Blender Command Line Help

blender --help

Blender 2.78 (sub 0)
Usage: blender [args ...] [file] [args ...]

Render Options:

-b or --background

Run in background (often used for UI-less rendering)

-a or --render-anim

Render frames from start to end (inclusive)

-S or --scene

Set the active scene <name> for rendering

-f or --render-frame

Render frame <frame> and save it.

* +<frame> start frame relative, -<frame> end frame relative.
* A comma separated list of frames can also be used (no spaces).
* A range of frames can be expressed using '..' seperator between the first and last frames (inclusive).

-s or --frame-start

Set start to frame <frame>, supports +/- for relative frames too.

-e or --frame-end

Set end to frame <frame>, supports +/- for relative frames too.

-j or --frame-jump

Set number of frames to step forward after each rendered frame

-o or --render-output

Set the render path and file name.
Use '//' at the start of the path to render relative to the blend-file.

The '#' characters are replaced by the frame number, and used to define zero padding.

* 'ani_##_test.png' becomes 'ani_01_test.png'
* 'test-######.png' becomes 'test-000001.png'

When the filename does not contain '#', The suffix '####' is added to the filename.

The frame number will be added at the end of the filename, eg:
# blender -b foobar.blend -o //render_ -F PNG -x 1 -a
'//render_' becomes '//render_####', writing frames as '//render_0001.png'

-E or --engine

Specify the render engine
use -E help to list available engines

-t or --threads

Use amount of <threads> for rendering and other operations
[1-1024], 0 for systems processor count.

Format Options:

-F or --render-format

Set the render format, Valid options are...
        TGA RAWTGA JPEG IRIS IRIZ
        AVIRAW AVIJPEG PNG BMP
(formats that can be compiled into blender, not available on all systems)
        HDR TIFF EXR MULTILAYER MPEG FRAMESERVER QUICKTIME CINEON DPX DDS JP2

-x or --use-extension

Set option to add the file extension to the end of the file

Animation Playback Options:

-a or --render-anim

Render frames from start to end (inclusive)

Window Options:

-w or --window-border

Force opening without borders

-W or --window-borderless

Force opening without borders

-p or --window-geometry

Open with lower left corner at <sx>, <sy> and width and height as <w>, <h>

-con or --start-console

Start with the console window open (ignored if -b is set), (Windows only)

--no-native-pixels

Do not use native pixel size, for high resolution displays (MacBook 'Retina')

Game Engine Specific Options:

-g Game Engine specific options

-g fixedtime            Run on 50 hertz without dropping frames
-g vertexarrays         Use Vertex Arrays for rendering (usually faster)
-g nomipmap             No Texture Mipmapping
-g linearmipmap         Linear Texture Mipmapping instead of Nearest (default)

Python Options:

-y or --enable-autoexec

    Enable automatic Python script execution

-Y or --disable-autoexec

    Disable automatic Python script execution (pydrivers & startup scripts), (compiled as non-standard default)

-P or --python

    Run the given Python script file

--python-text

    Run the given Python script text block

--python-expr

    Run the given expression as a Python script

--python-console

    Run blender with an interactive console

--python-exit-code

    Set the exit-code in [0..255] to exit if a Python exception is raised
    (only for scripts executed from the command line), zero disables.

--addons

    Comma separated list of add-ons (no spaces)

Debug Options:

-d or --debug

    Turn debugging on

    * Enables memory error detection
    * Disables mouse grab (to interact with a debugger in some cases)
    * Keeps Python's 'sys.stdin' rather than setting it to None

--debug-value

    Set debug value of <value> on startup

--debug-events

    Enable debug messages for the event system

--debug-ffmpeg

    Enable debug messages from FFmpeg library

--debug-handlers

    Enable debug messages for event handling

--debug-libmv

    Enable debug messages from libmv library

--debug-cycles

    Enable debug messages from Cycles

--debug-memory

    Enable fully guarded memory allocation and debugging

--debug-jobs

    Enable time profiling for background jobs.

--debug-python

    Enable debug messages for Python

--debug-depsgraph

    Enable debug messages from dependency graph

--debug-depsgraph-no-threads

    Switch dependency graph to a single threaded evaluation

--debug-gpumem

    Enable GPU memory stats in status bar

--debug-wm

    Enable debug messages for the window manager, also prints every operator call

--debug-all

    Enable all debug messages

--debug-fpe

    Enable floating point exceptions

--disable-crash-handler

    Disable the crash handler

Misc Options:

--factory-startup

    Skip reading the BLENDER_STARTUP_FILE in the users home directory

--env-system-datafiles

    Set the BLENDER_SYSTEM_DATAFILES environment variable

--env-system-scripts

    Set the BLENDER_SYSTEM_SCRIPTS environment variable

--env-system-python

    Set the BLENDER_SYSTEM_PYTHON environment variable

-nojoystick

    Disable joystick support

-noglsl

    Disable GLSL shading

-noaudio

    Force sound system to None

-setaudio

    Force sound system to a specific device
    NULL SDL OPENAL JACK

-h or --help

    Print this help text and exit

-R

    Register blend-file extension, then exit (Windows only)

-r

    Silently register blend-file extension, then exit (Windows only)

-v or --version

    Print Blender version and exit

--

    Ends option processing, following arguments passed unchanged. Access via Python's 'sys.argv'

Other Options:

/?

    Print this help text and exit (windows only)

--disable-abort-handler

    Disable the abort handler

-a <file(s)>

    Playback <file(s)>, only operates this way when not running in background.
            -p <sx> <sy>    Open with lower left corner at <sx>, <sy>
            -m              Read from disk (Do not buffer)
            -f <fps> <fps-base>             Specify FPS to start with
            -j <frame>      Set frame step to <frame>
            -s <frame>      Play from <frame>
            -e <frame>      Play until <frame>

--debug-freestyle

    Enable debug messages for FreeStyle

--debug-gpu

    Enable gpu debug context and information for OpenGL 4.3+.

--enable-new-depsgraph

    Use new dependency graph

--enable-new-basic-shader-glsl

    Use new GLSL basic shader

--verbose

    Set logging verbosity level.

Experimental Features:

--enable-new-depsgraph

    Use new dependency graph

--enable-new-basic-shader-glsl

    Use new GLSL basic shader

Argument Parsing:

    Arguments must be separated by white space, eg:
    
    # blender -ba test.blend
    ...will ignore the 'a'
    
    # blender -b test.blend -f8
    ...will ignore '8' because there is no space between the '-f' and the frame value

Argument Order:

    Arguments are executed in the order they are given. eg:
    # blender --background test.blend --render-frame 1 --render-output '/tmp'
    ...will not render to '/tmp' because '--render-frame 1' renders before the output path is set
    # blender --background --render-output /tmp test.blend --render-frame 1
    ...will not render to '/tmp' because loading the blend-file overwrites the render output that was set
    # blender --background test.blend --render-output /tmp --render-frame 1
    ...works as expected.

Environment Variables:

$BLENDER_USER_CONFIG      Directory for user configuration files.

$BLENDER_USER_SCRIPTS     Directory for user scripts.

$BLENDER_SYSTEM_SCRIPTS   Directory for system wide scripts.

$BLENDER_USER_DATAFILES   Directory for user data files (icons, translations, ..).

$BLENDER_SYSTEM_DATAFILES Directory for system wide data files.

$BLENDER_SYSTEM_PYTHON    Directory for system python libraries.

$TEMP                     Store temporary files here.

$SDL_AUDIODRIVER          LibSDL audio driver - alsa, esd, dma.

$PYTHONHOME               Path to the python directory, eg. /usr/lib/python.