How to change the projection type for a created material.

lednevandrey

For the object selected in the scene, a new material tag is added. By default, the projection type of the new material tag is set to spherical.
How to change the projection type of the new material tag?

# Step 1: Create a new material
    material = c4d.BaseMaterial(c4d.Mmaterial)  # Creating new material
    material.SetName("MyMat")  # Assigning a name to a material
    material[c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION] = c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION_UVW

For a newbie in Python programming, it is very difficult to understand the large volume of documentation.
In other programming environments, for example for AfterEffects, there are functions that show the assigned effects, and field values, for a certain scene object.
Is there a trick that allows you to print the field properties of a certain tag of such an object?

lednevandrey

material[c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION] = c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION_UVW

This approach doesn't work.???

ferdinand

Hey @lednevandrey,

your code is 50% correct The assignment pair TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION and TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION_UVW is correct and expresses setting the projection of a material tag to UVW. But they are associated with a Material Tag and not a material (as you attempt in your code). So, what you are trying there is systematically not possible, a material has no projection type. You need an object and its material tag. As a little warning, the type and symbol for a Material Tag are c4d.TextureTag and c4d.Ttexture.

I am not so sure what you mean with '' but you might want to read Python SDK - Python Console: Drag and Drop. Something like TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION is called a parameter in Cinema 4D and you can explore them via drag and drop in the Python console.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

lednevandrey

Hey Ferdinand!

To the request

Material

Shows this message
<c4d.TextureTag object called Material/Material with ID 5616 at 2260375040320>

But when I try to change the value of TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION with the line

Material[c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION] = c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION_UVW

As I understand, I refer to the TEXTURE tag....

then I get the message
NameError: name 'Material' is not defined. Did you mean: 'material'?

And in the description of the parameters c4d.TextureTag, there is no value TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION.

How to correctly refer to the material tag?

ferdinand

Hey @lednevandrey,

without wanting to be rude, I really struggle with understanding what you want to convey. Material[c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION] = c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION_UVW does not work because Python is case sensitive and you gave your BaseMaterial instance the symbol material. So, Python is complaining about that.

But as said before, a material, i.e., BaseMaterial is not the right place to set the projection. It is the counter part to the thing you see in the Material Manager of Cinema 4D and has no projection. The projection is set in the Material Tag, which slightly confusingly is called TextureTag in the API.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

"""Assigns the first material in the document to the selected object and sets its projection to UVW.
"""

import c4d
import mxutils

doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument  # The currently active document.
op: c4d.BaseObject | None  # The primary selected object in `doc`. Can be `None`.

def main() -> None:
    """Called by Cinema 4D when the script is being executed.
    """
    if not op:
        raise ValueError("Please select an object.")
    
    # Get the first material in the document.
    material: c4d.BaseMaterial = doc.GetFirstMaterial()
    if not material:
        raise ValueError("No materials found in the document.")

    # Get the first existing texture tag on #op or create a new one when none exists.
    tag: c4d.BaseTag = op.GetTag(c4d.Ttexture) or op.MakeTag(c4d.Ttexture)
    if not tag:
        raise ValueError("Failed to get or create a texture tag.")
    
    # Set the material and projection.
    tag[c4d.TEXTURETAG_MATERIAL] = material
    tag[c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION] = c4d.TEXTURETAG_PROJECTION_UVW

    # Update the Cinema 4D UI.
    c4d.EventAdd()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()