Permanently Override BackBurner's 60 minute Render Auto-Fail

Back in February we helped you solve BackBurner's timeout problem and avoid automatic render fails every 60 minutes. Now, thanks to Maya Station, we bring you part two so you won't have to keep manually entering the timeout.

Here's Maya Station's quick guide:

"Since any permanent changes would need to be done by our development team, I thought it would be best to share a more permanent approach to get the timeout set. Setting this involves editing the performExportToBackburner.mel file which our support team does not generally recommend. Please make a local backup of the file before beginning.

You can simply add an extra line of code to force the timeout to be a new permanent value. Since we are editing this at the file level you will no longer need to populate the command manually when submitting the job.

So, this is what has to be done:

1. Go to: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya 2012\scripts\others
2. Locate the file called performExportToBackburner.mel and make a backup of this file.
3. Now open the original file in word pad and locate the following line:

"// Prepare the list of tasks and send it to Backburner through a task list file"

4. A few lines below that add a new line as shown in bold below:

// Prepare the list of tasks and send it to Backburner through a task list file
int $startFrame = `intFieldGrp -q -v1 bbExportStartFrameCtl`;
int $endFrame = `intFieldGrp -q -v1 bbExportEndFrameCtl`;
int $taskSize = `intFieldGrp -q -v1 bbExportTaskSizeCtl`;
if( $taskSize < 1) $taskSize = 1;
string $taskListFileName = createTaskListFile($jobName, $startFrame, $endFrame, $taskSize);
if($taskListFileName != "")
{
$exportSysCmd = $exportSysCmd + " -timeout 360 ";
}

5. Save the file.  Launch Maya, submit your job and the new task timeout will be set to 360 minutes by default for every job."

Job done.

If you'd like more information on Maya 2012, give our 3D modelling and animation team a call on 03332 409 306 or email 3D@Jigsaw24.com. You can also view our entire 3D range at Jigsaw24.