You cannot use xsibatch -export to export ASS files (because of the way sitoa implements ASS exporting). But it’s not too hard to do the same thing with SITOA_ExportScene and xsibatch -script.

This is what the xsibatch command line would look like (on Windows). For readability, I used the EXPORT_SCRIPT and SCENE variables to reduce the length of the xsibatch command line.

set EXPORT_SCRIPT = batch_export_scene.pys
set SCENE = \\server\project\scenes\elephant_herd.scn
xsibatch -processing -script %EXPORT_SCRIPT% -args -start 5 -end 20 -step 1 -scene %SCENE%

And here’s the batch export script.

I expose the basic parameters only, and I use the ASS Archive output path from the Arnold Render options, the scene name, and the [Frame] token to compose the output file name.

def main( start, end, step, scene ):
	Application.OpenScene(scene, "", "")
	x = Application.Dictionary.GetObject( "Passes.Arnold_Render_Options" )
	dir = XSIUtils.ResolveTokenString( x.output_file_tagdir_ass.Value, 0, False, None, None )

	scn = Application.ActiveProject.ActiveScene.Parameters("Name").Value	
	output = XSIUtils.BuildPath( dir, '%s.[Frame].ass' % scn )

	Application.SITOA_ExportScene( start, end, step, False, False, output )