Understanding Project Statuses on Your Dashboard
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Each project in your dashboard is assigned a status that reflects its current stage in the rendering pipeline, along with relevant actions or additional information. In this guide, we’ll explain what each status means and how you can interact with your projects at every step.
Evaluation Statuses
Every uploaded project goes through several evaluation stages before a quote is generated. These statuses indicate which part of the evaluation is currently running and normally progress automatically without requiring any action from you.
Starting Evaluation: Upload Received
As soon as your upload finishes, your project enters the Starting Evaluation stage. During this step, our system registers the project, queues it for processing, and prepares the files for analysis.
This stage usually lasts only a few moments before automatically progressing to the next step. No action is required from your end.
Gathering Details: Reading Your Project
During the Gathering Details stage, BoltRenders scans your project to collect important information such as the Blender version, render engine, frame range, output settings, and other metadata required for evaluation.
This information allows us to accurately estimate render time and identify any project-specific requirements before continuing with the evaluation process.
Checking Integrity: Verifying Your Files
Once your project details have been collected, the status changes to Checking Integrity. Our system verifies that all required assets are present, including textures, linked libraries, simulation caches, fonts, and other external files referenced by your project.
If any issues are detected, the evaluation may fail, changing the project's status to Failed. You'll be able to review the reported errors on the error page or directly in the expanded project details before uploading a corrected version.
If everything checks out, the evaluation continues automatically.
Initializing Processing: Preparing the Evaluation
During Initializing Processing, BoltRenders prepares the evaluation environment by allocating the necessary resources and setting up your project for performance analysis.
This is a short transition stage before the main evaluation begins. Once everything is ready, the project moves to the Processing status, where render times and costs are calculated.
Processing: Evaluating Your Project
When your project reaches the Processing stage, BoltRenders performs the main evaluation by running a series of test renders and performance analyses. Using the collected data, our system measures your project's rendering performance and gathers the information required to produce an accurate estimate.
This is the longest stage of the evaluation process and typically takes between 5 and 30 minutes, depending on your project. Once the evaluation is complete, the project moves on to the Preparing Results stage.
Preparing Results: Building Your Quote
During the Preparing Results stage, BoltRenders processes the data collected during the previous stage to generate your final quote. This includes calculating the estimated render time and cost, creating sample frame previews, and preparing all the information you'll review before starting your render.
This stage usually lasts only a minute or two. Once everything is ready, your project's status changes to Pending, allowing you to review the quote and decide whether to proceed with rendering.
Pending: Review Your Quote and Start Rendering
Once the evaluation is complete, your project’s status changes to Pending. This means that the system has generated a quote, including estimated render time, cost, and sample frames for your review.
In the project entry, you’ll see a "play icon". Clicking the play button opens the render page, where you can review the quote, select a render priority, and start the render by completing payment. If no action is taken, the project will remain in this state until you proceed or until it expires after a certain period of inactivity.
Render Statuses
Initializing: Preparing to Render
After you’ve reviewed the quote, selected your priority, and confirmed payment, the status updates to Initializing. At this stage, our system is allocating resources and preparing your project for rendering. This phase typically takes 5–10 minutes, although it may occasionally take a little longer depending on resource availability.
There’s no action required from your end, just sit tight while we get everything ready for the next step.
Rendering: Your Project is Running
When the render begins, your project’s status changes to Rendering. This is the most exciting stage, as you can track progress in real time.
In your dashboard, you’ll see:
- A progress bar showing how much of the rendering is complete.
- The number of frames rendered out of the total.
- An estimated time remaining for completion.
Finalizing: Preparing Your Files for Download
Once the rendering process is complete, your project enters the Finalizing stage. During this time, our system is bundling the rendered files and preparing them for download. This step usually takes just a couple of minutes.
No action is required from you, and you’ll soon have access to your files.
Completed: Ready for Download
When your project’s status changes to Completed, your files are ready for download! A download button will appear in the project entry: simply click or tap it to retrieve your files.
Please note that completed projects are stored for a maximum of 7 days. You’ll see a message that inform you how much time is left to download your files. After 7 days, the project will automatically expire, and the files will no longer be available.
Terminal Statuses
Expired: Project No Longer Available
If a project remains Pending for too long without action or if a Completed project isn’t downloaded within the 7-day window, its status changes to Expired.
An expired project is no longer accessible, and any associated files are permanently deleted from our system. This ensures efficient use of storage and resources.
Failed: An Issue Occurred
Occasionally, a project might encounter an error during the evaluation or rendering process, resulting in an Failed status.
If the error occurs during rendering and payment has already been made, our system will automatically refund the amount to your account balance. If you encounter this status, feel free to contact our support team for further assistance.
Project Management
Expand Details
Click anywhere on a project row or the " " icon to expand it and view additional details. In the expanded view, the project controls move to the bottom-left corner.
Deleting Projects
Every project entry in your dashboard has a delete button that you can see when expanding it. Clicking this will delete the project from your profile, regardless of its status. Be cautious when using this option, as deleted projects cannot be recovered.