Getting started with InstaLOD Watchdog

About this Document

InstaLOD Watchdog is a smart solution that allows batch-processing data on a regular basis whilst detecting whether a file was already processed in a previous run. It watches over a specified folder structure and mirrors it. Changes made to the input folder structure are automatically recognized allowing for only files that have been added or changed to be processed. InstaLOD Watchdog can be triggered both manually via the Commandline or automatically by the InstaLOD Scheduler.

When connected to InstaLOD Grid, the processed tasks are automatically downloaded by InstaLOD Watchdog and deleted from the server once saved to the output location. 

Setting up Watchdog

In order to process files, a valid profile needs to be loaded.
Profiles can be loaded by specifying the -profile argument followed by a filename. To load an entire folder of profiles, use the -profilefolder argument:

 -profile <filename>

Once a profile has been loaded, a folder must be specified to watch for changes. A folder is watched by specifying the -watchdog argument followed by the <base path> . If the <base path> argument ends with /**, InstaLOD Watchdog will recursively search for all files in all sub-folders of the specified folder. Additional to the <base path>, a <search pattern> needs to be added which specifies the file format(s) to search and process:

 -watchdog <base path>(/**) <search pattern CSV>

Multiple file formats can be filtered by using a comma (*.fbx,*.gltf).

Finally, the <output path format> and <output filename format> need to be specified including the <profile name> and <file extension>.

If files are added, updated or changed in the input folder structure, they are processed through InstaLOD to mirror the output folder structure to the input.

The complete argument is the following:

InstaLODCmd -profile <filepath> -watchdog <basepath>(/**) <search pattern CSV> <output path format> <output filename format><file extension> <profile name>

Please note that adding the variable {RANDOM} to the output file name format will cause Watchdog to process every file despite if changed or not.

Example

The following command loads the Optimize.json profile. The folder structure inside of "WORK" is mirrored under the "INSTALOD" folder with every file within being processed and placed into the corresponding location with a custom name setup added.

InstaLODCmd -profile C:\InstaLOD\Documents\Profiles\Optimize.json -watchdog "C:\InstaLOD\Documents\WATCHDOG_TEST_SCENARIO\BAUREIHE1\WORK\**" "*.*" "C:\InstaLOD\Documents\WATCHDOG_TEST_SCENARIO\BAUREIHE1\INSTALOD" "{YEAR}{MONTH}{DAY}_{MESH.FILENAME}_TEST1{MESH.EXTENSION}" "OptimizeDemo" 

Final Folder Structure: