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Each full, GUI-based license of RealFlow can be launched in command line mode and Next Limit Technologies also offers “Simulation Node” licenses without an interface. For more information, please visit Next Limit's RealFlow homepage or contact our sales department.
How to Trigger Command Line Simulations from the GUI
RealFlow’s home directory does not show a particular application for launching the command line application. As mentioned before, it is not a separate program, it is just another way of starting the program. Before you fire off the “NOGUI” version, your scene has to be simulation-ready – just as if you are about to start a simulation in the “GUI” version. This does not only concern body dynamics, particle or grid fluid simulations, but also meshing and even Maxwell “FIRE” previews.
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When your simulation is finished and you do not want to perform any command line tasks, please do not forget to uncheck the simulation menu's entry.
How to Trigger Command Line Simulations Manually
Another method is to open a terminal window from your operating system (e.g. Bash, Terminal or Window’s command line – “DOS”) and call it from RealFlow’s directory. This is done with the “cd” command:
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prompt> ./bin/realflow -nogui
Command Line Version Flags
The RealFlow command line version provides a wide variety of settings to customize a simulation. The most important option is “scenePath”, because it describes the “way” to a project file. If it is not set correctly, RealFlow aborts the simulation process. You have to be especially careful when your file is located on another volume or the folders contain blanks. Folder names with special characters should be avoided under all circumstances, not only in combination with RealFlow. Under Windows a scene path could look like this:
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Flag | Arguments | Function |
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nogui |
| Opens the command line application. |
help |
| Prints out a description of all available flags and arguments. |
info | Shows information about the RealFlow and the used operating/computer system. | |
license |
| Forces the application to read the license again. |
mesh |
| Triggers the mesh engine. |
maxwell | Create a Maxwell Render preview with the command line version. | |
reset | Resets the scene before the simulation starts. | |
useCache |
| Resumes a simulation from a frame with cached data. The starting cached frame is set using the "range" option. |
threads | Number of threads | Determine the number of CPUs/cores. |
range | Start frame and end frame | Simulates only within the given frame range. |
log | Path to the log file | Writes simulation information to a log file. |
idoc | IDOC name | Define an IDOC for the command line simulation. |
script | Path to the desired batch script | Use an external batch script file (.rfs) with your simulation. |
graph | Path to the desired graph file | Use an external RealFlow graph file (.rfg) with your simulation. |
Command Line Previews
If you have already had a look at the table with the flags, then you know that it is even possible to render previews with RealFlow's implementation of the Maxwell Render engine via the command line application. The “-maxwell” flag tells RealFlow that it has to switch from simulation to render mode. An example (Linux):
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