Troubleshooting

Here are a few notes that might help you solve communications issues between the Thea Server and the Thea Render Nodes.

1. Finding the IP addresses of the machines

On Windows:

  • Open "Command Propmt"
  • Type "ipconfig"
  • Take a note on the "IPv4 Address"

On macOS:

  • Open System Preferences > Network
  • Select the network interface that you are connected to (WiFi or Ethernet)
  • Click on the "Advanced..." button
  • Switch to the "TCP/IP" tab
  • Take a note of the "IPv4 Address"

2. Checking if machines communicate

On Windows:

  • Open "Command Propmt"
  • Type "ping" followed by the IP address of the machine (e.g. ping 192.168.1.16)

On macOS

  • Open the Network Utility (/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications)
  • Switch to the "Ping" tab
  • Enter the IP address of the machine that you want to check in the empty field
  • Select the "Send only" option and set a value of 4
  • Click on the "Ping" button

4. Network Rendering in the same network

When all the machines are in the same local network and you've made sure that they are all able to communicate with each other then you can start the Thea Node on every machine acting as a node and follow the instructions here on how to start network rendering from the integrations.

5. Network Rendering in a mixed environment (Virtual Network)

When the Thea Server and the Thea Node are connected through a VPN then the IP Address of the Thea Server needs to be specified. This can be achieved either by editing the current Desktop shortcut or creating a new one.

On Windows

  • If you do not have a Thea Node shortcut on your desktop then:
    • Go to the Thea Node installation folder (default location: C:/Program Files/TheaNode/Win64)
    • Right click on the "TheaNode.exe" executable and "Send to" > "Desktop (create shortcut)"
  • Right click on the desktop shortcut and select "Properties"
  • In the Target field add the following parameters at the end of the path.
    • "C:\Program Files\TheaNode\Win64\TheaNode.exe" -port 7200 -scanner xxx.xxxx.xxx
      Where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP Address of the Thea Server machine (Thea for SketchUp / Rhino)

On macOS

  • Navigate to the TheaNode/MacOSX folder where you will find the "TheaNode_script" executable file.
  • Open the "TheaNode_script" file with a text editor
  • Replace the line: ./TheaNode with the following ./TheaNode -port 7200 -scanner xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
    Where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP Address of the the Thea Server machine (Thea for SketchUp / Rhino)
  • Save the file and execute it