Hey, just as an FYI, I added this as an example to the 2026.2 rendering examples. You will be able to find it under \scripts\04_3d_concepts\rendering\render_document_tiles_2026_2.py. Since the script will use some 2026.2 features, it does not make much sense to post a preview here, as you will not be able to run it right now. The example also does the kernel border thing we discussed here. Cheers, Ferdinand

Ah ! They are called Proxy Tags and I can see the actual tag with the MSG_GETREALTAGDATA ! Thank you ️

Your approach is not necessarily worse, one could even argue that it is better. I personally would always avoid manually binding to an OS DLL via ctypes, but that is more a personal preference.

Hey @Dimitris_Derm. , no there is currently no dedicated plugin class for MoGraph effectors and fields in Python, only the scripting objects exist at the moment. Cheers, Ferdinand

Hey, well, "intended" would be the wrong word, but I am aware. The whole resource parsing situation is a bit of a mess at the moment, both in C++ and the Python API. Why is it like this? A description is defined by a res file (more or less its GUI declaration) and an h file which declares symbols for parameter IDs. The resource for the loop tool looks like this: CONTAINER ToolLoopSelection { NAME ToolLoopSelection; INCLUDE ToolBase; GROUP MDATA_MAINGROUP { BOOL MDATA_LOOP_SEL_STOP_AT_SELECTIONS { } BOOL MDATA_LOOP_SEL_STOP_AT_NON_QUADS { } BOOL MDATA_LOOP_SEL_STOP_AT_POLES { } } HIDE MDATA_COMMANDGROUP; } I.e., it indeed only defines three parameters. But the header file looks like this: #ifndef TOOLLOOPSELECTION_H__ #define TOOLLOOPSELECTION_H__ enum { MDATA_LOOP_SEL_STOP_AT_SELECTIONS = 1100, // BOOL MDATA_LOOP_SEL_STOP_AT_NON_QUADS = 1110, // BOOL MDATA_LOOP_SEL_STOP_AT_POLES = 1120, // BOOL MDATA_LOOP_FIRST_VERTEX = 1130, // LONG MDATA_LOOP_SECOND_VERTEX = 1131, // LONG MDATA_LOOP_POLYGON_INDEX = 1132, // LONG MDATA_LOOP_BOTH_SIDES = 1133, // BOOL MDATA_LOOP_SWAP_SIDES = 1134, // BOOL MDATA_LOOP_SELECTION_TYPE = 1140, // LONG (must be SELECTION_NEW, SELECTION_ADD or SELECTION_SUB) MDATA_LOOP_SEL_POLYGON_OBJECT = 1150, // LINK }; #endif // TOOLLOOPSELECTION_H__ I.e., it not only defines these three parameters, but also all the others. Because there are all these "hidden" parameters which are written into the data container of the tool, but never show up in the GUI. What collides here is (a) the a bit irregular (but not illegal) behavior of a resource to define more parameters in its header file than are used in the resource and (b) the questionable decision of our resource parser to ignore hidden parameters. Our resource parsing is automated, i.e., I cannot just go into a file and just add these parameters for a docs build. I could touch the resource parsers for Python and C++, but I do not have the time for that right now as they has been written in a very opaque manner. My advice is simply what the docs suggest: Search in the header files directly. Go to your Cinema folder, make sure that the resource.zip is either unpacked to the local folder (the folder existing does not mean necessarily that it has been fully unpacked) or an external folder of your choice. And then simply search in that folder with an editor of your choice. [image: 1775557617243-c122abc5-8cfc-40da-90be-534532600b4a-image-resized.png] At some point I will replace the resource and symbols parsing for Python and C++, because we made there quite a mess in the past with questionable parsers and manually curated lists. But for now this cannot be changed and using the files directly is the way to go when you want to look at descriptions. Cheers, Ferdinand PS: The C++ docs are NOT inherently better in that regard. The parser shares there the same flaws. The reason why you find some symbols there is because developers have duplicated them from the resources into the frameworks.

