OK, my first Proof Of Concept script it worked pretty well.
As a pre-requisite, you must first install the 3dsmaxbatch plugin I posted on this forum a month ago:
The new Workflow depends mainly on the plugin definition, but the 3dsmaxbatch integration also comes with an SMTD Workflow.
After following the instructions for installing the 3dsmaxbatch plugin, download the ZIP file below and copy both files it contains into the \DeadlineRepository\submission\3dsmax\Main\Workflows\ folder.
SMTDWorkflow_BatchRenderSpawner_20210611.zip (5.7 KB)
The new Batch Render Spawner SMTD Workflow uses the same 3dsmaxbatch plugin, but provides a dedicated Workflow UI inside of the SMTD panel:
All you need to do is define one or more active Views in the Batch Render dialog of 3ds Max, and submit a job to Deadline. The Job will run 3dsmaxbatch.exe with a custom MAXScript which will load the SMTD Functions and execute the SpawnBatchJobs() function to create a group of jobs to render the active views. No 3ds Max license will be consumed when spawning the jobs.
The Submit button will be disabled if the Batch Render dialog has no active views.
Note that currently ALL Spawner Job Settings also apply to the Render Jobs - pools, groups, limits, submit as suspended, etc. In the future I might add separate controls to have unique values for the Spawner job and the resulting Render jobs.