GeoDMSRun (GeoDmsRun.exe) updates tree items without a user interface, from a shell or from a script. It is the tool of choice for batch calculations, nightly runs, CI checks and any "calculate this and write it to its storage" job.

You can drive it from either shell that ships with Windows:

• Command Prompt (cmd.exe) — the classic way; still the right choice for the .cmd / .bat files that many GeoDMS projects already use.
• PowerShell (powershell.exe 5.1, or the modern pwsh.exe 7.x) — the recommended shell for new automation: real error handling, structured output, Tee-Object logging, and no %ErrorLevel% quoting traps.

Both are documented below. Everything about the program (options, item names, exit codes) is identical; only the shell syntax differs.

GeoDmsRun.exe [/L<LogFileName>] [/S<X> /C<X> ...] <ConfigFileName> [<ItemOrCommand> ...]

The arguments are processed strictly left to right.

Anything else that starts with / (on Linux: with -) after the status flags is rejected with "Unknown command-line option …" and exit code 2. The message names the accepted options and points at Command line options, the reference page for both executables.

The complete, authoritative table of /S<X> / /C<X> flags — for both executables — is on Command line options. The ones that matter for a batch run are:

The remaining flags (/SA, /SC, /SS) address the GUI and have no effect in GeoDmsRun. If no threading flags are given, the settings from the registry are used — the same ones shown in the GeoDMS GUI under Tools > Options > Advanced.

For a reproducible batch run, always set the threading flags explicitly (/S1 /S2 /S3), so the run does not depend on whatever the interactive user last configured.

• Item paths are resolved relative to the configuration's root, which is the desktop root — not relative to the top-level container in the file. For container foo { … export { … } } you write /export, not /foo/export.
• Whole subtrees are allowed: naming a container calculates the container and all its descendants.
• Item names never contain spaces, so they never need quotes in cmd. In PowerShell they do not need quotes either — but see the @ trap below.
• If an item is not found, or fails to calculate, the run continues with the next item and the exit code becomes 1.

GeoDMS Run accepts a set of action commands prefixed with @. An @… command sets the current action and applies to every item that follows it, until the next @… command. The default action is @commit.

Source: enum class itemCmd and the parsing loop in run/exe/src/MainRun.cpp.

GeoDmsRun communicates its result through the process exit code — %ErrorLevel% in cmd, $LASTEXITCODE in PowerShell. Always check it; a failed run still ends "normally".

Quotes are needed around file names, because those may contain spaces. Item names never need quotes.

1 — Update /result in a configuration

"C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\GeoDms20.8.0\GeoDmsRun.exe" "C:\prj\test\cfg\stam.dms" /result

2 — Update several items in one run

"C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\GeoDms20.8.0\GeoDmsRun.exe" "C:\prj\test\cfg\operator.dms" /Arithmetics/plus/test_attr /Arithmetics/sub/test_attr

3 — Same, with a log file

"C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\GeoDms20.8.0\GeoDmsRun.exe" "/LC:\tmp\log.txt" "C:\prj\test\cfg\stam.dms" /result

4 — Force multi-threading levels 1 and 2 on

"C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\GeoDms20.8.0\GeoDmsRun.exe" /S1 /S2 "C:\prj\test\cfg\stam.dms" /result

5 — Print statistics for an attribute instead of writing storage

"C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\GeoDms20.8.0\GeoDmsRun.exe" "C:\prj\test\cfg\stam.dms" @statistics /results/att

6 — Mix actions on one command line: commit one item, then write statistics of two diagnostic attributes to a file

"C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\GeoDms20.8.0\GeoDmsRun.exe" /S1 /S2 /S3 "C:\prj\test\cfg\main.dms" ^
    /results/output_layer ^
    @file "D:\log\diag.txt" @statistics ^
    /results/dbg/coverage /results/dbg/null_count

The @statistics output reports Minimum, Maximum, #Nulls and (for boolean attributes) the count of false vs true — much faster than re-writing a whole GeoPackage or .fss just to inspect one column.

7 — Check the exit code

"%ProgramPath%" %MT_FLAGS% "%ProjDir%\cfg\main.dms" /WriteBasedata/Generate_Run1
echo ErrorLevel is %ErrorLevel%
if %ErrorLevel% NEQ 0 goto ErrorEnd

A typical project batch file collects the settings at the top, calls one or more runs, and ends with a shared error handler.

