Latest News

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Recommendations for Building Cinema 4D R21 C++ Plugins

Posted on by Sebastian Bach

Changes introduced with Cinema 4D R21 make it necessary to recompile C++ plugins.

The MSVC settings of the R21 SDK enable support for Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) by default. Clients, that do not support this instruction set, cannot load the created plugin binaries.

The AVX settings are defined in the frameworks\settings\Base.props file. To disable AVX support, simply remove the line

<EnableEnhancedInstructionSet>AdvancedVectorExtensions</EnableEnhancedInstructionSet>

On macOS, it is advised to enable the legacy build system when using Xcode 10.1+. The legacy build system is enabled under “File” / “Project Settings” / “Section Shared Project Settings/Build System” / “Legacy Build System”.

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Cinema 4D R21 Released

Posted on by Sebastian Bach

The new major version R21 of Cinema 4D has been officially released and is now available for download. Everyone can now create accounts on the new MyMaxon portal (my.maxon.net) and download the latest version of Cinema 4D.

The most significant changes are:

  • Only one version of Cinema 4D exist.
  • Existing C++ plugins must be adapted and re-compiled for R21.
  • Building C++ plugins requires Visual Studio 2017 or Xcode 10.
  • A new licensing system replaces the old, serial number based system. The SNHookClass plugin type has been removed.

Documentation and Downloads

C++

Python

c4dpy Available

The c4dpy executable is now part of the Cinema 4D installation.

Examples on GitHub

The examples on GitHub have been updated.

The Basic License Workflow examples show how to utilize the new licensing API (blw_pluginlicensedialog and blw_simplegenerator).

The Python examples have been reworked and extended. The new examples can be found on https://github.com/PluginCafe/cinema4d_py_sdk_extended.

Getting Started

Hi,
first time around?

Pick the right API for the right job

The very first thing you will need to do is choose which API will suit your needs.

Cinema 4D has… three APIs, the first two may be used to add functionality and are part of the product’s distribution:

  • C++
    The C++ SDK is what is used internally by the development team to write all our product’s functionalities.  It is robust reliable and the obvious choice for commercial plugins.  The C++ SDK offers the most extended capabilities of all APIs. Yet, if you are new in software development the learning curve may be a bit too steep. Then you probably want to have a look at the scripting languages.
  • Python
    Python is a scripting languages. It is a good choice for TDs, easier, more flexible to use than the C++ API, but the feature set exposed is a bit less extended. In general Python provides the means for very rapid development. On the other hand your sources are harder to protect in Python, your algorithms are easily exposed to all for reading.
  • Cineware
    Cineware is a bit different, as it provides means to exchange data with the “outside world”. It can be downloaded on this site.

Find information

All APIs have their own documentation which can be downloaded from this website.  That documentation contains two things: articles explaining concepts and a functional documentation of the header files.  The later is generated directly from our sources and is written by our development team.  We publish relevant articles on our plugin development blog.  These articles eventually find their way into the API documentation.

The first place to look is on your chosen API’s page.  We will explain how to setup your development environment and get results fast.

Find help

We all need help once in a while. For this we have the Plugin Café forum where all are invited to ask questions and provide answers. Our support engineers will do their best to provide a solution to your problem.