Launching on Windows

To launch the application on Windows, do one of the following:

Double-click the required icon on the Desktop.

Navigate to Start > All Programs > The Foundry > Nuke12.2v11 and select the required application.

Using a command prompt, navigate to the Nuke application directory (by default, \Program Files\Nuke12.2v11) and enter:

Nuke12.2.exe --studio to launch Nuke Studio.

Nuke12.2.exe --nukex to launch NukeX.

Nuke12.2.exe to launch Nuke.

Nuke12.2.exe --indie to launch Nuke Studio in Indie mode.

Note:  You can launch Nuke Studio using the --indie argument. See About Nuke Indie for more information.

Nuke12.2.exe --hiero to launch Hiero.

Nuke12.2.exe --player to launch HieroPlayer.

Nuke12.2.exe --nukeassist to launch Nuke Assist.

Note:   Nuke Assist licenses are only available as part of the NukeX or Nuke Studio package, and cannot be purchased separately. For more information, see About Nuke Assist.

If you already have a valid license, the interface appears, and a command line window opens. If you don't have a license or haven't installed one yet, proceed to Licensing on Windows.

High DPI Scaling

Nuke supports high definition displays, automatically scaling the interface using the operating system's scaling settings. Go to the Preferences Behaviors > UI Scaling sub-menu to manually set the scaling mode and scale per display, if required.

You can also use the QT_SCALE_FACTOR environment variable to force scaling to 1, 1.5, or 2. The recommended scaling factor is 1.5.

Note:  You can disable automatic scaling by setting the QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR environment variable to 0.

In multi-monitor setups, you can scale the interface independently by screen using the QT_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTORS variable. Scaling uses the same recommended factors, separated by ; (semicolon). For example, QT_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTORS="1;1.5" where the first monitor is lower resolution than the second.

See Environment Variables for more information about setting environment variables.

Command Line Startup Options

If you choose to launch the application from a command line, you can append arguments to the command as follows:

Argument

Result

--version

Displays version and copyright information.

-h (--help)

Displays the available arguments with examples.

--usehierolicense

Used with the -t option to run Nuke in terminal mode, but uses a Hiero license instead of the standard Nuke license. You can use this option to render headless Hiero exports in a similar way to headless Nuke renders.

--nukex

Launch NukeX instead of standard Nuke.

--studio

Launch Nuke Studio instead of standard Nuke.

--nukeassist

Launch Nuke Assist instead of standard Nuke.

--nc

Launch Nuke in Non-Commercial mode. See the notes farther down the page for more information.

-q (--quiet)

Launch the application without displaying the splash screen or startup dialog.

--safe

Launch the application without loading any plug-ins, Export presets, and so on.

Nuke Studio only

--log-file

Sets the location of any logfiles created. For example:

./Nuke<version> --studio --log-file /Desktop/log.txt

--log-level

Sets the level of logging produced during operation. For example:

./Nuke<version> --studio --log-level warning

Log messages are output to screen unless you specify a
--log-file. There are four levels of detail, on a sliding scale from minimal to verbose:

error

warning (default)

message

verbose

Note:  Setting the logging level to verbose can produce large log files when --log-file is specified.

--workspace

Launch Nuke Studio and apply the specified workspace. Only the workspaces listed in the Workspace menu are valid, but this includes any custom workspaces you have saved as .xml files in your .nuke folder under:

/Workspaces/NukeStudio/

See Loading Gizmos, NDK Plug-ins, and Python and Tcl Scripts for more information on locating your .nuke directory by operating system.

<project path>.hrox

Launch Nuke Studio and open the project specified. The path to the project can be absolute or relative, such as:

Nuke<version>.exe --studio C:\Users\mags\myProject.hrox

Nuke<version>.exe --studio ..\..\mags\myProject.hrox

./Nuke<version> --studio /tmp/myProject.hrox

./Nuke<version> --studio ../../myProject.hrox

<mediaFile path>

Specify the location of media to load on startup. You can import specific files or whole directories:

Nuke<version>.exe --studio C:\Users\mags\Media1.mp4

Nuke<version>.exe --studio C:\Users\mags\

./Nuke<version> --studio /tmp/myfile.mov

./Nuke<version> --studio /tmp/

--script file argv

Run the specified Python script on startup and pass the listed options to the script.

See Command Line Operations for more in-depth information on command line flags.

Nuke Analytics

In an effort to further improve quality and reliability, we ask you to allow us to collect usage statistics from the machines on which you license Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Studio, Hiero, and HieroPlayer. This usage information also assists our Support team to resolve issues more quickly.

Note:  The port number used to communicate with Foundry is 443, the same one used for uploading crash reports.

The first time you start an application, and on every major release, a dialog displays asking for permission for us to collect this information. You can enable or disable collection at any time in the Preferences under Behaviors > Startup.

Note:  This information is only collected for interactive sessions. Running applications in terminal mode or under render licenses does not upload data to Foundry.

The following list shows the information we'll collect, if you give us permission to do so:

Unique session ID

Anonymous user key

Application version string

Application name

Session start time (GMT)

Session duration (in seconds)

If the session exited cleanly

Peak memory usage

Model

Operating system

System OS version

MAC address

CPU Name

CPU Cores

GPU model name

Amount of GPU RAM

OpenGL driver version

GPU driver version

Amount of RAM

Memory speed

 

Nuke Non-commercial

If you want to try out or learn Nuke, you can run Nuke Non-commercial. This version allows you to explore most of Nuke’s features, but prevents the commercial use of the application. For more information, see About Nuke Non-commercial.

To launch the application on Windows, do one of the following:

Double-click the NukeNC, NukeXNC, or Nuke StudioNC icon on the Desktop.

Navigate to Start > All Programs > The Foundry > Nuke12.2v11 and select Nuke12.2v11NC, NukeX12.2v11NC, or NukeStudio12.2v11NC.

Using a command prompt, navigate to the Nuke application directory and enter:

Nuke12.2.exe --nc --studio to launch Nuke Studio.

Nuke12.2.exe --nc --nukex to launch NukeX.

Nuke12.2.exe --nc to launch Nuke.

If you have already activated Nuke Non-commercial on the current device, the graphical interface appears, and a command line window opens. If you haven't activated the device yet, proceed to Licensing Nuke Non-commercial on Windows.