REM ========== PARAMETER SETTINGS ================
set geodmsversion=GeoDms20.8.0
set exe_dir=C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\%geodmsversion%
set ProgramPath=%exe_dir%\GeoDmsRun.exe
set LocalDataProjDir=C:\LocalData\RSopen

set MT_FLAGS=/S1 /S2 /S3

set CurrentDir=%CD%
CD ..
set ProjDir=%CD%
CD %CurrentDir%
REM ========= END PARAMETER SETTINGS ===========

REM optional: ask the user what to calculate
set AlleenEindjaar=TRUE
if "%1%" equ "" CHOICE /M "Only calculate the final year, i.e. skip 2030 and 2040?"
if ErrorLevel 2 set AlleenEindjaar=FALSE
if "%1%" equ "N" set AlleenEindjaar=FALSE

REM start from a clean BaseData folder
rmdir %LocalDataProjDir%\Basedata /s /q

set RSL_VARIANT_NAME=BAU
call ..\batch\RunVariantData.cmd

call ..\batch\RunImpl.cmd %ProjDir%\cfg\main.dms /WriteBasedata/Generate_Run1
echo "ErrorLevel is " %ErrorLevel%
if %ErrorLevel% NEQ 0 goto ErrorEnd

goto End

:ErrorEnd
echo "ErrorLevel is " %ErrorLevel%

if %ErrorLevel% == 3 (
 echo ERROR: Unexpected termination after loading %1 to update %2.
)
if %ErrorLevel% == 2 (
 echo ERROR: failed to load %1 or caught exception during updating %2.
)
if %ErrorLevel% == 1 (
 echo ERROR: updating of item %2 in %1 failed.
)
if %ErrorLevel% == -1073741819 (
 echo ERROR: Access Violation. Contact Object Vision for support.
)

echo batch will be aborted after pause because of a detected failure
pause
exit /b %ErrorLevel%

:End

PowerShell (5.1 or 7.x) is the modern alternative. The arguments are exactly the same; the shell syntax is not.

1 — Call the executable with the call operator &. A quoted string on its own is just a string; & tells PowerShell to execute it.

$geoDms = 'C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\GeoDms20.8.0\GeoDmsRun.exe'
& $geoDms 'C:\prj\test\cfg\stam.dms' /result

2 — Quote every argument that starts with @. (the one real trap) In PowerShell @name is the splatting operator, so a bare @statistics is read as "expand the variable $statistics into arguments" — and since that variable normally does not exist, the argument silently disappears. The run then commits the item instead of printing its statistics, with no warning at all. Always write '@statistics', '@valueinfo', '@file', '@checkfunctions', '@commit'.

# WRONG - @statistics vanishes, the item gets committed instead
& $geoDms $cfg @statistics /results/att

# RIGHT
& $geoDms $cfg '@statistics' /results/att

3 — Check $LASTEXITCODE, not $?. $LASTEXITCODE holds the exit code of the last native program. $? only says "did it run".

4 — Keep /L first, and glue it to the path.

& $geoDms '/LC:\tmp\log.txt' $cfg /result

Paths with spaces are fine inside one quoted string: '/LD:\my logs\run.log'.

1 — Update /result in a configuration

$geoDms = 'C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\GeoDms20.8.0\GeoDmsRun.exe'
& $geoDms 'C:\prj\test\cfg\stam.dms' /result

2 — Update several items in one run

& $geoDms 'C:\prj\test\cfg\operator.dms' /Arithmetics/plus/test_attr /Arithmetics/sub/test_attr

3 — Same, with a log file

& $geoDms '/LC:\tmp\log.txt' 'C:\prj\test\cfg\stam.dms' /result

4 — Force multi-threading levels on, and report the result

& $geoDms /S1 /S2 /S3 'C:\prj\test\cfg\stam.dms' /result
if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) { Write-Error "GeoDmsRun failed with code $LASTEXITCODE" }

5 — Statistics of one attribute, without writing any storage

& $geoDms /S1 /S2 /S3 'C:\prj\test\cfg\stam.dms' '@statistics' /results/some_attribute

6 — Build the argument list first, then splat it

This is where @ is what you want: @dmsArgs expands the array into separate arguments. It keeps long command lines readable and lets you assemble them conditionally.

$dmsArgs = @(
    '/S1', '/S2', '/S3'
    'C:\prj\test\cfg\main.dms'
    '/results/output_layer'
    '@file', 'D:\log\diag.txt'
    '@statistics'
    '/results/dbg/coverage', '/results/dbg/null_count'
)
& $geoDms @dmsArgs

7 — Show live progress on screen and keep a readable log

& cmd /c "`"$geoDms`" /S1 /S2 /S3 `"$cfg`" /result 2>&1" | Tee-Object -FilePath 'D:\log\run.log'

cmd /c "... 2>&1" merges stderr into stdout inside cmd. That avoids Windows PowerShell 5.1 wrapping every native stderr line as a red NativeCommandError. Tee-Object then shows the output live and writes it to a file you can grep afterwards:

Select-String -Path 'D:\log\run.log' -Pattern 'Error|Failure|Warning'

