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# Q100254: Getting started with Katana

Warning: This article contains links to external websites

#### SUMMARY

This article is meant to provide a getting started guide for installing, setting up, and using Katana.

#### MORE INFORMATION

Download

Katana is currently supported on both Linux and Windows operating systems. You can download the latest version from our product page here: https://www.foundry.com/products/katana/download

Installation and licensing

For full information on licensing Katana depending on license type, please refer to these articles:

Q100027: How to install a floating license
Q100026: How to install a node-locked license

To render your Katana scene you will require a dedicated renderer. More information on the available renderers renderer plug-ins that work with Katana can be found in the following articles:

Q100243: RenderMan for Katana
Q100244: Arnold for Katana
Q100245: V-Ray for Katana
Q100246: 3Delight for Katana

NOTE: You can also find an article providing a full example launcher script for Katana on Windows, with the required resources (including renderers and renderer plug-ins) here: Q100242: Creating a Katana launcher script for Windows

Documentation

The Katana documentation is now HTML based with search functions and can be accessed at the following links:

Online Help - https://learn.foundry.com/katana/Content/getting_started.html (includes the User, Technical and Reference Guides)
Developer Guide - https://learn.foundry.com/katana/current/dev-guide/

This can also be accessed via the Help menu within the Katana UI.

NOTE: If you are new to Katana, you can find a tutorial that will guide you through your first steps to use and understand Katana here: The Way of the Katana

Example projects
To help you get started we have some useful example projects accessible through the Help menu from inside Katana, or within your Katana installation directory under: $KATANA_HOME\demos\katana_files

The compilation of example projects is designed to demonstrate a number of techniques within Katana. They cover texture resolving concepts, defining AOVs, using OpScripts, creating and using Look Files, and should be a good starting point for new users.

Community forums

Our public Katana forums for users and developers can be accessed here:
https://community.foundry.com/discuss/katana

As public forums these are aimed at being discussion areas for general issues about Katana, as well as a way of getting feedback and advice from all the existing expert users around the world.

Support

For formal support from The Foundry, such as to report bugs or request new features, you can use our Support Portal to open a Support ticket by following the instructions in the 'Using the Support Portal' article.

Our Support Portal hosts the Katana Knowledge Base which contains multiple articles explaining different topics of Katana, and the public Bug Tracker which exposes the lists of known issues in Katana.