The Cinema API provides multiple classes and functions to handle files and image data.

Note: For Maxon API file and media functions see Maxon API Files & Media.

Files

Files are created, loaded and edited with these classes:

For arbitrary file access independent of file type, see BaseFile Manual.
In order to work with Cinema 4D's file format, see HyperFile Manual.
A section in memory can be handled like a file, see MemoryFileStruct Manual.
ZipFile class is used to access to ZIP archives, see ZipFile Manual.
Access to AES encrypted files is explained in the AESFile Manual.
Loading and saving of Cinema 4D scenes is explained in Disc I/O of the BaseDocument Manual.
In order to load or save images, see Disc I/O in the BaseBitmap Manual.
Sound files can be loaded and saved with the respective functions (BaseSound::Load() and BaseSound::Save()) of the BaseSound class.
For general file utility functions see File Functions Manual.
All available volumes (i.e. drives) can be browsed with BrowseVolumes, see also BrowseVolumes Manual.
All files inside of a directory can be inspected with BrowseFiles, see also BrowseFiles Manual.
When browsing files, dates and times are returned as ::LocalFileTime, see also LocalFileTime Manual.
FileMonitor can be used to get notifications about changes of files and directories, see also FileMonitor Manual.

Media

Classes to load, edit and save image data are:

A basic bitmap with alpha data can be stored in a BaseBitmap. See BaseBitmap Manual.
A bitmap with multiple layers can be stored as a MultipassBitmap. See MultipassBitmap Manual.
GeClipMap is a utility class to perform drawing operations on a bitmap. See GeClipMap Manual.

The image data stored in movie files can be accessed with these classes:

MovieLoader allows to read image data from a movie file. See MovieLoader Manual.
MovieSaver allows to save image data to a movie file. See MovieSaver Manual.