Hello @vaishhg, Thank you for reaching out to us and your comprehensive yet sparse problem description, this really makes things easier for us. The problem is a bit that you somewhat forgot a crucial part: The scene data :). You provided this: Create a Cinema 4D scene with a Main take (frame range 0-6) Create child takes (V, E, R, A) and override the render data's frame range on each (e.g., V: 0-9, E: 0-23, R: 0-13, A: 0-17) But I cannot recreate a scene with these instructions, unless you meant the second step in a rather metaphorical way (switching the render data itself via takes). I also talked with some of our support specialists, and the consensus seems to be that what you claim to be the case - a scene with take overwritten FROM/TO values - is not possible. What you can do, is create multiple render settings and then activate them via takes. But Takes are a tricky subject, and I would not rule out that you somehow found a way to create take overrides for parameters of a render data instance. If so, please share the scene. Find also a scene attached which demonstrates what I discussed above: A scene that switches the active render data based on takes. It will print this with your script: Take 'Main': FRAMEFROM=0, FRAMETO=90 Take '0_45': FRAMEFROM=0, FRAMETO=45 Take '0_90': FRAMEFROM=0, FRAMETO=90 take_renderdata.c4d So, to formally answer your main question: When my assumptions above are true, your scene is printing the same values because each take does have the same values, as these two parameters are not directly overridable. Cheers, Ferdinand

For now I am good. If I need further help, I will send the endpoint and function by email.

Hi @ferdinand, and thank you! Your proof-of-concept and pointing me toward mxutils.GetSceneGraphString() was exactly what I needed to solve this. By using the scene graph dumper on a native UI-generated Motion Source from a rigged character, I realized it's just a standard Ojoint hierarchy with normal CTrack objects. I used GetClone(c4d.COPYFLAGS_NO_HIERARCHY) to perfectly replicate the Ojoint skeleton and injected the time variables into the container, and it maps and plays back perfectly. Thanks again.

Here's my prototype, if you are interested in my goal Right now, everything works as expected, but only with these lines of code. profile = GetCloneSpline(profile_orig) path = GetCloneSpline(path_orig) I'm happy with the current result. So, I'd love to get some additional advice on correctness and optimization. I think your previous answer was comprehensive enough, so I'll try to integrate some of it. But I'd also be very grateful if you could take a look at my plugin and perhaps give me some more specific optimization tips. If that's not too much trouble, of course! @ferdinand @ThomasB Anyway, thanks for your replies and advices!

Thank you. MSG_DESCRIPTION_USERINTERACTION_END is just what was needed.

Hey @SteveHill3D, Storing a tool state in a tag is possible, but a bit unusual. But generally you are on the right track. Tags are also internally often used as hidden data containers. When you write a modelling tool, you probably already found out that points and polygons are are actually stored in hidden tags on objects. I am not sure though if using tags in tools is a good advice, as injecting all that data all the time into the scene graph is probably not the fastest. It depends a bit on what you are doing, but in general the solution is a bit unusual. Cheers, Ferdinand

@ferdinand Hey @ferdinand, Thank you again for the clarification — checking the Video Post list was indeed the right direction. Just to share what worked on my side (Standard/Physical renderer), I check the presence of the GI Video Post and use its BIT_VPDISABLED state to determine whether it’s enabled. Here’s the small helper function I’m using: def is_gi_active(doc): rd = doc.GetActiveRenderData() if not rd: return False # GI Video Post IDs (verified on C4D 2024) GI_IDS = [ 1021096, # Global Illumination Video Post (C4D 2024) 300001038, # VPglobalillumination (older versions) ] vp = rd.GetFirstVideoPost() while vp: if vp.GetType() in GI_IDS: return not vp.GetBit(c4d.BIT_VPDISABLED) vp = vp.GetNext() return False Thanks again for your help. Best regards, Mustapha

Hello @atg, Welcome to the Maxon developers forum and its community, it is great to have you with us! Getting Started Before creating your next postings, we would recommend making yourself accustomed with our forum and support procedures. You did not do anything wrong, we point all new users to these rules. Forum Overview: Provides a broad overview of the fundamental structure and rules of this forum, such as the purpose of the different sub-forums or the fact that we will ban users who engage in hate speech or harassment. Support Procedures: Provides a more in detail overview of how we provide technical support for APIs here. This topic will tell you how to ask good questions and limits of our technical support. Forum Features: Provides an overview of the technical features of this forum, such as Markdown markup or file uploads. It is strongly recommended to read the first two topics carefully, especially the section Support Procedures: How to Ask Questions. About your First Question I can see why would think that, but you mixed things there a bit up. The CMake SDK build system was introduced with 2025.2.0 and became the standard with 2026.0.0. Between 2025.2 and 2025.3 we supported both build systems as a grace period for developers to get accustomed. Chances are very good, that you can just copy the CMake setup, i.e., the cmake folder and files such as CMakeLists.txt, CMakePresets.json, and sdk_modules.txt to a 2025.0 folder and it will generate a correct build system for you. But the supported range is only 2025.2+. For older projects you would have to use the old project tool based build system. Since I know what you are trying to do, I would recommend trying copying before you get into the old build system of ours. 2025.2 Release Notes 2025.2 Build System Docs (which covered both the old Project Tool and CMake) Cheers, Ferdinand edit: You will only find the old project tool tooling in old extended SDKs which supported it, such as 2025.2 or 2025.0.1

