Full Documentation

ShotGrid Render Cleanup Script

A Nuke tool that finds and moves EXR render folders based on ShotGrid version status rules. It gives you a Qt dialog for scanning, previewing results, and moving folders to an archive destination.

Overview

When working on VFX projects, large EXR renders can quickly build up. This script:

• Connects to your current ShotGrid project context.
• Scans all .exr sequences for versions in ShotGrid.
• Applies three cleanup rules based on version status in ShotGrid.
• Presents results in a Qt dialog for review.
• Moves identified EXR sequence folders to a destination you choose.

Prerequisites

• Nuke (with Python API)
• ShotGrid Toolkit (to obtain sg, engine, and context; must be running from within a Toolkit hook or engine)
• Python modules:
  • PySide6, PySide2, or PySide (auto-detects available version)
  • Standard library: os, sys, shutil, logging, collections, traceback

Make sure your Nuke launcher has access to the same Python environment where ShotGrid Toolkit is installed.

Installation

1. Copy the script file (clean-up.py) into your Nuke plugin path or Toolkit hook folder.
2. Add a menu item in your menu.py
3. Alternative: Use Cragl smartScripter tool to keep track of python script in Nuke.

Running from Script Editor

Copy and paste the clean-up.py contents into the Nuke script editor while in the appropriate SG toolkit context. Run from there.

Dialog Workflow

1. Info Panel
   • Summarizes the three cleanup rules and pipeline step exclusions.
2. Scan Button
   • Fetches versions from ShotGrid, groups by shot/task, applies rules.
   • Updates progress bar and logs each candidate path.
   • Shows total folder count and approximate size.
3. Preview Text Area
   • Shows each EXR sequence folder that will be moved and a summary.
4. Move Files Button
   • Only enabled after a scan.
   • Prompts for destination folder.
   • Moves all identified folders to the destination in a flat structure.
   • Handles naming conflicts by appending numbers (_1, _2, etc.).
5. Close Button
   • Exits the dialog.

Cleanup Rules

1. Rule 1 – "na" Status Move all EXR renders for versions whose sg_status_list == "na".

2. Rule 2 – "innote" Status On any shot/task with multiple "innote" (internal note) versions, move all older frame sequences, preserving only the newest "innote" version.

3. Rule 3 – "note" Status On any shot/task with more than 2 "note" (client note) versions, move all but the two newest "note" versions.

Only applies to internal artist renders. Versions belonging to excluded pipeline steps (Roto, Paint, Prep, Ingest, v000) are filtered out before applying rules.

File Operations

• Archive Structure: All moved folders are placed in a flat structure under your chosen destination directory.
• Conflict Resolution: If a folder name already exists in the destination, it will be renamed with a numeric suffix (_1, _2, etc.).
• Progress Tracking: Real-time progress updates during the move operation.
• Size Calculation: Displays approximate total size of data to be moved during scan.

Logging

• All operations are reported at INFO level.
• Filter statistics (kept vs. excluded vs. non-EXR) are displayed after version retrieval.
• Each move candidate is logged with the rule that triggered it.
• Move operations show source and destination paths.
• Errors include full stack traces in the UI and console.

Error Handling

• Missing Toolkit / Context Prompts Nuke message: "No ShotGrid engine found…"
• UI Build Errors Catches exceptions around widget creation; reports via nuke.message().
• Scan/Move Exceptions Logged and shown in the dialog; buttons re-enabled to allow retry.
• Missing Files Paths that no longer exist on the file system are skipped with warnings.

Extending or Customizing

• Add New Rules Extend apply_cleanup_rules() method and update the UI info text.
• Change Excluded Steps Modify self.excluded_pipeline_steps in the RenderCleanup initializer.
• Alternate File Types Adjust the .exr filter in get_versions_for_cleanup().
• Different Archive Structure Modify the move_files() method to organize moved folders differently.

Full List of API Functions:

Nuke API

• import nuke
• User messaging
  • nuke.message(str) — error/info popups throughout error paths.
• (You don’t touch nodes/knobs here; Nuke is mainly the host + message box.)

Qt / PySide (GUI)

Compat shim selects one of these: PySide6, PySide2, or legacy PySide.

• Core widgets & windowing

  • QtWidgets.QDialog() — main window
  • QtWidgets.QVBoxLayout(), QtWidgets.QHBoxLayout() — layout managers
  • QtWidgets.QLabel() — info/status text
  • QtWidgets.QProgressBar() — scan/move progress
  • QtWidgets.QTextEdit() — the Preview: log/output pane
  • QtWidgets.QPushButton() — Scan / Move Files / Close
  • QtWidgets.QFileDialog() — destination folder chooser
  • QtWidgets.QApplication.processEvents() — keep UI responsive during long ops

• Text cursor (autoscroll)

  • QtGui.QTextCursor (or QtCore.QTextCursor fallback) — to move cursor to End for auto-scroll

• Dialog control

  • dialog.setWindowTitle(...), setMinimumWidth/Height(...), setLayout(...), exec()/exec_()
  • QFileDialog.setFileMode(QtWidgets.QFileDialog.Directory), setOption(...), selectedFiles()

ShotGrid API (via Toolkit / sgtk)

• Toolkit bootstrap

  • import sgtk
  • sgtk.platform.current_engine() → engine
  • engine.context → context
  • context.sgtk.shotgun → sg (ShotGrid connection)

• Project context

  • context.project — dict with current project (name, id)

• Fetching Versions

  • sg.find('Version', filters, fields, order=[...])
  • Filters used: ['project','is',project], ['sg_path_to_frames','is_not',None]
  • Fields used: code, sg_status_list, entity, sg_task, sg_task.Task.step, sg_path_to_frames, created_at
  • Order: by created_at ascending

• Entity field access (read)

  • version['entity'] (Shot), version['sg_task'] (Task), version['sg_task']['id']
  • version['sg_task.Task.step'] → ['name'] (Pipeline Step)
  • version['sg_status_list'], version['sg_path_to_frames'], version['code'], version['created_at']

(All SG interaction is read-only in this script.)

shutil (file moves)

• Moving folders
  • shutil.move(src_dir, dest_dir) — moves each sequence folder into the chosen archive location
• (No rmtree here; it’s a move-only tool.)

os / filesystem helpers

• Path inspection

  • os.path.exists(path), os.path.isdir(path), os.path.getsize(file)
  • os.path.dirname(frame_path) — derive sequence directory from sg_path_to_frames
  • os.path.basename(path), os.path.join(a, b)

• Directory walking & sizing

  • os.walk(dirpath) — estimate total bytes to move

• De-dupe helper

  • Logic uses Python set()s, not OS

Logging / diagnostics

• Setup

  • logging.getLogger("sg_render_cleanup"), setLevel(logging.INFO)
  • logging.StreamHandler(), logging.Formatter(...), addHandler(handler)

• Usage

  • log.info(...), log.error(...) — mirrored into UI via results_text.append(...)

• Tracebacks

  • traceback.format_exc() — included in UI and message boxes on errors

Python collections / data shaping

• Grouping by (shot, task)
  • collections.defaultdict(list) — task_versions[key].append(version)