Where is Pre-Populate GPU Cache in MAXtoA

[mpowers]

Arnold plugin MtoA has a Pre-Populate GPU Cache menu command: I cannot locate this.

[peter.horvath6V6K3]

It's located in the Utilities menu.

[mpowers]

Thnx. However, these option don't seem to be available to me. Please advise. Thnx

[Stephen.Blair · Accepted solution]

For MAXtoA, you need to reset the workspace to default, and restart 3ds Max

You may need to open the Render Setup to get the Arnold menu back.

[mpowers]

There be another way. I have a very customized workspace. Where are the MaxtoA commands located in actions?

[mpowers]

Stephan, thank you for your help. The Arnold menu is quite different in Max from Maya! How about you all SolidAngle/Autodesk finish writing the 3ds MAX manual, so we don't have to look at Maya screenshots and decipher Maya terminology that mean nothing to a 3ds MAX user?

On the general usability of MaxtoA:

1. I had to modify a .py scrypt to write segmented batch scripts to network render Denoicer.exe! This should be integrated into backburner, like any other rendering task.
2. The Denoicer and AOV fileoutput are merged together on a single rollout when they have different functions. This is needlessly confusing.

Thnx

[Stephen.Blair]

The screenshot on this page shows the MAXtoA Arnold menu, where did you see the Maya screenshot?

https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AF3DSUG/Arnold+Menu

[mpowers]

It was the link in your answer: <<It's located in the Utilities menu.>>

I search for Pre-populate GPU here: https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AF3DSUG/Arnold+for+3DS+Max+User+Guide

But it found a multitude of non-3ds MAX links. Maybe I don’t understand how to limit the scope of my search to MaxToA manual…

[Stephen.Blair]

To search the MAXtoA documentation only:

1. Search for the search term
2. Select the Arnold for 3DS Max space
3. (optional) Search pages only, so you don't see attachments

[mpowers]

Stephen, can you tell me how to add those action to the Arnold menu in customize? Rebuilding all of our workspaces is not an option for us.

[aaronfross]

This had me scratching my head, as well. Surely there must be a more elegant solution than making users reset their workspaces to the factory default.

I also had to restart Max... the Arnold menu disappeared when I reset the workspace. Launching the Render Settings window didn't bring it back.

Populating the GPU cache takes a really long time. In the Getting Started document, it said up to 15 minutes. The MAXtoA doc says "a few minutes". I started populating the GPU cache in Maya and then started the process of figuring out how to do that in Max... couldn't find the menu, looked it up here, found the answer, resolved the issue in Max, came back here to write this reply... and Maya is still only 70% finished. I think the docs should give users a realistic idea of how long this takes. "A few minutes" is not accurate. "Up to 15 minutes" is much more accurate.

Thanks

[thiago.ize]

Another option for those comfortable with the command line is to run "kick -gpu_warm". kick should be included with all plugins.

[Stephen.Blair]

You can do it in Maxscript:

actionMan.executeAction 695602995 "10"

[michiel.van.gasse]

Same here, the Arnold menu is gone.

Fixed with the new update. 😉

[mpowers]

Thnx both answers solve my problem. I do think the Arnold menu commands should be integrated into actions like every one else's is.

[nicola.stefano.jannuzzo]

In 3.0.65, the pre-population can also be run by a new button in the rendering options.