In PowerShell 7 you can usually drop the cmd /c wrapper and redirect directly:

& $geoDms /S1 /S2 /S3 $cfg /result 2>&1 | Tee-Object -FilePath 'D:\log\run.log'

8 — Calculate a list of items, one run each, stop at the first failure

$items = '/WriteBasedata/Generate_Run1', '/WriteBasedata/Generate_Run2', '/Export/Maps'
foreach ($item in $items) {
    Write-Host "=== $item ===" -ForegroundColor Cyan
    & $geoDms /S1 /S2 /S3 $cfg $item
    if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) {
        Write-Error "Aborting: $item failed with exit code $LASTEXITCODE"
        break
    }
}

9 — Type-check all function definitions in a configuration (since 20.9.0)

Handy as a CI / pre-commit gate: it fails on any function definition that does not type-check, including ones nothing in the configuration references yet.

& $geoDms $cfg '@checkfunctions'
if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) { throw "function definition check failed" }

10 — Ask why one element is null (since 20.16.0)

Prints the value info page for row 181569 of /JFS_rel — the trace of arguments and values behind that one element, including the reason a relational function found nothing to relate.

& $geoDms $cfg '@valueinfo' '181569' /JFS_rel

The page comes out as HTML. To read it as text, or to grep a batch of rows for the ones that report a missing relation:

foreach ($row in 0..99) {
    $page = & $geoDms $cfg '@valueinfo' "$row" /JFS_rel
    if ($page -match 'no row of .* (refers to this row|has this value)') { "row $row : unrelated" }
}

The PowerShell equivalent of the classic RunImpl.cmd — one function that runs a config, translates the exit code into a readable message, and throws on failure so a calling script stops.

function Invoke-GeoDmsRun {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory)] [string]   $ConfigFile,
        [Parameter(Mandatory)] [string[]] $Item,
        [string]   $GeoDmsVersion = 'GeoDms20.8.0',
        [string]   $LogFile,
        [string[]] $Flags = @('/S1', '/S2', '/S3')
    )

    $exe = Join-Path "C:\Program Files\ObjectVision\$GeoDmsVersion" 'GeoDmsRun.exe'
    if (-not (Test-Path $exe)) { throw "GeoDmsRun not found: $exe" }

    $dmsArgs = @()
    if ($LogFile) { $dmsArgs += "/L$LogFile" }   # /L must stay first
    $dmsArgs += $Flags
    $dmsArgs += $ConfigFile
    $dmsArgs += $Item

    Write-Verbose "& $exe $($dmsArgs -join ' ')"
    & $exe @dmsArgs
    $code = $LASTEXITCODE

    $message = switch ($code) {
        0            { $null }
        1            { "updating of item(s) '$($Item -join ', ')' in $ConfigFile failed" }
        2            { "failed to load $ConfigFile, or an exception was caught while updating" }
        3            { "unexpected termination after loading $ConfigFile" }
        -1073741819  { 'Access Violation. Contact Object Vision for support.' }
        default      { "GeoDmsRun returned $code" }
    }
    if ($message) { throw "GeoDmsRun (exit $code): $message" }

    Write-Host "OK: $ConfigFile $($Item -join ' ')" -ForegroundColor Green
}

Usage:

Invoke-GeoDmsRun -ConfigFile 'C:\prj\test\cfg\main.dms' `
                 -Item '/WriteBasedata/Generate_Run1' `
                 -LogFile 'D:\log\run1.log' -Verbose

• Windows PowerShell 5.1 vs PowerShell 7 (pwsh). Both work. PowerShell 7 handles native-command stderr and argument quoting more predictably; 5.1 is what is preinstalled on every Windows machine.
• Make failures terminating. Setting both $PSNativeCommandUseErrorActionPreference = $true and $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop' (PowerShell 7.3 and later) turns a non-zero exit code from GeoDmsRun into a terminating error, so you no longer have to test $LASTEXITCODE after every call.
• Execution policy. A downloaded .ps1 may be blocked. Run it once with powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\run.ps1, or unblock the file with Unblock-File .\run.ps1.
• Environment variables are $env:ProjDir in PowerShell, not %ProjDir%.
• Line continuation is a backtick ` at end of line, not ^.

• LocalDataDir. Its value is read from the registry key Software\ObjectVision\DMS\LocalDataDir (default C:\LocalData), and can be changed via Tools > Options in the GeoDMS GUI. GeoDmsRun prints the value it uses as the first line of its output.
• Logging. The GUI's logging settings saved in the registry are ignored by GeoDmsRun — use the /L option to enable logging.
• The GUI equivalent. For an interactive session, see User Guide GeoDMS GUI; for scripting the GUI itself, see Gui scripting.