hey @Gene, So, you were just trying to add information for future readers? That is of course very welcome and explains my inability to extract a question from your posting. I would not have been that generous with the word bug either. Since this has never been fixed, chances are high that we came to the same conclusion internally. In general, you should not expect Command calling patterns to make perfect sense in every case. There are multiple cases where Command is triggered more often than one would think at first glance. I would also not try to interpret some deeper sense into all that. Cheers, Ferdinand

Thank you so much Ferdinand! I have a way forward now for my plugin using the EffectorData ModifyPoints() method. Kind regards Fredrik

Hey @aturtur, Thank you for reaching out to us. EventAdd will never really work in script manager scripts in the sense you mean it, unless you use hacks like dangling async dialogs (which as I always point out are a really bad idea). The reason is that Script Manager scripts are blocking, i.e., all scene and GUI execution is being halted until the script finishes. You can hack yourself around this with a dangling async dialog, i.e., a dialog that lives beyond the life time of its script. But that is not a good idea, you should implement some form of plugin to host your asnyc dialog, as you otherwise risk crashes. A modal dialog is just an extension of this. It is right in the name, it is modal, i.e., synchronous. All scene and GUI execution is being halted while this dialog is open and only resumes once it closes. When you want updates while your dialog is open, you need an async dialog (and a plugin which hosts it). Cheers, Ferdinand Since you also might misunderstand the nature of EventAdd() I am also putting here the C++ docs I updated a few weeks ago, to better reflect the nature of it (not yet live): /// @brief Enqueues an update event for the active document. /// @details Only must be called when modifying the active document and is without meaning for other documents. The typical example of using `EventAdd` is after adding or removing elements from the active document; and wanting these changes to be reflected in the UI. The function itself is technically thread-safe, but the vast majority of operations that require calling `EventAdd` are not thread-safe and must be called from the main thread (and therefore calling this function is usually main thread bound). The function also does not enqueue a dedicated event item, but rather sets a flag that is checked when the next update event is processed. Therefore, calling `EventAdd` multiple times in one function scope is unnecessary overhead which must be avoided. Because such multiple event flags cannot be consumed while a function on the main thread is still running, and instead the event will only be consumed after that function returns. /// @code /// Result<void> AddCubes() /// { /// CheckState(maxon::ThreadInterface::IsMainThread(), "AddCubes must be called from the main thread."_s); /// /// // EventAdd(); // We could also technically call it here with the same effect. The event /// // will only happen after this function returns. /// /// BaseDocument* doc = GetActiveDocument(); /// for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) /// { /// BaseObject* cube = BaseObject::Alloc(Ocube); /// if (!cube) /// return maxon::OutOfMemoryError(MAXON_SOURCE_LOCATION, "Failed to allocate cube object."_s); /// /// doc->InsertObject(cube); /// /// // Calling EventAdd here would have no extra effect, since this event cannot be consumed while /// // our main thread function is still running. And such extra calls on a large scale can cause /// // considerable overhead. /// } /// /// // Notify C4D that the active document has changed. The very end of a function or scope is the /// // canonical place to call EventAdd(). /// EventAdd(); /// } /// @endcode /// @see The article @link page_manual_coremessages Core Messages@endlink for more information. /// @param[in] eventflag The event to add: @enumerateEnum{EVENT}

