Running 2 blenders at once?

Support Basics & Interface
1

Is it possible to run more than one copy of Blender at a time?

While rendering an animation, blender seems essentially frozen. I would like to be able to open and work on another file, while the animation is rendering.

Perhaps running a different version?

Has anyone tried this?

I’m on a mac powerbook, os 10.3.9, 512 Mb ram

Thanks

Whit

2

Seems to work fine for me, although I didn’t try to do too much. I’m using linux.

3

I have always done it. What stops you from trying?

4

Why didn’t I think of that?
I must be stupid…

5

Hey, I can open several copies of Blender at the same time. (XP Pro)

6

Well, it works on my mac, too… easier than I thought: I just created a copy of the blender application folder, and opened the second copy with no problem.

7

At least on windows, you don’t even have to make a copy. Just click the icon twice. Get this, you can even render two scenes at a time, although they both go half as fast, but this was useful when I left for a week, and had to have a portfolio done two days after I got back, I opened 3 copies of Blender with different files, and then set them to render, when I got back, three animations done! (If they are really complicated files with lots of large textures, you’ll want to render in x and y parts or your system will have to use virtual memory :o or run out altogether. :o :o)

8

yea i do that alot… but my images render quickly so i never trully have to

in reality im just multi tasking not as if it is a necessity

9

For Windows users: to ensure that the Blender instance that is not rendering works quickly rather than being very slow, open task manager and, under processes, change the priority of the rendering Blender to Below Normal. This way, it’ll be using the CPU to render only when it’s not required by most other programs.

10

in case of any of you are unaware of how to do the following, hit ctrl + alt + delete

and to change the priority side click the process blender and choose its priority

11

When I open two copies of Blender and I render in one, I can’t access the other one until it’s finished rendering. It’s just black.

12

well if you move the render screen, maximize, minimize or run anything over it then that will happen

13

Or use one version of Blender and render at the command prompt.
P

14

You’ll get faster render times if you forego the Blender GUI. Use the normal blender to set up your animation but at the point where you hit ANIM don’t, just save and quit. Then click Start –> Run and enter something like

C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\blender.exe -b D:\fooey\kablooey\kazoo.blend -a

Other useful command line arguments:

-S Scene.002    Set to scene "Scene.002"
-f 12           Render frame "12" and save it (not an animation option)
-s 15           Start rendering at frame "15" (use with -a)
-e 2496         Stop rendering after frame "2496" (use with -a)
-a              Render an animation

Notice that you can omit the end frame option if you wish to render to the end. You can also omit the start frame option if you wish to render the entire animation.

Output will be placed where it is defined in your blend file.

15

I’ve had up to three copies running at one time on my quad core g5 :smiley:

16

Works on my ibook 2! Render one and modeling the other, sometimes it crash if I push it to hard.

I’ve had up to three copies running at one time on my quad core g5

makes me jealous!