Your comprehensive guide for using the Drop & Render tools.

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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. After 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, rendering continues on the farm even if you close your 3D application or turn off the workstation. 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 from any browser. Our iOS and Android apps also 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, but do not speed up slices that are already rendering.

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 have additional access to 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.

Submission API

Link includes a command-line submission API for Blender, Cinema 4D and Houdini. Use it to submit from your own scripts, queue a batch of shots or follow renders in a studio tool. Describe the render in JSON and run the dar command included with Link. Job commands return JSON so your script can read the results. No separate API key or extension is needed. Jobs use the same account, credits and priority tiers as submissions from the 3D plugins, with no additional API fee.

Set up and prepare a request

Install Link on the computer holding your project, open it and sign in. Open a new terminal and run dar status to check that Link is ready. You can also sign in with dar login. If the terminal cannot find dar, use the executable in your Link installation.

Save your scene with its camera, lighting and render settings. Unlike submitting through a 3D plugin, the API does not inspect the scene or discover its dependent files. You need to list the textures, caches and other required assets in your request. Keep these files unchanged until the upload finishes.

For a short Blender test, place render.json beside shot010.blend, with the scene's textures in a textures folder:

{
  "application": "blender",
  "version": "4.5",
  "renderer": "cycles",
  "assets": ["textures"],
  "jobs": [{
    "name": "shot010-test",
    "scene": "shot010.blend",
    "frames": {"start": 1, "end": 3},
    "output": {"directory": "renders/shot010-test", "format": "png"}
  }]
}

Run dar versions blender to find a farm version compatible with your saved scene. Relative paths in the request start from the folder containing render.json. The scene is included automatically. Keep output folders outside the inputs listed in assets, and save Blender and Cinema 4D asset references relative to the project.

For Cinema 4D, omit output.format because the format is saved in the scene. Houdini HIP requests need an absolute render_node, such as /out/karma1, and assets referenced through project or studio environment variables. Third-party renderers also need renderer_version. Use dar job prepare --help for the application-specific fields and the API guide for supported render engines and more examples.

Validate, submit and follow delivery

With Link signed in and connected, validate your request before spending credits:

dar job prepare render.json

Preparation checks the request without creating a farm render. It does not replace reviewing the scene or rendering a short test. Once the request is ready, submit it:

dar job submit render.json

Keep the returned job IDs. Use dar job status <job_id> to check render state, render progress and download progress, or open the job in the Render Monitor. Keep Link running for automatic delivery to the request's output directory. Check that downloads have finished, not just rendering, before starting a comp, encode or other step that needs the images. If a submission's outcome is unclear, check the existing job before submitting again to avoid duplicate renders.

Automating your workflow

Read JSON results from standard output and progress messages from standard error. Use dar job list to find jobs, including jobs submitted through the 3D plugins. You can also inspect slices, change priority or suspend, resume, cancel and retry work. Run dar --help or add --help to a command for the reference matching your installed Link version.

Because unattended commands do not provide a terminal confirmation, require your own approval before scripts or AI assistants submit billable renders or change jobs. For automation, use --account with the account identifier from dar status to reject actions if the account has changed. This only checks the account and cannot switch accounts or sign you in.

Extensions

Extensions connect Link to other tools in your workflow. They are optional and free to install, with farm renders charged to your normal render credits. You do not need an extension for the 3D plugins or the submission API.

Install or remove an extension

1. Open Link on the computer where you want to use the integration and sign in.
2. Open Dashboard > Extensions. If asked, choose Open Link to connect or update Link if the page requires a newer version.
3. Choose Install on AWS Deadline 10, Flamenco or MCP, then follow its setup instructions. Once installed, choose Info to find those instructions again.

Keep Link signed in and running while using an integration. To remove one, return to Dashboard > Extensions, choose Uninstall and confirm. Removing an extension does not cancel accepted farm renders or disable normal Link functions. Use the Render Monitor to cancel a render you no longer need.

AWS Deadline 10

The Deadline integration brings Drop & Render jobs into Deadline Monitor with farm progress, costs and job controls. It follows jobs submitted through a Drop & Render 3D plugin or the submission API, rather than sending native Deadline jobs to the farm.

Use Deadline 10 connected to a Direct repository. Run Monitor and Link as the same user, with permission to install repository scripts and update Monitor menus. Install AWS Deadline 10 from the Extensions dashboard, then open Scripts > Drop & Render in Monitor. Restart Monitor if the menu does not appear. AWS Deadline Cloud and Remote Connection Server connections are not supported.

Use the Drop & Render menus to change priority, suspend, resume, cancel or re-render farm jobs and retry individual slices.

Native Deadline controls do not control farm jobs, and deleting a local job does not cancel the farm render. Read progress from the Drop & Render fields and manage downloads in the web dashboard. Use one workstation per account and repository, and remember that other repository users can see imported job data.

Flamenco

The Flamenco integration adds a Drop & Render job type to Blender's Flamenco panel. Choose it for cloud rendering, or keep using Simple Blender Render for your local workers.

Set up on the computer running your Flamenco 3 Manager. Run the Manager and Link as the same user, and install the current Drop & Render Blender add-on through Dashboard > Plugins. Install Flamenco from the Extensions dashboard, then restart the Manager if prompted or if the job type does not appear. Artists already using the Flamenco add-on need no additional installation on their workstations. A remote Manager is not supported.

Submit a short image sequence with an empty output folder for each new job. Choose frame delivery to receive frames during rendering or job delivery to receive them after completion. With delivery enabled, Flamenco follows the returned frames. If you disable delivery, its task finishes after submission and you need to follow the render and download output in the dashboard. Render to an image format such as PNG or EXR, rather than FFmpeg or AVI video.

Anyone who can submit to your Manager can spend the credits of the account signed in to Link, so restrict submission access to trusted users. Cancelling a Flamenco task does not cancel an accepted farm render. Cancel it in the Drop & Render dashboard instead.

MCP for AI assistants

The MCP integration gives a compatible AI assistant access to Link's dar commands without needing shell access. Assistants that support MCP can use the submission API to prepare, submit and manage renders even if they cannot run terminal commands. An assistant that already runs dar in a terminal does not need the MCP extension.

Install MCP from the Extensions dashboard, then add the connection yourself in your assistant's MCP settings:

• Transport: Streamable HTTP
• Server URL: http://127.0.0.1:3767/mcp
• Authentication: leave unset (no separate token required).

The assistant's MCP client must run on the same computer as Link. A cloud-hosted connector cannot reach this local address. Installing the extension does not configure your assistant automatically.

Connect only trusted clients. Since MCP commands do not show terminal confirmation prompts, configure the assistant to require your approval before billable renders, job changes or support-report uploads. Start by asking it to read the dar tool's help and check Link's status, then prepare and approve a short test render.