I have previously looked at the “How to Create and Populate a Layer Shader” post. The shader that I am referencing above, I can easily create using those same methods. Below is the code for creating the Shader I am working with:

Field1 = doc.SearchObject("Shader Field") Shader = c4d.LayerShader() ShaderLayer1 = Shader.AddLayer(c4d.TypeShader) GradientShader1 = c4d.BaseList2D(c4d.Xgradient) GradientShader1[c4d.ID_BASELIST_NAME] = "Gradient Circular" GradientShader1[c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_TYPE] = c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_TYPE_2D_CIRC GradientShader1[c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_CYCLE] = False GradientShader1[c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_ANGLE] = 3.14159 Gradient1 = GradientShader1[c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_GRADIENT] Gradient1.FlushKnots() Gradient1.InsertKnot(c4d.Vector(0,0,0), 1, 0, 0.5, 0) Gradient1.InsertKnot(c4d.Vector(0,0,0), 1, 1, 0.5, 1) GradientShader1[c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_GRADIENT] = Gradient1 GradientShader1.InsertUnder(Shader) ShaderLayer1.SetParameter(c4d.LAYER_S_PARAM_SHADER_LINK, GradientShader1) ShaderLayer2 = Shader.AddLayer(c4d.TypeShader) GradientShader2 = c4d.BaseList2D(c4d.Xgradient) GradientShader2[c4d.ID_BASELIST_NAME] = "Gradient U" GradientShader2[c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_CYCLE] = False GradientShader2[c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_ANGLE] = 3.14159 Gradient2 = GradientShader1[c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_GRADIENT] Gradient2.FlushKnots() Gradient2.InsertKnot(c4d.Vector(0,0,0), 1, 0.125, 0.5, 0) Gradient2.InsertKnot(c4d.Vector(1,1,1), 1, 1, 0.5, 1) GradientShader2[c4d.SLA_GRADIENT_GRADIENT] = Gradient2 GradientShader2.InsertUnder(Shader) ShaderLayer2.SetParameter(c4d.LAYER_S_PARAM_SHADER_LINK, GradientShader2) ShaderLayer3 = Shader.AddLayer(c4d.TypeShader) NoiseShader = c4d.BaseList2D(c4d.Xnoise) NoiseShader[c4d.SLA_NOISE_COLOR1] = c4d.Vector(1,1,1) NoiseShader[c4d.SLA_NOISE_COLOR2] = c4d.Vector(0,0,0) NoiseShader[c4d.SLA_NOISE_SEED] = 666 NoiseShader[c4d.SLA_NOISE_GLOBAL_SCALE] = 2 NoiseShader[c4d.SLA_NOISE_ANI_SPEED] = 1 NoiseShader[c4d.SLA_NOISE_CONTRAST] = 1 NoiseShader.InsertUnder(Shader) ShaderLayer3.SetParameter(c4d.LAYER_S_PARAM_SHADER_LINK, NoiseShader) ShaderLayer3.SetParameter(c4d.LAYER_S_PARAM_SHADER_MODE, 11) ShaderLayer4 = Shader.AddLayer(c4d.TypeTransform) ShaderLayer4.SetParameter(c4d.LAYER_S_PARAM_TRANS_ANGLE, 3.14159) Field1.InsertShader(Shader) Field1[c4d.ID_MG_SHADER_SHADER] = Shader

Using the port-creation example I gave before, for an object operator, I use the DescLevel to get the ID of the property I want to create a port for. In the above example, I use the integer “c4d.ID_BASEOBJECT_GLOBAL_POSITION.” Then if I want to use the specific Z parameter, I use the second level integer of “c4d.VECTOR_Z.”

I assume there is a similar level system to grab the angle parameter of the Transform layer in my Shader. The Shader itself is linked to the object operator, so accessing its layers should be the first level.

