Appendix A: Environment Variables

Before using Alias, you may want to set environment variables in order to specify directories in which Alias searches for data files, or to set specific Alias behavior.

You set and unset environment variables using the UNIX commands, setenv and unsetenv. For example, to set the environment variable AW_LOCATION to /usr/aw, you would type the following (assuming you are using a csh shell): 



setenv AW_LOCATION /usr/aw

You can specify environment variables individually before each session, or you can place them in your .cshrc or .login file so that they are automatically set when you log in to your system. In some cases, you can also set environment variables directly through the Alias user interface. To see your environment variable settings, use the UNIX command, printenv.

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Note: All environment variables that are required to run Alias properly are contained in the default .cshrc file included with Alias. If you make changes to the environment variables in your .cshrc file and encounter problems, run setupacct from /usr/aw/alias/bin (or from the Alias install CD) to regenerate the default .cshrc file.

Environment variables used in Version 8.5.2 are listed below in alphabetical order.

ALIAS_APP_PROJECT (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

Overrides the CURRENT_PROJECT defined in the .AliasBrowserPrefs and defines the project Alias will start-up in.
Parameters: a valid project file name, which is a directory name in user_data (not including dumpster) containing all needed subdirectories.
Default: none

ALIAS_ALT_FONTDIR (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The location the user can place alternate font files for use in their Alias session.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: none

ALIAS_BITMAP_LOCATION (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The location where additional icon images can be found.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: .Alias/bitmaps

ALIAS_HIDDEN_CASTS_SHADOWS (Rendering)

Causes hidden objects to cast shadows. You can also set this in the UI under Render > Render Globals.
Parameters: none
Default: OFF when undefined

ALIAS_ALT_HELP

By default the Help directory is expected to be below the distribution location ALIAS_LOCATION. This environment variable will allow the user to set an alternate path to the Help directory. That path may be an HTML link. Whatever the path is set to, Alias expects a directory named "Help" to be at that location.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: OFF when undefined

ALIAS_HPGL_CFG (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The location of the plotter configuration file hp_gl.cfg.
Parameters: a valid path to a file
Default: $ALIAS_LOCATION/sys/install/hp_gl.cfg

ALIAS_ILLUMINATED_SHADOWS_ONLY (Rendering)

Causes all objects to cast shadows, including objects not linked with shadow casting lights (barring their own cast-shadows flags).
Parameters: none
Default: OFF when undefined

ALIAS_LIGHTFOG_BLOBBY (Rendering)

Allows better fog integration with blobby particles, assuming your dominant effects come from blobby particles. (Renderers normally perform fog integration well with non-blobby particles (ex. gas, thin gas), but less so with blobby particles.)
Parameters: none
Default: OFF when undefined

ALIAS_LOCATION (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The path Alias will use to resolve references to resource files required by the Alias executable, such as DSO library files and scheme files.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: $AW_LOCATION/alias

ALIAS_LOGO (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

Overrides the Standard Alias Splash screen with an alternate image (specified by the absolute path to the image).
Parameters: a valid path to a file
Default: none

ALIAS_MAX_TS_PROCESSORS (Rendering)

Sets the number of processors used for tessellation by the powertracer.
Parameters: an integer representing the number of processors
Default: 1

ALIAS_MULTI_JITTER (Rendering)

Invokes a new, experimental point sampling technique for anti-aliasing that is better at noise generation, but may take longer.
Parameters: none
Default: OFF

ALIAS_NO_LOGO (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

Disables the Alias Splash screen. Outputs to the Splash Screen will appear in the UNIX shell or, if started from the icon, in the Console.
Parameters: none
Default: OFF

ALIAS_OCRPATH (Rendering)

The path relative to ALIAS_RENDERLOCATION where the Open Render Plug-ins reside. For example, if the .o files for the Open Render plug-ins are in /usr/larry/render/plugins and you are rendering in /usr/larry/, then ALIAS_OCRPATH should be set to render/plugins.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: '.' (the current working directory)

ALIAS_PIX_SEARCHPATH (Rendering)

The directory where file textures can be found. This is defined in the .cshrc file as $ALIAS_LIB_LOCATION/pix/* .
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: ./texture if not set by the .cshrc file.

