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Tutorial 07

Scripts and Automation

Goal

This tutorial explains how to save repeated work into files and replay it later.

Main topics:

  • script
  • script-save
  • target set
  • fail-fast behavior

1. Group repeated work into scripts

If the same review sequence must be repeated, store it in a file.

Execution:

hfVisualizer --remote script D:\Work\review.ipc.txt

2. Use target set for the default instance

If you do not want to repeat --target <id> every time, set the default target first.

hfVisualizer --remote list
hfVisualizer --remote target set 8f6d1c2b
hfVisualizer --remote script D:\Work\review.ipc.txt

Important:

  • target set is not a command inside the script file
  • it is configured outside the script, at the CLI level

3. A script file contains command tails only

Inside the script file, do not repeat hfVisualizer --remote.

Example review.ipc.txt:

open D:\Work\frame.h5.hdb
camera fit
representation both
display-control grid off
write-scene D:\Work\frame.png

4. script-save records the current workflow

hfVisualizer --remote script-save D:\Work\last-session.ipc.txt

This stores the canonical command tails from the current session into a *.ipc.txt file.

The saved file can later be replayed with script.

5. Remember that scripts are fail-fast

Scripts run in fail-fast mode by default.

That means:

  • if any command in the file fails
  • execution stops at that point

For that reason, a good script usually:

  • stabilizes the target model and view state near the top
  • places exports and screenshots near the end

6. Think about --view-id per command

Some script lines may need to target a specific render view.

When that happens, first confirm in the Remote Control manual whether that command supports --view-id.

For early scripts, it is usually best to keep things simple and stay on the default activeRenderView.

  1. perform the task once in the GUI or CLI
  2. save the sequence with script-save
  3. review the saved *.ipc.txt and remove unnecessary lines
  4. rerun it later with script

Next step