ObjectNode.AddPort(c4d.GV_PORT_INPUT, c4d.DescID(c4d.DescLevel(c4d.SLA_LAYER_BLEND), c4d.DescLevel(c4d.LAYER_S_PARAM_TRANS_ANGLE)), flag=c4d.GV_PORT_FLAG_IS_VISIBLE, message=False)

If I use just the single level integer of “c4d. LAYER_S_PARAM_TRANS_ANGLE” the port is not created. So, I assume there is another level above this one that needs to be called as well, namely the actual Transform layer itself. But I don’t know how to call that layer as an integer in the DescLevel method, because I cannot pass an object (“ShaderLayer4” from my above creation code) in the integer parameter of DescLevel. I used the placeholder of “c4d.SLA_LAYER_BLEND” as that first level, but it creates an empty port, not the angle parameter port. Using “c4d.TypeTransform” or “c4d. LAYER_S_PARAM_ALL_ACTIVE” do not work either.

This is what I am trying to figure out: What is the integer that I need to use in order to access the Transform Layer itself to use in the DescLevel method, to use in the AddPort method? Unless there is a different way to add a port, I cannot find any information on this particular issue.

Hey @megamau,

are you referring to the Cineware libraries shipped with Cinema 4D (e.g., as a dll under Windows)? This not the same Cineware as the SDK Cineware (Melange). There are also currently no plans for converting the Cineware (Melange) SDK into a dynamic library.

I also do not quite understand the inherint benefit of that? You want to bind with other languages than C++ to Cineware or what? C++ is currently unfourntely the only language we support. And if you REALLY want a Cineware (Melange) dynamic library, you could also just create it yourself. But then you will still need a static library (the declarations) to load and link against that DLL. So, I do not really understand what would be won with that.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hey @Dunhou,

I have edited your posting. It is fine to mention the beta forum, but we would rather not see its name written here.

When you are talking about 'C++', I assume you are talking here about the Windows SDK/API, as for example GetGUIThreadInfo. I would doubt that you get very far with that here. Cinema 4D is very OS agnostic and we have our whole GUI decoupled from the OS. The little rename window in our tree view control is not an OS rename dialog. I am not even sure if this is something with an HWND handle which you could address so that you could intercept keyboard events to it, or if this is just a virtual window within our API.

For this IMM thing to work, we would have to use the IME API in Cinema 4D, so that our text edit gadgets support it. I also do not quite understand what you are trying to do. The missing piece is here probably that our text edit gadget does not send its current content to the IME API (at a glance, via ImmSetCompositionStringW as shown here). And as a third party, you cannot really fix that. Because you (a) do not own the implementation and you (b) are not informed about an edit event, so you cannot just write a plugin which sends the object name to the IME API.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hey,

thanks for the extended code, but I still cannot run this, as it is only a fragment 😉 So, I only have a very rough understanding of what is going wrong.

A likely issue apart from you just having a bug in your hit logic, is that you use the wrong coordinate system.

if msg[c4d.BFM_INPUT_DEVICE] == c4d.BFM_INPUT_MOUSE \ and msg[c4d.BFM_INPUT_CHANNEL] == c4d.BFM_INPUT_MOUSELEFT \ and msg[c4d.BFM_INPUT_VALUE]: local_x = msg[c4d.BFM_INPUT_X] local_y = msg[c4d.BFM_INPUT_Y] scroll_y = self.dialog.get_scroll_offset()

I would have to check myself, but there is some inconsistency with which dialogs send mouse input messages regarding the used coordinate system. Sometimes they send messages in the coordinate system of the dialog and sometimes messages in the coordinate system of the gadget. Just print out your (local_x and local_y) and check if the values make sense as local coordinates as you seem to treat them. On GeUserArea are multiple coordinate conversion methods. I think BFM_INPUT in this context is in local user area coordinates but I am not sure, it could also be that you have to convert them.

The other thing is of course that you add this self.dialog.get_scroll_offset() on top of things. I assume this is sourced by something like GeDialog.GetVisibleArea? There you could also unintentionally mix coordinate systems.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Thanks @ferdinand for your great solution!

Cheers~
DunHou

Hey @ferdinand ,

thanks for details.

Cheers~
DunHou

About forum, I can get notification about my own topic, And I clear all the cache, but nothing changed.

