Added: Instance Object can be created and tweaked. Its matrix and color arrays can be set for multi-instance mode. See InstanceObjectData.
Added: Read/Copy/Write data support for:

Fields: FieldLayer, FieldList, iFieldCustomDatatype
Volume Builder and Group: VolumeBuilderData, VolumeGroupData

Change: Added read/copy/write data support for:

Fracture Voronoi and Point Generator: MoGraphFractureVoronoiObject, PointGenerator
XPresso Tag and Node Operators: GvExpressionData, GvOperatorData

Change: Node-based materials: While Melange 20 SDK does not give access to the node-based materials API nor provides means to create node materials, the data will be preserved as good as possible upon loading and saving scene files.

Download Melange SDK

DevKitchen 2018 Aftermath

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Andreas Block

Hello everybody,

first of all, we would like to thank everybody, who attended DevKitchen 2018. It was really nice to meet you all in person. And we hope, you liked the meal we served.
It was the largest DevKitchen we have had so far. Unfortunately we even had to turn down some developers, due to the room being full. Thanks for the amount of interest.
The good news, with all this interest, you can probably expect another DevKitchen next year.

For all those who were not able to attend, here are the slides of our presentations (see announcement with timetable here):

The source code used during the presentations can be found on GitHub.

We are aware, slides without the accompanying talk are like Cinema without 4D. We are currently evaluating in what way, we can improve this situation.
The DevKitchen was one day packed with information, maybe even a bit too much for a single day. We are thinking about splitting future DevKitchens in two half days.

Cheers,
Andreas, in the name of the entire SDK Team

Updated c4dpy for Cinema 4D R20 SP1 Hotfix (20.030)

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Andreas Block

Today MAXON released a Hotfix for Cinema 4D R20. The accompanying c4dpy executable has been uploaded and is available on the Downloads page.

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.
Mélange
Mélange 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.