ALIAS_PLOT_INIT (Alias|Wavefront Plotting Control)

The plotter's initialization string, placed at the beginning of the HPGL2 files if wanted.
Parameters: the plotter's initialization string
Default: <ESC %-1BBPIN (<ESC is the escape key for HPGL2; its hex value is 0x1b)

ALIAS_POWER_STACKSIZE (Rendering)

Sets the maximum size (in bytes) of the per process stack for the multi-processor renderers on UNIX systems (PowerCaster and PowerTracer). 2MB of stack per processor is sufficient for most renders; however, if the stack becomes exhausted in a PowerCast or PowerTrace of a given SDL (a stack error, not an out of memory error), use this environment variable to increase the amount of stack given to each processor.
The trade off is that there is only 2GB of addressable space with 32 bit applications, and more address space devoted to stack means less address space available for model and texture data. The UNIX default stack size of 32MB will quickly use up most of the available address space on machines with large numbers of CPUs.
Parameters: an unsigned integer representing the number of bytes to use for per process stack
Default: 2 (MB)

ALIAS_PROJECT (Alias|Wavefront Studio) (obsolete)

Setting this variable has no effect on the Alias executable; however, in the default .cshrc file distributed by Alias, this variable is set to the value of ALIAS_DEFAULT_PROJECT from the .AliasPrefs file, and is referenced in UNIX command aliases defined by that .cshrc file.
Parameters: a valid project file name
Default: demo

ALIAS_PS_PAGESIZE

If this variable is set, there will be a pagesize header (containing comments) in the generated postscript file. This is for those plotters that understand postscript pagesize setting.
If it is not set, this header is commented out. For those plotters that do not understand postscript pagesize settings, it can be ignored.
Parameters: 0 (unset), 1 (set)
Default: 0 (unset)

ALIAS_PSPLOT_INIT (Alias|Wavefront Plotting Control)

Inserts Postscript commands just after the Postscript initialization in the Postscript file generated by the plot command. A knowledge of Postscript commands is necessary to use this variable. See also ALIAS_PLOT_INIT.
Parameters: strings of Postscript commands
Default: no Postscript commands are inserted

ALIAS_PSPLOT_INIT2 (Alias|Wavefront Plotting Control)

Inserts Postscript commands just after the viewport commands in the Postscript file generated by the plot command. A knowledge of Postscript commands is necessary to use this variable.
Parameters: strings of Postscript commands
Default: no Postscript commands are inserted

ALIAS_REFLECTION_ONLY (Rendering)

Sets all reflection-only objects visible for reflection rays only. Used for raytracer/powertracer only, when the reflection-only tag is set on (under render stats).
Parameters: none
Default: OFF (all reflection-only objects are visible for reflection and refraction rays)

ALIAS_RENDERLOCATION (Rendering)

The location from which you are rendering (used for Open Render only).
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: none

ALIAS_RT_BACKGROUND_ON (Rendering)

Sets reflection and refraction rays which do not hit anything to return either the background color or black (during ray tracing only).
Parameters:

1 reflection and refraction rays which hit nothing return the background color
0 reflection and refraction rays which hit nothing return black

Default: refraction rays return the background color; reflection rays return black

ALIAS_RT_SHADOW_OFFSET (Rendering)

Sets the shadow offset to be used during ray tracing (to avoid self-shadowing).
Parameters: a floating point value
Default: OFF

ALIAS_SDL_LONGFORM (Rendering)

Allows many more comments to be included in the SDL file. The quantity of comments was reduced to make SDL files smaller as of V7.0.
Parameters: none
Default: OFF when undefined

ALIAS_SHADOW_FARCLIP (Rendering)

Sets the far clipping plane of the shadow map. Use only when light fog (and resulting shadows) is shone into the distance.
Parameters: a floating point value
Default: OFF

ALIAS_SP_LOCATION (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The location of Studio Paint (defined in the .cshrc file).
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: $AW_LOCATION/studiopaint

ALIAS_SWITCH_SCANLINES_ EVEN_ODD_SENSE (Rendering)

Causes field rendered images to be constructed in the format that Composer expects, versus the (now obsolete) format that the old Alias video output facility expected (the default).
Parameters: none
Default: OFF

ALIAS_TEMP_DIR (Animation)

A temporary directory used when invoking movieplayer, if TMPDIR is not defined.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: /usr/tmp (if neither TMPDIR nor ALIAS_TEMP_DIR are defined)

ALIAS_TEMP_DIRECTORY (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The temporary directory used by the Alias store and retrieve routines. This path may be used as an alternative to TMPDIR (for example, when you are working with large models which generate large wire images, and do not wish to, or cannot, have such a large TMPDIR partition).
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: none

ALIAS_TO_INVENTOR_OPTS (Data Transfer)

Specifies the default options to be used by the AlToIv (Alias Wire File to Inventor/VRML file) conversion program. Options specified on the command line when AlToIv is executed override the default options specified via this environment variable.
Parameters: see the following table.