After I tried to reset my account settings manually, then it worked as expected.

for my use case i will probably have a fallback solution with web-save or system fonts like this:

import platform system_name = platform.system() if system_name == "Windows": font_name = "Consolas" elif system_name == "Darwin": font_name = "Menlo" elif system_name == "Linux": font_name = "DejaVu Sans Mono"

@ferdinand said in BaseBitmap.Init("somefile.exr") crashes with multiple std::thread:

omp #parallel

Sorry for late reply, I am not advocating for std::threads, I understand your design explanation.
The omp #parallel thing is OpenMP directive to launch parallel threads. It's an old but simple method.
Actually I have made a solution by exploiting Cinema way of launching threads and it works fine.
However, I hope it would be good to make BaseBitmap->Init a thread safe and independent call from other C4D threads and resources.
I will collect an example for you with exr images soon.

Cheers,
Aaron

Hey @Amazing_iKe,

Thank you for reaching out to us. That RenderDocument does not support animations is only partially true. Effectively it does not for users, but that is more a regression than the lack of an actual feature. When you look into its documentation, you will see that many symbols and arguments are animation related. And when you send it a document which holds an animation, you are paying the price for rendering the full animation. The regressed state is however that you effectively only have access to the bitmap of the last frame of that animation. There is also the issue that the OCIO workflow with RenderDocument is a bit clunky at the moment. We have these issues in our backlog by I unfortunately cannot make any guarantees as to when we will fix them.

You have two options:

Render the document frame by frame yourself with RenderDocument and then assemble the animation yourself. Use the BatchRender, i.e., what is shown to the user as the render queue. You can use this in a fully programmatic manner, but you are restricted to rendering documents that have been saved to disk, and the output will also be put to disk. I.e., you do not have the 'memory only'-aspect of RenderDocument. There are many topics about this subject on this forum, for example here where I showed how you abstract some of the disc-only limitations aways. Maxime also recently added some features to the batch render like switching cameras and takes, which makes it less likely that you have to modify the file.

I cannot write examples for all possible routes here. You have to decide yourself which route you want to go, and when you are then stuck there, I will help you. What to pick depends on your goals. When you expect the renderings to be quick, doing it manually with RenderDocument could be a solution. For more complex animations, the batch renderer is probably the better route.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hey @Amazing_iKe,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

You do the same thing you did incorrectly in your other thread. You create an async dialog and you do not keep it alive. We would prefer it to keep things G-rated here. I.e., no nudity, no violence, and no weapons. I removed the image in your posting.

With that being said, and when I try out your script (with the dlg thing fixed). I end up with this:
fc83d223-abc0-4568-98fc-deb82596b059-image.png

I.e., it just works. But you docked your dialog (and so did I imitating what you did). I now cannot reproduce this anymore, but when I did something in my layout, I think I dragged a palette, I got a similar result as yours. That is not too surprising though as you implement here an async dialog in a hacky manner. You have no CommandData.RestoreLayout which would handle layout events for your dialog. Something getting out of whack with scroll areas is not out of question for such irregular cases.

Please follow the patterns shown in our GUI examples I would recommend to follow py-cmd_gui_simple_2024, it also contains code for handling layout events. I.e., this:

def RestoreLayout(self, secret: any) -> bool: """Restores the dialog on layout changes. Implementing this is absolutely necessary, as otherwise the dialog will not be restored when the user changes the layout of Cinema 4D. """ return self.Dialog.Restore(self.ID_PLUGIN, secret)

And to be clear, it is absolutely fine to share plugins with us here. It does not have to be a script manager script. Things should just not get too long. Feel free to anonymize your plugin IDs when you feel skittish about sharing them in public.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

edit: Okay, there it is again. Not exactly the same as yours but close. But I would still have to ask you to provide an example where this happens inside a valid async dialog implementation (with a command or a similar owner). It is not out of question that there is a bug but we still need a non-hacky example.

df89038f-124d-434f-8cde-3442bd9aebba-image.png

And just to be clear, using a modal dialog, e.g., DLG_TYPE_MODAL, is absolutely fine in a script manager script. Because then the GeDialog.Open call will only return when the dialog is closed (and you therefore do not have to keep the dialog alive).