@tommyf said in Render Token Questions: The frame padding I was referring to are in regards to the frame numbering that is written out when selecting a render pattern in the output settings that you would find under Render Settings > Save > Name where the one we typically use is Name.0000.TIF. Yes, that was already my hunch, as described above, and you cannot alter this numbering with render tokens, you can only add your own. When you want to change this numbering, you would have to write yourself a post processor as lined out above. Technically, you could also just run this outside of Cinema 4D, e.g., commandline.exe -someScene.c4d ... c4dpy.exe renameScript.py -someScene.c4d # Or just even just a CPython instance (or any other scripting language), the problem here is # that you could not access the the render settings of the scene and would have to rely on conventions. python renameScript.py -someScene.c4d Based on how you answered my questions it sounds like as long as I load the plugin script that contains the registration code that I could create custom tokens that way. I can also therefore create my own $frame token with my own frame padding (python str.zfill method) for frame numbers however there is no way to override the 4 digit frame padding that comes from the render settings name field. Yes. But you could not name it $frame, because that would collide with the builtin token of the same name. When the pattern my_render_frame-000001_001.tif works for you, I would definitely go for the render token. When you absolutely have to change the postfix set by Cinema 4D, that is possible too, but much more work. The work lies there not in actually renaming the files, that is somewhat trivial. The work lies in supporting all the ways a rendering can happen. When you are locked into using the commandline on your farm only, that would simplify things and drive down the costs of doing this (i.e., you would not support picture viewer, teams, editor, etc. renderings). Cheers, Ferdinand

Hi @ferdinand, I appreciate the reply! I didn't have a chance to update this post until now, but over the weekend I also found the Graph Descriptions Manual you've linked. The Scalar Ramp example in there was enough to help me figure out how to implement it with the Ramp node. Thank you for your response though, I'm sure it will make things easier if anyone else comes across this subject!

Hey @ECHekman, Thank you for reaching out to us. The answer to your question is sort of yesn't. You can set the embedded view transform of a bitmap, which by default will be used by the Picture Viewer. The Picture Viewer like most managers in Cinema 4D is sealed, and we do not want to change that. So, you cannot change what view transform override is used by the Picture Viewer (when the user chooses to ignore the view transform embedded into an image). See Manage Bitmap OCIO Color Profiles for details. Cheers, Ferdinand

hi there, I actually did sort this out in a very round about way with some "vibe coding". this was for a mapp creation project I am working where I am displaying various eras of map onto 20km grids (so as not to kill the viewport functionality). have a look at the below and let me know if this is a solid approach or if there was a better way: import c4d import maxon def main(): era = "INSERT_YOUR_ERA_HERE" basePath = "INSERT_YOUR_PATH_HERE" prefix = f"map_{era}_tile_20k_" extension = ".tif" doc = c4d.documents.GetActiveDocument() if doc is None: return nodeSpaceId = maxon.Id("com.redshift3d.redshift4c4d.class.nodespace") textureNodeId = maxon.Id("com.redshift3d.redshift4c4d.nodes.core.texturesampler") for mat_index in range(1, 9): mat_name = f"column_{mat_index:02d}" mat = doc.SearchMaterial(mat_name) if not mat: print(f"Material {mat_name} not found.") continue nodeMat = mat.GetNodeMaterialReference() if nodeMat is None: print(f"{mat_name} is not a node material.") continue graph = nodeMat.GetGraph(nodeSpaceId) if graph.IsNullValue(): print(f"No Redshift graph for {mat_name}.") continue textureNodes = [] maxon.GraphModelHelper.FindNodesByAssetId(graph, textureNodeId, False, textureNodes) with graph.BeginTransaction() as transaction: for node in textureNodes: node_name = node.GetValue(maxon.NODE.BASE.NAME) if not node_name: print(f"Unnamed node in {mat_name}, skipping.") continue node_name = str(node_name) try: local_index = int(node_name) except: print(f"Non-numeric node name '{node_name}' in {mat_name}, skipping.") continue global_index = (mat_index - 1) * 11 + local_index filename = f"{prefix}{global_index:03d}{extension}" full_path = basePath + filename tex0 = node.GetInputs().FindChild( "com.redshift3d.redshift4c4d.nodes.core.texturesampler.tex0" ) if tex0.IsNullValue(): print(f"No tex0 on node '{node_name}' in {mat_name}") continue pathPort = tex0.FindChild("path") if pathPort.IsNullValue(): print(f"No path port on node '{node_name}' in {mat_name}") continue pathPort.SetDefaultValue(maxon.Url(full_path)) print(f"{mat_name} → Node '{node_name}' set to {full_path}") transaction.Commit() c4d.EventAdd() if __name__ == "__main__": main()