Note: If you're setting up a 3D application, start with its dedicated Cinema 4D, Blender or Houdini manual. This page covers the tools shared by every Drop & Render workflow.
The Drop & Render Link
The Drop & Render Link is a lightweight background application connecting your workstation to the render farm. The plugin inside your 3D application gathers your settings and files; the Drop & Render Link registers the job, reuses files already on the farm and uploads the rest while you keep working.
The Drop & Render Link has no main render interface. It lives in your system tray or menu bar, keeps itself and your plugins up to date and automatically delivers completed frames to the output folder selected in your 3D application. Monitor jobs, inspect logs and manage your account in the web dashboard. If support needs diagnostic information, choose Send Report in the 3D plugin.
You can use the Drop & Render Link on one workstation at a time. To move to another computer, open the Drop & Render Link there and confirm the switch when prompted.
Once a project has finished uploading, you can close your 3D application or turn off the workstation; rendering continues on the farm. Keep the Drop & Render Link open when you want completed files delivered automatically.
Web dashboard
The web dashboard is where you monitor and manage renders, download files, manage your account and contact support. You can open it from any browser; our iOS and Android apps provide access to render monitoring while you're away from your workstation.
Setting up your workstation
After creating an account, setup opens automatically. Install and open the Drop & Render Link, then choose the detected Cinema 4D, Blender or Houdini installations that need our plugin. You can return to Dashboard > Plugins later to manage plugins or add an installation that was not detected.
Your 3D application must be closed while installing or removing a plugin.
Monitoring and managing renders
The dashboard overview shows your active renders alongside your credit balance and recent account activity. Open the Render Monitor for the complete active and archived render lists.
Open a render to see its progress, cost, priority and individual slices. From there you can:
- Review slice progress and render logs
- Suspend, resume or cancel a render
- Change its priority
- Resubmit a previous render
- Download the complete output or selected slices
You can also change priority directly from a render's row in the Render Monitor. Higher priorities receive available machines sooner; changing priority does not make a slice (not render) that is already rendering run faster.
Use groups in the Render Monitor to organize related renders. Select multiple renders to group them, or move renders into and out of an existing group. Jobs created by one multi-job submission may be grouped automatically.
Downloads
Completed frames automatically return to the output folder selected in your 3D application while the Drop & Render Link is open. If you close the Drop & Render Link, delivery resumes when you reopen it.
Outputs remain available for seven days. If you need a manual copy, open the render in the dashboard and choose Download all. To download specific frames, select their slices, choose Download, then choose Selected slices. Contact support if automatic and dashboard downloads both fail.
Account and studio settings
Use Account settings to manage your personal details, billing information, security, two-factor authentication and automatic top-ups. Studio administrators can also manage shared render settings and team members.
Every team member has their own login and render queue while sharing the studio's credits and cloud storage. Members can submit and manage their own renders; administrators can also manage the studio's users, billing and renders. There is no additional per-seat charge.
Credits and billing (frozen credits)
One render credit equals €1. Credits do not expire, and failed slices are not charged. You can buy credits, configure automatic top-ups and download invoices from the dashboard.
If the available balance may not cover the rest of an active render, the account can be placed on hold. Existing progress is preserved and the render resumes after you add enough credits. The balance may appear higher than the render's remaining estimate because completed work is charged as slices finish.