The hack I showed above is only needed when you need one of the async dialog types in a script manager script for testing purposes.

@ferdinand Thank you very much for your response and suggestions.

I’ll make sure to follow best practices and provide a minimal, testable code sample when posting questions in the future. I’ll also give embedding a group a try.

Thanks again for your support!

Hey @Viktor-Velicko,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Generally, our codebase supports Unicode, but in C++ source code and in *.str resource files, we only support Unicode escape sequences, not Unicode symbols directly. In Python, we do support Unicode symbols directly. In the 2025.3 SDK, I just added a code example for how to use Python to create a Unicode escaping pipeline around *.str files.

So, the Unicode string const String slopeLabel = "Slope 90º"_s; would be written as const String slopeLabel = "Slope 90\\u00b0"_s; in C++. A bit more verbose variant would be const String slopeLabel ="Slope 90"_s + String("\\u00b0", STRINGENCODING::BIT7HEX));. In Python, you can use the string directly as slopeLabel: str = "Slope 90°".

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hey @lionlion44,

Thank you for reaching out to us. We cannot provide support on third party libraries (Octane). But, yes, in general you are on the right track. We have this C++ example, which I loosely translated to Python. The thing to do which you are missing, is to check if such VP already exists, as you otherwise can land in a world of hurt.

For everything else, you would have to talk with the Octane devs (of which some are here on this forum), if there are any special further steps to be taken for Octane.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

"""Provides an example for generically setting a render engine in Cinema 4D. Note that there is no guarantee that every render engine has a video post node, and when it has one, that it uses the same ID as the render engine. But it is highly conventional to implement a render engine like this. Derived from the C++ Example "Set Render Engine to Redshift": https://developers.maxon.net/docs/cpp/2023_2/page_manual_redshift_rendrer.html """ import c4d import mxutils doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument # The active Cinema 4D document. def SetRenderEngine(doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument, newEngineId: int, createsVideoPostNode: bool) -> bool: """Sets the render engine of the given document to the specified ID. """ # Make sure we are on the main thread, as we plan to modify the document and ensure that our # inputs are what we think they are. if not c4d.threading.GeIsMainThread(): raise RuntimeError("SetRenderEngine must be called from the main thread.") mxutils.CheckType(doc, c4d.documents.BaseDocument) mxutils.CheckType(newEngineId, int) mxutils.CheckType(createsVideoPostNode, bool) # Get the currently active render engine ID and get out if it matches the new one. renderData: c4d.documents.RenderData = doc.GetActiveRenderData() currentEngineId: int = renderData[c4d.RDATA_RENDERENGINE] if currentEngineId == newEngineId: print(f"Render engine {newEngineId} is already set, no changes made.") return True # Try to find a video post with the render engine ID. There is no absolute guarantee that every # render engine either has a video post node or that is gives it the same ID as the render # engine (but it is strongly conventional). if createsVideoPostNode: # Try to find an already existing video post node with the render engine ID. node: c4d.documents.BaseVideoPost | None = renderData.GetFirstVideoPost() while node: if node.GetType() == newEngineId: break node = node.GetNext() # There is no video post for the render engine, so we try to a new create one. if not node: try: node: c4d.documents.BaseVideoPost = c4d.documents.BaseVideoPost(newEngineId) renderData.InsertVideoPost(node) except Exception as e: raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to create video post node for render engine {newEngineId} ({e}).") # Finally, we set the render engine ID in the render data. renderData[c4d.RDATA_RENDERENGINE] = newEngineId return True def main() -> None: """Called by Cinema 4D to run the script. """ # Setting the standard render engine, here we do not have to create a video post node, since # the standard renderer is one of the rare cases that does not have a dedicated video post. SetRenderEngine(doc, newEngineId=c4d.RDATA_RENDERENGINE_STANDARD, createsVideoPostNode=False) # Set Redshift as the render engine, which does have a video post node. SetRenderEngine(doc, newEngineId=c4d.VPrsrenderer, createsVideoPostNode=True) # Push an update event. c4d.EventAdd() if __name__ == "__main__": main()

Hey @shir,

Thank you for reaching out to us. A Program Database (PDB) is a debug information format from Microsoft. It is comparable to the DWARF debug information format often used under Linux and macOS. However, unlike DWARF under Linux, where debug information is directly compiled into the binary, Microsoft chooses to store debug information in separate files, the pdb files.

