)

 

Setting up Arnold render nodes

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I’ve seen several variations of this question recently. Usually there’s some confusion about “Arnold standalone” and what’s actually required on a render node.

If you rendering scene files from Maya, or 3ds Max, or some other 3d application, then you do not need Arnold standalone.

You need the 3d application (Maya, 3ds Max) and the Arnold plugin for that application (MtoA, MAXtoA). Download the Arnold plugin from https://www.arnoldrenderer.com/arnold/download

For example, let’s suppose you want to render Maya scene files.

  • You need to install Maya and MtoA on each render node.
  • You don’t need Maya licenses for batch rendering, and you don’t need Maya licenses to install Maya on render nodes.
  • You need Arnold licenses, which are a separate purchase. MtoA is free and unlicensed. Arnold, however, does require a license to render without the watermark. You need one Arnold license for each render node (for you CINEMA 4D users, a TeamRender client is an Arnold render node and requires its own license).
  • You need an Autodesk network license server running somewhere (not on a render node).
  • You need to connect Arnold to the Autodesk network license manager.

It’s the same thing for 3ds Max and MAXtoA.

[mtoa] Running a silent install

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On Windows, run the MtoA installer with the flags /S /FORCE_UNINSTALL=1

MtoA-2.0.2.2-2018.exe /S /FORCE_UNINSTALL=1

You can use /D to specify a different install location.

On Linux, use the – – silent command line flags. Note the space between “- -” and “silent”.

sudo sh MtoA-2.0.1.1-linux-2017.run -- silent

The Linux installer will put MtoA in /opt/solidangle/mtoa/<maya version>. If you want to install in a different location, you can extract MtoA, and then set up your own script for installing MtoA.

On OSX, use the installer command:

sudo installer -pkg "MtoA-2.0.2.4-darwin-2017.pgk" -target /

Note that -target is a volume, not a folder.

[MtoA] Switching between multiple versions of MtoA

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start_menu_mtoa

If, like me, you need to switch between different versions of MtoA, here’s a recipe for setting that up.

First, you have to install multiple versions. As you probably already know, the MtoA installer always wants to uninstall first. I take care of that by zapping the Uninstall registry entry with this command:

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MtoA2016" /f

Then I run the MtoA installer and install in a folder with the version name, like this:
C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016-1.2.7.3

I start Maya with a batch file that creates a symbolic link named “C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016” that links to the version of MtoA I want to use:

rmdir C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016
mklink /D C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016 C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016-1.2.7.3
rem mklink /D C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016 C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016-1.2.2.0

set RLM_DEBUG=arnold
start "" "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2016\bin\maya.exe" %* -log %TEMP%\maya.log

My batch file also adds the location of my custom mtoa.mod to MAYA_MODULE_PATH. My custom mtoa.mod points to “C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016”, and handles all versions of Maya:

+ MAYAVERSION:2018 mtoa any C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2018
PATH +:= bin
MAYA_CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_PATH +:= scripts/mtoa/ui/templates
MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH +:= scripts/mtoa/mel
MAYA_RENDER_DESC_PATH +:= 
+ MAYAVERSION:2017 mtoa any C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2017
PATH +:= bin
MAYA_RENDER_DESC_PATH +:=
MAYA_CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_PATH +:= scripts/mtoa/ui/templates
MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH +:= scripts/mtoa/mel
+ MAYAVERSION:2016 mtoa any C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016
PATH +:= bin
MAYA_CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_PATH +:= scripts/mtoa/ui/templates
+ MAYAVERSION:2015 mtoa any C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2015
PATH +:= bin
MAYA_CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_PATH +:= scripts/mtoa/ui/templates
+ MAYAVERSION:2014 mtoa any C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2014
PATH +:= bin
+ MAYAVERSION:2013 mtoa any C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2013
PATH +:= bin

 

[MtoA] Running a silent install on Windows

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On Windows, if MtoA isn’t already installed, then the /S flag will do a silent install:

MtoA-1.2.7.3-2016.exe /S

You can also specify an install location with the /D flag:

MtoA-1.2.7.1-2016.exe /S /D=C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016-1.2.7.1
There’s no help, but I found the /S and /D via Google:

There is no silent install on OSX or Linux.

If another version of MtoA is installed, there will be some pop-up dialogs. You can get around that by doing a silent uninstall, like this:
C:\solidangle\mtoadeploy\2016-1.2.7.1\uninstall.exe /S

or, if you want to keep the existing install around, you could do this:

reg DELETE HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MtoA2016 /f

After you delete that registry key, an MtoA install won’t detect an existing installation, so you get to keep the old install, and install a new version.

 

[Arnold] System requirements: minimum Windows version

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As of Arnold 4.2.3.1, the minimum Windows version is Windows 7. We no longer support Windows versions before Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

This applies to all plug-ins (such a MtoA 1.2.02 and later, or SItoA 3.4 and later) that use Arnold 4.2.3.1 or later.

If you try to load an Arnold plugin on an unsupported Windows, you’ll get an error (something like “The specified procedure could not be found”).

On Vista with Arnold 4.2.3.1 or later, kick -nodes gives you a more specific error:

"kick.exe - Entry Point Not Found" 
"The procedure entry point SetThreadGroupAffinity could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll."

[MtoA] Installing the BA shaders in Maya

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You can use the BA shaders in Maya with MtoA. The BA shaders are Arnold shaders, so you can use them anywhere that you use Arnold.

Here’s how:

  • Download the Maya mental ray package of the BA shaders. For example, for Maya 2014, the most recent version is
    >>>v25.01.09 Maya 2014 mentalRay
  • Extract the archive. For example, you could extract the archive to a C:\solidangle\BA folder.
  • Set MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH to point to the scripts\AEtemplates folder. For example: 
    set MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH=C:\solidangle\BA\140219__baEssential_25.01.09___Maya_2014_MRay\scripts\AETemplates
  • Download the Arnold shaders. For example, for Maya 2014, the most recent version is >>>v25.01.09 Arnold 4.1 (mentalRay addon required for UI)
  • Extract the archive, and set ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH to point to the Arnold\win64 folder. For example: 
    set ARNOLD_PLUGIN_PATH=C:\solidangle\BA\140219__baEssential_25.01.09___All_Arnold_4_1_3\Arnold\win64
  • Start Maya. The BA shaders should be available, and the AE should look “nice” for the BA shaders.