Q100140: How to increase stability by limiting the number of processors that Foundry plug-ins for Adobe After Effects use

Peter Coleman

Updated : November 01, 2024 17:06

Created : June 24, 2016 16:34

SUMMARY

This article explains how to launch Adobe After Effects with Foundry plug-ins limited to the number of processors they can use. This can help with troubleshooting any problems with Foundry plug-ins for After Effects.

MORE INFORMATION

Sometimes Foundry plug-ins for After Effects, such as Keylight or Camera Tracker, can become unstable as they can be very hardware intensive. Limiting the max number of processors that Foundry plug-ins use can improve stability.

You can set the number of processors that Foundry plug-ins use by setting and environment variable called FOUNDRY_MAX_PROCESSORS.

The instructions below will limit the plug-ins to running on a single processor. To make them run on more processors you would set the variable to a higher number.

Windows

PLEASE NOTE: The following instructions will temporarily set the environment variable. Please see the FURTHER READING section for more details on setting permanent environment variables.

Open a Command Prompt and using the cd command, navigate to the Support Files folder inside the After Effects folder. Below is an example command with the default location:
```
cd C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects ####\Support Files
```
In the Command Prompt, run the following command to set the environment variable:
```
set FOUNDRY_MAX_PROCESSORS=1
```
In the same Command Prompt, run the following command to launch the plug-in with the new maximum:
```
AfterFX
```

macOS

PLEASE NOTE: The following instructions will temporarily set the environment variable. Please see the FURTHER READING section for more details on setting permanent environment variables.

Open a Terminal from Applications > Utilities
In the Terminal session, run the following command to set the environment variable:
```
export FOUNDRY_MAX_PROCESSORS=1
```
In the same Terminal session, run the following command to launch the plug-in with the new environment variable:
```
open -b com.adobe.AfterEffects 
```