Latest News

Cinema 4D 2023.2.0 Release

On March the 29th, 2023, Maxon Computer released Cinema 4D 2023.2.0. Alongside this release, a new Cinema 4D SDK and SDK documentation have been released, reflecting the API changes for 2023.2.0. For an overview of the features of Cinema 4D 2023.2, please refer to the spring release announcement.

The major SDK related changes in this release are:

  • The Visual Studio Code (VS Code) bindings for the Script Manager have been integrated into Cinema 4D, making the formerly provided Cinema 4D plugin obsolete. Required is still the VS Code extension which can be found here. For the integrated features, please refer to the user documentation of the Script Manager.
  • Cinema 4D 2023.2 updates its CPython interpreter to version 3.10.8.
  • The online documentation has new entry points. Please update your bookmarks. This also fixes the issue of browser caches shadowing newer content. Users will now always see the latest content while all content remains cached.
  • With release 2023.2, the online documentation of the Cinema 4D C++, Cinema 4D Python, and Cineware C++ APIs have been re-exposed for past versions, covering the version range R21.2 to 2023.2. Now all documentation products offer an API and version selection element in the top right corner to switch between APIs and versions.

For a more in-depth overview of the changes, please refer to the Python and C++ change notes.

C++ API Documentation
online offline
Extended C++ SDK
Win/Mac Project Tool for S24+
Python API Documentation
online offline
Extended Python SDK
Cinema 4D Connector 1.0.2
Cineware API (S 22.0) Documentation
online offline
Quick Start Guide
SDK Asset Database offline

The Visual Studio Code extension Cinema 4D Connector is also being published on the Extensions for Visual Studio Code marketplace. Simply search for “Cinema 4D Connector” in VS Code (Fig. I) to find and install the extension.

Fig I: Open the extensions tab on the left (CMD/Ctrl + Shift + X) and type “Cinema 4D” to find the extension; then click “Install”.

Cinema 4D 2023.1.0 Release

On November the 9th, 2022, Maxon Computer released Cinema 4D 2023.1.0. Alongside this release, a new Cinema 4D SDK and SDK documentation have been released, reflecting the API changes for 2023.1.0.

The major changes in this documentation update are in C++ the addition of the Color Management and OpenColorIO manuals. In Python, the documentation of native Python magic methods such as __init__, __iter__, or __getitem__ has been updated and the c4dpy interpreter now supports more of the native CPython command line arguments.

2023.1.0 C++ SDK and API Documentation

2023.1.0 Python++ SDK and API Documentation

The Cinema 4D to Visual Studio Code bindings for 2023.1.0 are accessible under the following links.

2023.1.0 Extended SDKs on GitHub

Cinema 4D 2023.0.0 Release

On September the 7th, 2022, Maxon Computer released Cinema 4D 2023.0.0. Alongside this release, a new Cinema 4D SDK and SDK documentation have been released, reflecting the API changes for 2023.0.0.

The major changes in this documentation update are in C++ exposure of OCIO interfaces and the added legacy plugin type symbols. In Python, minor bug fixes have been carried out and an updated version of the VS Code plugin for Cinema 4D 2023.0.0 has been provided.

Please refer to the Maxon One Fall Update notes for details on the changes of the application itself.

2023.0.0 C++ SDK and API Documentation

2023.0.0 Python++ SDK and API Documentation

The Cinema 4D to Visual Studio Code bindings for 2023.0.0 are accessible under the following links.

Cinema 4D S26 SP1 Release

On June the 29th, 2022, Maxon Computer released Cinema 4D S26 SP1 (S 26.107). Alongside that release, the new SDK and documentation have been released, reflecting the API changes for S26 SP1.

The major changes in this documentation update are in C++ exposure of OCIO interfaces and the added legacy plugin type symbols. In Python, the Python Libraries Manual has been reworked, outlining more clearly how to import custom Python libraries in scripts and plugins.

See the Maxon One Fall Update notes for details on the changes of application itself.

S26 SP1 C++ SDK and API Documentation

S26 SP1 Python++ SDK and API Documentation

The Cinema 4D to Visual Studio Code bindings for S26SP1 are accessible under the following links (no changes were made; these are the same binaries as for S26).

Cinema 4D S26 Release

On April the 20th, 2022, Maxon Computer released Cinema 4D S26. Alongside that release, the new SDK and documentation have been released, reflecting the API changes for S26.

Cinema 4D S26 now provides the ability to integrate Visual Studio Code with the Script Manager of Cinema 4D to load, run, and debug Cinema 4D scripts from VS Code. The features are documented more extensively in the Cinema 4D Connector documentation. Added was also an SDK asset database which contains assets used by the C+ SDK. Please refer to the release notes of S26 for an overview of the newly introduced features of S26 itself.

S26 C++ SDK and API Documentation

S26 Python++ SDK and API Documentation

SDK Asset Database

The SDK asset database is currently only used by the C++ Asset API examples in the C++ SDK. It is therefore only necessary to provide access to that database when the Asset API examples must be run. The C++ SDK can be built without access to that database.

On systems with unrestricted internet access, no further steps are required to run examples that make use of the SDK asset database, as the database will be downloaded and mounted automatically on such machines. On systems with no or restricted internet access, users can download the database and mount it manually to run all SDK examples. The provided database archive must be unpacked, and the contained *.db file must then be mounted in the preferences of the Asset Browser (see Fig. 1).

Fig I: Manually mounting a local SDK Asset database.