When you attach a debugger to a binary without any debug information, it will by default only see the machine code of the binary. So when you have an issue and the debugger puts out a stack trace, it will only show you the offsets in a library, e.g., something like this:

#1 0x0000000000767576 in myBinary.dll #2 0x0000000000767df4 in otherBinary.dll #3 0x0000000000773aca in myBinary.dll #4 0x00000000004b893e in myBinary.dll

You can see this happen in the call stack window in your screenshot. VS only provides information in the format someBinary.ext!someAddress(), e.g., c4d_base.xdl64!00007ffb200acfb7(), as it has no further information. With bin!address() VS means a function at that address is being called. In my opinion, VS has one of the most cryptic stack trace formats out there and can be a bit confusing for beginners.

To see meaningful output, you need the debug information for that binary, which among other things contains the mapping of addresses to source code. If you have the pdb file for the binary, you can load it into your debugger, and it will then show you something like this instead:

#1 0x0000000000767576 in MyClass::MyMethod() at myClass.cpp:42 #2 0x0000000000767df4 in OtherClass::OtherMethod() at otherClass.cpp:15 #3 0x0000000000773aca in MyClass::AnotherMethod() at myClass.cpp:78 #4 0x00000000004b893e in main() at main.cpp:10

When you compile the Cinema 4D SDK and your source code, it will automatically generate the pdb files for these binaries for you, so that you can debug them in a meaningful manner. But what we see here is Visual Studio asking you for the pdb for c4d_base.xdl64, one of the core library binaries located in the corelibs folder of the Cinema 4D application you are debugging with. You did not compile that binary, so you do not have the pdb file for it. And we do not ship our binaries with debug information, as that would not only be a very large download, but also would expose our source code to the public.

You are hitting a debug stop there (VS tells you that in the info box by stating this is a __debugbreak). This is the less critical case of a debug event, which is covered by the very tutorial you are following (the other one being a critical stop). You can simply hit continue in your debugger and ignore this. The event seems to be raised from Redshift, judging by the stack trace we can see in the screenshot you provided. There is probably some minor hardware issue or so, and Redshift is trying to handle it gracefully by raising this debug event.

It is, however, not normal when this happens permanently and usually it hints at a corrupted installation of Cinema 4D or a hardware issue when you are always greeted by debug events on startup (or even when just running and interacting with Cinema 4D). Sometimes debug stops can happen as a one-time thing when you are debugging for the first time against some Cinema 4D instance (and it has not yet built all its prefs, caches, and other things Cinema 4D builds in the background). When this persists and you are annoyed by having to press continue, I would recommend trying to either remove Redshift from your Cinema 4D installation or reinstall Cinema 4D altogether.

You could also check inside of Cinema 4D if you can see any errors in the 'Redshift Feedback Display' window. For you as a third party, it is however not possible to find out what that issue in c4d_base.xdl64 at the offset 7ffb200acfb7 is.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

PS: There is also g_enableDebugBreak=true|false which you can pass to your Cinema 4D instance as a commandline argument. With that you can permanently mute debug stops. But that is more of an expert feature and you probably do not want to enable that as a beginner.

@ferdinand Thanks for detailed explanation.
Let me introduce the goals that the custom deformer plugin wants to achieve. (As can be seen from the cube, cube. 1, cube. 2... in the image, each object has a weight tag.) The custom deformer plugin needs to preprocess and store some data before the ModifyObjects () function works. (By clicking a button) Access the weight tag of each object to be deformed in Message (), preprocess and store some data, and then use the preprocessed data to execute the ModifyObjects () function to correctly process the deformation calculation.
9c418a15-9d3c-4466-83c2-0481e7b67c69-image.png

In C4D, it seems that the Surface deformer has achieved a similar function
5ef7303f-0ea2-4d3b-bed4-c342a755350c-image.png

(there are certain benefits to restricting the custom deformer plugin only to the parent level, as there is no need to spend effort on correctly linking the corresponding preprocessed data when the ModifyObjects () function works.But it did break the general logic operation of the deformer)

The only way you could do that is by checking each deformed object being passed into , to be the parent of the also passed in (i.e., the deformer also simply accessible via ). Only for an which is the parent of would you then carry out the modification.

