Hey there,
Every time we submit renders using the integrated Maya Submitter, we have to click the little arrow next to the Job Name box, so that the text box is populated by the current scene name.
The thing is, we always want our renders to be named after our scene name, so how make this automatically happen, so we don’t have to keep clicking the little arrow?
Eg.
Thanks,
Shaun.
Good question! Inside the submitter code at “[repo]/submission/Maya/Main/SubmitMayaToDeadline.mel” we have a function call named “SetJobName()”. Calling that would the equivalent to clicking the button.
Update: You’ll want to put the call to SetJobName() into the function named SubmitJobToDeadline(). In particular, that’s at the end of the file mentioned so you’d want to change this:
scriptJob -uiDeleted $DeadlineSubmitterWindow OnExit;
scriptJob -e "quitApplication" OnExit;
// Show the submission dialog window.
showWindow DeadlineSubmitWindow;
to
SetJobName;
scriptJob -uiDeleted $DeadlineSubmitterWindow OnExit;
scriptJob -e "quitApplication" OnExit;
// Show the submission dialog window.
showWindow DeadlineSubmitWindow;
Thank you Edwin, that works! Awesome.
Hazaa! Glad to help.
Hey Edwin. I just updated to 10.1.17.4 and I noticed that this still hasn’t been implemented in the official plugin file: SubmitMayaToDeadline.mel
Can you please put this fix in the main release because I have to remember to edit this file myself every time I update Deadline in our office, which I’m sure you’ll understand is a little annoying.
Would be great if the source file was fixed to include SetJobName; , just like you have mentioned above.
Thanks,
Shaun.
Hey @this.is.shaun,
Instead of modifying the SubmitMayaToDeadline.mel script, create a CustomSanityCheck script to update the deadline jobname.
To keep the jobname field matching the maya filename, your CustomSanityCheck.mel file might look something like this…
$jobName = GetStrippedSceneFileName();
setAttr defaultRenderGlobals.deadlineJobName -type "string" $jobName;
Hope this helps!
Hey,
Thanks I tested this sanitycheck file. It works. It has the same effect as: SetJobName; in the main mel file.
Although nice that this is another interesting alternative it still means I need to manually add this file when I update Deadline (as I had to move the whole submitter to the custom folder, so it doesn’t get removed when I update the repo). I’m trying to get around having to manually do a fix for something that I think should be always “on” by default…
It it possible to submit a feature request for SetJobName; to just bee added to the end of the main .mel plugin?
I don’t see why it’s not there already… Why would you not want your render to have the same name as your scene file… The render name on the farm should always match the scene file name for clarity.
If it doesn’t then we have v5 files rendering under the name v4… for example…
Having the job name picked for you automatically is a flavour option.
I’m not sure how we could poll the entire population of Maya users to get a good sample size (right now at best we can only get random people to notice on the forums here). It’s been three years, and I don’t recall others asking for this.
Customization is going to take that little bit of extra work. Sanity check is a waaay better idea though. Thanks @chitty for suggesting it.
Couldn’t you just modify the shelf-button or whatever you’re using to submit from Maya?
Merging default code launch code:
SubmitJobToDeadline;
with @chitty’s CustomSanityCheck code:
$jobName = "This is my fancy auto-naming submitter: " + `GetStrippedSceneFileName`;
setAttr defaultRenderGlobals.deadlineJobName -type "string" $jobName;
SubmitJobToDeadline;
That said, I haven’t worked in a studio where we’ve used the integrated submitters for a while. I usually make a custom ui/tool that ties in a bit more smoothly with version control and content management, and not bombarding users with too many options (eg. preventing human error).
If you’re interested in rolling your own submitter (less work than you may think), I’m sure you’ll get the help you need here and on https://stackoverflow.com.
My two, unsolicited, cents on this:
I don’t see why it’s not there already… Why would you not want your render to have the same name as your scene file… The render name on the farm should always match the scene file name for clarity.
If it doesn’t then we have v5 files rendering under the name v4… for example…
I’d say it’s pretty common for asset “Red Car” or shot “SH0010: Epic Opening Shot” to always be named those things, and using other columns/methods to track metadata like version (if that’s relevant for the user looking at it).
For instance, if monitoring a farm I don’t particularly care what version of a shot is being rendered – just that it’s going through and being processed in the correct way. If there’s a conflict, that usually indicates an issue with the asset server, not necessarily a render farm thing.
Hey,
Ok, thanks for the replies guys. I didn’t consider that people would be using the other columns for putting in the version, as we always put the version in the filenames. Honestly, I thought that’s how everyone did it… otherwise there’s no way to roll back. Anyway, it seems like there’s a bit of resistance for this, so I’ll stick with the CustomSanityCheck solution.
Thanks
Sounds like the main difference between our two setups is the addition of an asset server that deals with version control, vs. just throwing all the files in the same directory.
Regardless of “resistance”, keep in mind that you can very easily roll your own shelf-button solution with the code I posted above, or with a little bit of elbow grease roll an entirely custom submitter. In my experience most vendors have a once-size-fits-all approach (including Maya), which is rarely a perfect fit for anyone. So these type of modifications are very common.
Similarly, I’m sure you’re using a variety of plugins and custom code in Maya. Not just the off-the-shelf build? 
Hey,
Yeah, we have loads of customs things in there, but we use the default submitter. We’re actually only keeping Maya around incase we need it, because we’ve transitioned over to Houdini. You’re correct though yeah, to our own detriment we unfortunately don’t have an asset server 
Cheers