PhotoMesh can run multiple fusers on a single powerful machine, to vastly increase computing efficiency and decrease build time. Each added fuser essentially functions as an additional process that can utilize more of the machine’s resources. Each process shares the demanding processing requirements of the different build steps, so adding one additional fuser, for example, can reduce build time by 50%.
Running multiple fusers is only possible on powerful machines. As a general guideline, a minimum of 8 CPU cores and 16 GB RAM is necessary per fuser, and even more (32 GB) is advisable. It is highly recommended, however, to perform your own tests with different numbers of fusers since various factors such as I/O speed, network, memory cache can affect performance.
Multiple fusers on the same machine are not supported when using Auto-Scaling AWS instances or a Fusers Pool .
This article describes two methods of launching additional fusers, one using the command line and the other using the graphical user interface (GUI).
In this article:
- Launch First Fuser and Set Working Folder
- Launch Additional Fusers from the Command Line
- Launch Additional Fusers from the User Interface
- Set the Build Manager's Working Folder
Launch First Fuser and Set Working Folder
To launch your first fuser:
- Double-click the fuser shortcut on your computer Desktop to start the fuser. A PhotoMesh fuser icon is placed in the Windows system tray.
- After launching your first fuser, you need to set a working folder. This is the folder that PhotoMesh Build Manager and PhotoMesh fusers use to communicate: to deposit and collect pending tasks, and share information about fuser availability, status and progress. More about: Setting the Working Folder on a Client Computer > This step is only required for the first fuser you launch. For all subsequent fusers, the same working folder will be set by default.
In the system tray, click the PhotoMesh Fuser icon, and then click Open PhotoMesh Fuser. The PhotoMesh Fuser dialog box is displayed. - To the right of the Working Folder field, click Change. Then in the Select Folder dialog, browse to the required folder and click Select Folder.
Launch Additional Fusers from the Command Line
To launch additional fusers from the command line (in PhotoMesh 7.8.3), run the following command from the command line for each additional fuser that you want to launch:
"C:\Program Files\Skyline\PhotoMesh\Fuser\PhotoMeshFuser.exe" "[unique numerical identifier]" "[path to working folder]" 0 true
E.g., to launch two additional fusers in parallel on one machine, run the following command lines:
>"C:\Program Files\Skyline\PhotoMesh\Fuser\PhotoMeshFuser.exe" "2" "[path to working folder]" 0 true
>"C:\Program Files\Skyline\PhotoMesh\Fuser\PhotoMeshFuser.exe" "3" "[path to working folder]" 0 true
Note: Instead of manually copying this command to your command line prompt, you can download the attached Initiating_Multiple_Fuser_Instances.bat file, and double-click to run it.
A PhotoMesh fuser icon is placed in the Windows system tray for each of the launched fusers (in our example, the first fuser plus two more).
Kill All Running Fusers
To kill all running fusers, run the following command from the command line:
>taskkill /im "PhotoMeshFuser.exe" /f
Note: Instead of manually copying this command to your command line prompt, you can download the attached Kill_All_Running_Fusers.bat file, and double-click to run it.
Launch Additional Fusers from the User Interface
To launch additional fusers from the user interface (in PhotoMesh 7.8.3), perform the following steps for each fuser that you want to add:
- Make a copy of the fuser shortcut on your computer Desktop.
- Right-click your new fuser shortcut and select Properties. The Properties dialog is displayed.
- On the Shortcut tab, in the Target field, add the following at the end of the URL:
"[unique numerical identifier]" "[path to working folder]" 0 true
e.g., "C:\Program Files\Skyline\PhotoMesh Fuser\PhotoMeshFuser.exe" "2" "[path to working folder]" 0 true. - Double-click the fuser shortcut to start the fuser. A PhotoMesh fuser icon is placed in the Windows system tray.
Set the Build Manager's Working Folder
After defining the build settings and starting the build, all of your fusers should be listed in the Fusers section of the Build Manager. If your fusers are not shown in the list, select Browse to the right of the Working Folder field, and check that the Build Manager's working folder is set to the same location as was set for the fusers. More about: Setting the Working Folder on the Master Computer >