Could you provide an snipped where you show how to cache it in a plugin?

Hi @Tpaxep,

Welcome to the Maxon developers forum and its community, it is great to have you with us!

Getting Started

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It is strongly recommended to read the first two topics carefully, especially the section Support Procedures: How to Ask Questions.

About your First Question

The tool has indeed been updated, but the docs were not.

Here is how to call it. Note that you have to pass a polygon index, this is mandatory and it needs to be adjacent to one of the vertex to indicate a direction of the ring selection. Here is your script adapted, to be run on a sphere that was made editable.

import c4d from c4d import utils def select_ring_edge(obj, v1Id, v2Id, polyId): bc = c4d.BaseContainer() bc.SetData(c4d.MDATA_RING_SEL_STOP_AT_SELECTIONS, False) bc.SetData(c4d.MDATA_RING_SEL_STOP_AT_NON_QUADS, False) bc.SetData(c4d.MDATA_RING_SEL_STOP_AT_POLES, True) bc.SetData(c4d.MDATA_RING_BOTH_SIDES, False) bc.SetData(c4d.MDATA_RING_SWAP_SIDES, False) bc.SetData(c4d.MDATA_RING_FIRST_VERTEX, v1Id) bc.SetData(c4d.MDATA_RING_SECOND_VERTEX, v2Id) bc.SetData(c4d.MDATA_RING_POLYGON_INDEX, polyId) bc.SetData(c4d.MDATA_RING_SELECTION, c4d.SELECTION_NEW) result = c4d.utils.SendModelingCommand( command=c4d.ID_MODELING_RING_TOOL, list=[obj], mode=c4d.MODELINGCOMMANDMODE_EDGESELECTION, bc=bc, doc=c4d.documents.GetActiveDocument(), flags=c4d.MODELINGCOMMANDFLAGS_NONE ) c4d.EventAdd() return result def main(): doc = c4d.documents.GetActiveDocument() obj = doc.GetActiveObject() if obj is None: c4d.gui.MessageDialog("select obj.") return firstVertex = 346 secondVertex = 347 polygonIndex = 312 result = select_ring_edge(obj, firstVertex, secondVertex, polygonIndex) if result: print("DONE") else: print("ERROR") if __name__ == '__main__': main()

Note that the same settings also apply for the ID_MODELING_LOOP_TOOL, just modify RING by LOOP in the constant so MDATA_RING_SEL_STOP_AT_SELECTIONS become MDATA_LOOP_SEL_STOP_AT_SELECTIONS.

Cheers,
Maxime.

Hey @indexofrefraction,

Thank you for reaching out to us. The Object Profiler should do what you want to do.

7f8ba2c2-8af1-448e-a0d4-f120e3b91e0b-image.png

It is part of Cinema 4D since 2025.0.0.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hey,

Please note that both options, a modifier that changes the number of points of its host, and a spline generator that has another spline as an input, are not great. We have internally two cases that do exactly these two things: The bevel deformer and the spline mask spline generator. But third parties do not easily replicate both because they require detailed knowledge of our API and in some cases access to non-public things.

For deformers, Ilia already gave a great explanation. In short, if you are not careful, you can crash Cinema 4D. For the other case, a spline generator which takes another spline as an input, you will run into the issue that splines are not intended to have as objects as inputs. This means you are not getting passed a HierarchyHelp in ObjectData::GetContour with which you could ensure that your child object dependencies are up to date (because by default they are being built after you). There are patterns to solve this, and you run here at worst into the problem of a laggy/malfunctioning plugin and no crashes. But I would still advise going down that rabbit hole when avoidable.

When you really must do this and now want to go down the spline generator road, I would recommend opening a new topic on that before you start.

Cheers,
Ferdinand