Command-Line
Silhouette on the command-line allows you to execute projects with a variety of commands to control the rendering process.
1 Open a Terminal window.
The Silhouette command-line program is named sfxcmd and is located in the following locations depending on your operating system:
• Linux: Location determined at installation
• Macintosh: /Applications/SilhouetteFX/Silhouette[version]/Silhouette.app/Contents/MacOS
• Windows: C:\Program Files\SilhouetteFX\Silhouette[version]
2 Use the cd command to navigate to the location of the sfxcmd command-line program.
3 Type the following command:
• Mac: ./sfxcmd
• Windows: .\sfxcmd.exe
• Linux: ./sfxcmd
The Silhouette command-line options are displayed in the Terminal window.
Command-line options are of the form: -option value, where value may be optional. Required arguments are in pointy brackets (< >) and optional arguments are in brackets([ ]). If the value must be from a list of possible values, the available values are separated by |. The basic form of the sfxcmd argument is: sfxcmd <projectname> [options]
4 To render a project called vfx-125-02.sfx located at D:\SFX\projects, type: .\sfxcmd.exe D:\SFX\projects\vfx-125-02.sfx
Note: The command-line examples in this tutorial are for Windows. For Mac and Linux, use sfxcmd instead of sfxcmd.exe.
By default, the project is rendered using the settings in the project unless changed by command-line options.
5 To render every other frame, use the -step command as follows: .\sfxcmd.exe D:\SFX\projects\vfx-125-02.sfx -step 2
Use -range or -f to specify single or multiple ranges of frames to render and - -start to override the starting frame number of the rendered frames.
6 The vfx-125-02 project starts at frame 1 and has a duration of 78 frames, but you want the rendered files to start at 1001. To do this, type: .\sfxcmd.exe D:\SFX\projects\vfx-125-02.sfx –range 1-78 –start 1001
If your project has multiple sessions, you would need to target one of the sessions to render. If you are too lazy to open up the Silhouette user interface to determine the session name, you can use the -info command.
7 To print information about the overall project, type: .\sfxcmd.exe D:\SFX\projects\vfx-125-02.sfx -info
When –info is used, rendering is disabled and the project information is displayed.
Project: D:/SFX/projects/vfx-125-02
FileSource: bg.[0001-0078].rgb
FileSource: engine.[0001-0078].rgb
FileSource: bg_big.rgb
FileSource: gas.[0001-0078].rgb
FileSource: lens.[0001-0078].rgb
FileSource: parts.[0001-0078].rgb
FileSource: ship.[0001-0098].rgb
Session: vfx-125-02-v1
Size: (2048, 1556)
Aspect: 1.0
Duration: 78.0
Start: 1
Rate: 24.0
Work Range: (1.0, 78.0)
Node: zMatte
Node: Roto - Garbage
Node: Screen Smoother
Node: Roto Holdout
Node: engine.[0001-0078].rgb 2
Node: Tracker
Node: Math Composite 1
Node: engine.[0001-0078].rgb 2
Node: bg.[0001-0078].rgb
Node: gas.[0001-0078].rgb 1
Node: Math Composite 2
Node: lens.[0001-0078].rgb
Node: Math Composite 4
Node: parts.[0001-0078].rgb
Node: Composite
Node: Output
Node: ship.[0001-0098].rgb 2
Session: vfx-125-02-v2
Size: (2048, 1556)
Aspect: 1.0
Duration: 78.0
Start: 1
Rate: 24.0
Work Range: (1.0, 78.0)
Node: zMatte
Node: Roto - Garbage
Node: Screen Smoother
Node: Roto Holdout
Node: engine.[0001-0078].rgb 2
Node: Tracker
Node: Math Composite 1
Node: engine.[0001-0078].rgb 2
Node: bg.[0001-0078].rgb
Node: gas.[0001-0078].rgb 1
Node: Math Composite 2
Node: lens.[0001-0078].rgb
Node: Math Composite 4
Node: parts.[0001-0078].rgb
Node: Composite
Node: Output
Node: ship.[0001-0098].rgb 2
8 To render the vfx-125-02-v2 session from the vfx-125-02 project, type the following: .\sfxcmd D:\SFX\projects\vfx-125-02.sfx -session vfx-125-02-v2
There are lots of possibilities, so see the
Command-Line chapter for a complete list of options and descriptions.