-help output ALIAS_TO_INVENTOR_OPTS parameters (listed below)
-binary output binary inventor
-ascii output ascii inventor
-verbose be a bit louder
-quiet operate with no feedback
-notransforms output world space objects
-alltransforms output full hierarchy with transforms at each DAG node and object space objects
-transforms output required transforms at each DAG node and object space objects
-tri tessellate all NURBS surfaces to triangles using render stats window settings
-quad tessellate all NURBS surfaces to quads (where possible) using render stats window settings
-nurb

output NURBS surfaces

-cameras output cameras
-nocameras don't output cameras
-instances convert Alias instances to Inventor instances
-noinstances convert Alias instances to copies
-inline create inline texture data instead of references
-noinline create referenced textures where possible (for file textures only)
-inventory create a single Inventor material or texture per Alias material or texture, and instance per object
-noinventory create an Inventor material or texture per object
-units name output units with specified name, where name is: MICRONS, MILLIMETERS, CENTIMETERS, METERS, KILOMETERS, INCHES, FEET, MILES.
-nounits don't output units
-scale scale scale Inventor file by specified amount
-xres resolution for non-file textures sample to this resolution
-yres resolution for non-file textures sample to this resolution

Default: -ascii -quiet -notransforms -nurb -nocameras -noinstances -noinline - noinventory -nounits -scale 1.0 -xres resolution 256 - yres resolution 256

ALIAS_USE_IRIX5_RENDERER (Rendering)

Causes the Irix5.3 renderer to be used instead of the new and improved N32 renderer. Look in $ALIAS_LOCATION/bin for the renderer names. (Used by old versions of Alias.)
Parameters: none
Default: OFF

ALIAS_V5_USE_BACKGROUND (Rendering)

Adds lighting on top of a use-background colored surface.
Parameters: none
Default: OFF

ALIAS_WORKENV (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The location Alias makes the current working directory on execution of Alias (that is, the directory above the user_data directory the user wishes to use with Alias). This environment variable is set to $HOME in the .cshrc file.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: '.' (the current working directory) if not defined in the .cshrc file.

ALIAS_WORLDSPACE_TIMEOUT (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

Sets the time out value (in machine clock ticks) used for controlling how long the world space texturing "unfolding" process will iterate towards a solution before being timed out. In general it is possible for the world space unfolding to take an infinite or near-infinite amount of time to converge to a proper un-folded solution. A time out prevents the system from locking up when encountering such surfaces.
Parameters: one unsigned integer clock tick number
Default: (3*60)*1e6 (approximately 3 minutes)

ALPHA_DIRECTORY (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The location of the Alias mask file associated with a particular Alias RGB file.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: ../mask

ALPHA_SUFFIX (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The suffix added to an Alias RGB file name to create the associated mask file name.
Parameters: valid file suffix characters
Default: none

AW_LOCATION (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The location of the installation tree for all Alias|Wavefront products (defined in the Alias|Wavefront standard .cshrc file). It can be an nfs mount point to another machine that is acting as a software server, but is best implemented as a local directory for performance reasons.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: /usr/aw

AW_PROD_ENV (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The Alias|Wavefront Production Environment is set to either studio, tav, or explore in the Alias|Wavefront standard .cshrc file according to which package is installed. It is used by Composer and other applications that are common between environments to determine which set of environment variables to use.
Parameters: studio, tav, or explore
Default: studio, tav, or explore

DISPLAY (UNIX: X Windows)

The host and/or screen that X11 (the window system) uses for the display. Alias|Wavefront products do not respect this setting and will only display on the local screen.
Parameters: hostname:displaynumber.screennumber (for example, spiff:0.0)
Default: ':0.0'

DRCTMPDIR (Rendering)

