< Previous | Contents | Manuals Home | Boris FX | Next >

‌Command-Line Arguments

For workflow integration, you may want to start SynthEyes under the control of a command-line shell and provide arguments to tell it what to do. For example, you may wish to have SynthEyes open a new shot and configure it. Rather than pre-defining many command-line arguments for SynthEyes, you may tell SynthEyes to start a script, and have the script parse the arguments in a manner that is efficient for you.

SynthEyes currently uses the following command-line arguments:

-b SynthEyes will open the batcher dialog and run unattended.

-license filename Read this floating license file.

-log filename For floating licensing, write a log file here. It can’t tell you how your firewalls are blocking communications!

-mw Mouse-wheel fix for linux (should now be unnecessary)

-port NNN -pin pin_code Port and pin code for connecting to

SynthEyes from external python scripts (both are required). Not recommended: usually either python should start SynthEyes, or SynthEyes should start python—in those cases the port/pin will be chosen automatically. This is primarily for debugging.

-run human_script_name The named tool script will be run at startup.

The name is the user-readable name inside the script that you see on the menu, not the file name (see -start below).

-scripts directory Look for Sizzle, Python, and Synthia scripts in the specified directory. See below.

-start script_file_name The script file name will be run once

SynthEyes starts. The filename can be .szl,

.py, or .sia.

-v or --version Show the SynthEyes version, then exit.

plain_file_name (the last) plain file will be opened as a .sni scene file; as a mesh if it is a .dxf, .obj, .sbm, or .xyz; or as a script if it is a .szl, .py, or .sia.

Arguments that are not processed by SynthEyes are presented to (all) scripts via the list Scene.ARGV. Any file name you include on a command line should always be enclosed in quotes in case it contains spaces.

To be 100% certain of never conflicting with possible future SynthEyes-defined command-line arguments, you can start your own arguments with “--“ : “--keepAlpha” for example.

It is often convenient to separate the command-line command from its value. But the value can be mistaken for a file name to be opened. To avoid that, use commands that start with “+”, for example, “+aspect 2.40 --keepAlpha

+outHRES 4096 +rate 23.976”.

See the generic OpenFile.szl script for how to open a shot in a script based on command-line arguments.

Note that you can not run the user interface by remote control from inside a Sizzle script and that functionality should not be expected from Sizzle in the future. When a tool script runs, it is an atomic operation that creates a single undo object; menu and UI controls do scene, user-interface, and undo manipulations that can not be embedded in a tools’ undo object. For that purpose, you can use Python or Synthia scripts.

< Previous | Contents | Manuals Home | Boris FX | Next >

©2026 Boris FX, Inc. — UNOFFICIAL — Converted from original PDF.