Blender 2.76 (sub 0)
Usage: blender [args …] [file] [args …]
Render Options:
-b or –background
Run in background (often used for UI-less rendering)
-a or –render-anim
Render frames from start to end (inclusive)
-S or –scene <name>
Set the active scene <name> for rendering
-f or –render-frame <frame>
Render frame <frame> and save it.
+<frame> start frame relative, -<frame> end frame relative.
-s or –frame-start <frame>
Set start to frame <frame> (use before the -a argument)
-e or –frame-end <frame>
Set end to frame <frame> (use before the -a argument)
-j or –frame-jump <frames>
Set number of frames to step forward after each rendered frame
-o or –render-output <path>
Set the render path and file name.
Use ‘//’ at the start of the path to render relative to the blend file.
The ‘#’ characters are replaced by the frame number, and used to define zero padding.
* ‘ani_##_test.png’ becomes ‘ani_01_test.png’
* ‘test-######.png’ becomes ‘test-000001.png’
When the filename does not contain ‘#’, The suffix ‘####’ is added to the filename.
The frame number will be added at the end of the filename, eg:
# blender -b foobar.blend -o //render_ -F PNG -x 1 -a
‘//render_’ becomes ‘//render_####’, writing frames as ‘//render_0001.png’
-E or –engine <engine>
Specify the render engine
use -E help to list available engines
-t or –threads <threads>
Use amount of <threads> for rendering and other operations
[1-64], 0 for systems processor count.
Format Options:
-F or –render-format <format>
Set the render format, Valid options are…
TGA IRIS JPEG MOVIE IRIZ RAWTGA
AVIRAW AVIJPEG PNG BMP FRAMESERVER
(formats that can be compiled into blender, not available on all systems)
HDR TIFF EXR MULTILAYER MPEG AVICODEC QUICKTIME CINEON DPX DDS
-x or –use-extension <bool>
Set option to add the file extension to the end of the file
Animation Playback Options:
-a or –render-anim
Render frames from start to end (inclusive)
Window Options:
-w or –window-border
Force opening with borders (default)
-W or –window-borderless
Force opening without borders
-p or –window-geometry <sx> <sy> <w> <h>
Open with lower left corner at <sx>, <sy> and width and height as <w>, <h>
-con or –start-console
Start with the console window open (ignored if -b is set), (Windows only)
–no-native-pixels
Do not use native pixel size, for high resolution displays (MacBook ‘Retina’)
Game Engine Specific Options:
-g Game Engine specific options
-g fixedtime Run on 50 hertz without dropping frames
-g vertexarrays Use Vertex Arrays for rendering (usually faster)
-g nomipmap No Texture Mipmapping
-g linearmipmap Linear Texture Mipmapping instead of Nearest (default)
Python Options:
-y or –enable-autoexec
Enable automatic Python script execution, (default)
-Y or –disable-autoexec
Disable automatic Python script execution (pydrivers & startup scripts)
-P or –python <filename>
Run the given Python script file
–python-text <name>
Run the given Python script text block
–python-expr <expression>
Run the given expression as a Python script
–python-console
Run blender with an interactive console
–addons
Comma separated list of addons (no spaces)
Debug Options:
-d or –debug
Turn debugging on
* Enables memory error detection
* Disables mouse grab (to interact with a debugger in some cases)
* Keeps Python’s ‘sys.stdin’ rather than setting it to None
–debug-value <value>
Set debug value of <value> on startup
–debug-events
Enable debug messages for the event system
–debug-ffmpeg
Enable debug messages from FFmpeg library
–debug-handlers
Enable debug messages for event handling
–debug-libmv
Enable debug messages from libmv library
–debug-cycles
Enable debug messages from Cycles
–debug-memory
Enable fully guarded memory allocation and debugging
–debug-jobs
Enable time profiling for background jobs.
–debug-python
Enable debug messages for Python
–debug-depsgraph
Enable debug messages from dependency graph
–debug-depsgraph-no-threads
Switch dependency graph to a single threaded evaluation
–debug-gpumem
Enable GPU memory stats in status bar
–debug-wm
Enable debug messages for the window manager, also prints every operator call
–debug-all
Enable all debug messages (excludes libmv)
–debug-fpe
Enable floating point exceptions
–disable-crash-handler
Disable the crash handler
Misc Options:
–factory-startup
Skip reading the “startup.blend” in the users home directory
–env-system-datafiles
Set the BLENDER_SYSTEM_DATAFILES environment variable
–env-system-scripts
Set the BLENDER_SYSTEM_SCRIPTS environment variable
–env-system-python
Set the BLENDER_SYSTEM_PYTHON environment variable
-nojoystick
Disable joystick support
-noglsl
Disable GLSL shading
-noaudio
Force sound system to None
-setaudio
Force sound system to a specific device
NULL SDL OPENAL JACK
-h or –help
Print this help text and exit
-v or –version
Print Blender version and exit
—
Ends option processing, following arguments passed unchanged. Access via Python’s ‘sys.argv’
Other Options:
/?
Print this help text and exit (windows only)
–disable-abort-handler
Disable the abort handler
-a <options> <file(s)>
Playback <file(s)>, only operates this way when not running in background.
-p <sx> <sy> Open with lower left corner at <sx>, <sy>
-m Read from disk (Don’t buffer)
-f <fps> <fps-base> Specify FPS to start with
-j <frame> Set frame step to <frame>
-s <frame> Play from <frame>
-e <frame> Play until <frame>
–debug-freestyle
Enable debug/profiling messages from Freestyle rendering
–debug-gpu
Enable gpu debug context and information for OpenGL 4.3+.
–enable-new-depsgraph
Use new dependency graph
–verbose <verbose>
Set logging verbosity level.
-R
Register .blend extension, then exit (Windows only)
-r
Silently register .blend extension, then exit (Windows only)
Experimental features:
–enable-new-depsgraph
Use new dependency graph
Argument Parsing:
Arguments must be separated by white space, eg:
# blender -ba test.blend
…will ignore the ‘a’
# blender -b test.blend -f8
…will ignore ‘8’ because there is no space between the ‘-f’ and the frame value
Argument Order:
Arguments are executed in the order they are given. eg:
# blender –background test.blend –render-frame 1 –render-output ‘/tmp’
…will not render to ‘/tmp’ because ‘–render-frame 1’ renders before the output path is set
# blender –background –render-output /tmp test.blend –render-frame 1
…will not render to ‘/tmp’ because loading the blend file overwrites the render output that was set
# blender –background test.blend –render-output /tmp –render-frame 1
…works as expected.
Environment Variables:
$BLENDER_USER_CONFIG Directory for user configuration files.
$BLENDER_USER_SCRIPTS Directory for user scripts.
$BLENDER_SYSTEM_SCRIPTS Directory for system wide scripts.
$BLENDER_USER_DATAFILES Directory for user data files (icons, translations, ..).
$BLENDER_SYSTEM_DATAFILES Directory for system wide data files.
$BLENDER_SYSTEM_PYTHON Directory for system python libraries.
$TMP or $TMPDIR Store temporary files here.
$SDL_AUDIODRIVER LibSDL audio driver – alsa, esd, dma.
$PYTHONHOME Path to the python directory, eg. /usr/lib/python.