The temporary directory (TMPDIR) used by the Distributed Render Controller (DRC).
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: /usr/tmp

DT_DOWNLOAD_DIR (Games)

The directory where download files are placed. The sample psx_endscript script copies files here. The path can include external devices (PCs on the network). (Used for the Sony PlayStation and Direct 3D game translators.)
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: none

DT_EXPORT_DIR (Games)

The directory where exported files are created.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: '.' (the current working directory)

DT_PLUGIN_LOCATION (Games)

The directory where translators can be found.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: none

EDITOR (UNIX)

A fall-back resource used in the databrowser if ALIAS_EDITOR (ASCII Editor) is not set, or if ALIAS_EDITOR is set to Custom and ALIAS_EDITOR_APP (Custom editor) is not set under Editor Options in Alias Preferences.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: none

FIXED_DISPLACEMENT (Rendering)

Sets displacement mapping to ignore the magnitude of the tangents, and displace the geometry a fixed distance from the original surface regardless of deformation or parameterization of the original surface.
Parameters: none
Default: OFF

GAMES_DATA_DIR (Alias|Wavefront Studio) (obsolete)

The directory used to write temporary files for some older Game utilities (RTG 1.8, Sega translator 1.0) and some plug-ins (showTexGrp, ChkGameTag).
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: /usr/tmp

GAMES_LOCATION (Alias|Wavefront Studio)

The base directory for Games system files. The user may define this environment variable to override the default value used by the Alias script.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: $ALIAS_LOCATION/ODS/Games

GRAPH (Alias|Wavefront Explore)

The directory containing all Explore projects. The user must set this environment variable in the .cshrc file.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: $HOME

HOME (UNIX)

The user's home directory. This system environment variable is set automatically during login, and should not normally be changed.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: the user's home directory

ILICVT (IRIX - Image Vision)

The user settable input conversion program for ILIB.
Parameters: a valid path to a file
Default: toimg

ILOCVT (IRIX - Image Vision)

The user settable output conversion program for ILIB.
Parameters: a valid path to a file
Default: imgcvt

PATH (UNIX)

A list of paths to 'bin' directories where executables are found. This environment variable is set in the .cshrc file.
Parameters: valid directories separated by a ':'
Default: /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin

PROJ (Alias|Wavefront Explore)

The name of the current Explore project (set in the .cshrc file).
Parameters: a valid file name
Default: $PROJ

SEPARATE_GLOW_FILES (Rendering)

Writes an image <pixfilename>.glow that contains only the glow aspects.
Parameters: none
Default: OFF

SHELL (UNIX)

The name of the current shell (for example, csh, sh, ksh, bsh) generated during login from the last field of the user's entry in /etc/passwd .
Parameters: do not change
Default: csh (typically)

TMPDIR (UNIX)

The location for temporary files created by any programs running in UNIX.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: /usr/tmp

UNIFORM_HAIR_NOISE (Rendering)

Sets uniform hair noise (to be used when hair shows significant flicker during an animation).
Parameters: none
Default: OFF

USER (UNIX)

The current session's user id name. This environment variable is set automatically during login, and should not normally be changed. It is modified by su and login commands.
Parameters: do not change
Default: user id name

WF_AV_DIR (Alias|Wavefront Explore)

A list of directories to be searched by Quick Render and Record to find the devices file for the video drivers (the same file used by Composer).
Parameters: valid paths to directories separated by ':'s
Default: .:$HOME:/../userconfig:/usr/aw/userconfig

WF_DEVICES (Alias|Wavefront Explore)

The location and name of the devices file of available video drivers used by Quick Render and Record.
Parameters: a valid path to a file
Default: devices

WF_EXD_DIR, WF_EXP_DIR, WF_EXT_DIR (Alias|Wavefront Explore)

Adds 3Design to the Utilities menu. These variables must be set to valid values for the 3Design environment; however, Studio only requires that they be set (to anything) or not.
Parameters: none
Default: OFF

WF_VC_DIR (Alias|Wavefront Explore)

The location of video driver executables used by Quick Render and Record.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Default: the path where Composer is found in the executable search path

XAPPLRESDIR (UNIX: X Windows)

The location used by X (the window system) to search for resource files set by a user to override the defaults.
Parameters: a valid path to a directory
Example of a valid path: ~bob/lib/X11/app-defaults
Default: none



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