for my use case i will probably have a fallback solution with web-save or system fonts like this:
import platform
system_name = platform.system()
if system_name == "Windows": font_name = "Consolas"
elif system_name == "Darwin": font_name = "Menlo"
elif system_name == "Linux": font_name = "DejaVu Sans Mono"
hi @ferdinand exactly what i needed , thanks!
the fontchek seems solid so far.
did a bid of testing, the check with c4d.bitmaps.GeClipMap.GetFontDescription()
seems only to work for the c4d.GE_FONT_NAME_POSTSCRIPT parameter. not with c4d.GE_FONT_NAME_FAMILY or c4d.GE_FONT_NAME_DISPLAY ... maybe because they could be ambiguous?
then it was a bit unclear how the postscript names are constructed. i created a font-selector-user-data to print the ps-names of the selected font. these names could then be used to check if a font exists on another system. i just hope, these names are consistent across platfoms.
the fontdata definiton still feels a bit unclear to me in respect to which values are needed or not. the ps-name alone will not work to define a fontdata. a single name in font[500] might work. ... in my test i used the bc returned by c4d.bitmaps.GeClipMap.GetFontDescription().
here is some test code i used in a python generator:
import c4d
doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument # The document the object `op` is contained in.
op: c4d.BaseObject # The Python generator object holding this code.
def main() -> c4d.BaseObject:
fontdata = op[c4d.ID_USERDATA,1] # font selector data field
font: c4d.BaseContainer = fontdata.GetFont()
print( "==============================" )
print( font[500] )
print( font[501] )
print( font[502] )
print( font[503] )
print( font[508]," <- ps name" )
print( font[509] )
print( "------------" )
# store the ps name for later
font_ps_name = font[508]
# we are testing the font, that we just selected in the user data - so it should always exist
check_bc: c4d.BaseContainer | None = c4d.bitmaps.GeClipMap.GetFontDescription(font[508], c4d.GE_FONT_NAME_POSTSCRIPT)
if not check_bc: print(f"508 nope")
else: print(f"508 exists" )
print( "------------" )
print( check_bc[500] )
print( check_bc[502] )
print( check_bc[503] )
print( check_bc[504] )
print( check_bc[509] )
print( "------------" )
# testing with spline text
# --------------------------------------------------------
# defing a font only with its ps-name will not work - yields default font
bc_font = c4d.BaseContainer()
bc_font.SetString(508, font_ps_name)
# using the data returned by GetFontDescription() works
fontdata = c4d.FontData()
fontdata.SetFont( check_bc )
text_spline = c4d.BaseObject( c4d.Osplinetext )
text_spline[c4d.PRIM_TEXT_TEXT] = "Text 0123"
text_spline[c4d.PRIM_TEXT_FONT] = fontdata
return text_spline
hi there,
i'd like to know if there is any way to know if the font i entered is valid / exists on the pc of the user.
i can set the font 'Arial', but if i set a non existing font like 'Whatever', there will be a fallback to the default font. i tried to get some feedback, if this has happend, but i can not figure out how.
this is my current code in a python generator:
import c4d
doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument
op: c4d.BaseObject
def main() -> c4d.BaseObject:
text = op[c4d.ID_USERDATA,2]
# temp doc
# ----------------------------------------------------------
temp_doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument = c4d.documents.BaseDocument()
temp_doc.SetName("temp_doc")
temp_null = c4d.BaseObject( c4d.Onull )
temp_doc.InsertObject( temp_null )
# create text spline
# ----------------------------------------------------------
text_spline = c4d.BaseObject( c4d.Osplinetext )
text_spline[c4d.PRIM_TEXT_TEXT] = text
text_spline[c4d.PRIM_TEXT_ALIGN] = 1
text_spline[c4d.PRIM_TEXT_HEIGHT] = 1
text_spline[c4d.PRIM_PLANE] = 2
bc_font = c4d.BaseContainer()
#bc_font.SetString(500, 'Arial')
bc_font.SetString(500, 'Consolasssss')
bc_font.SetInt32(502, 700) # weight
fontdata = c4d.FontData()
fontdata.SetFont( bc_font )
text_spline[c4d.PRIM_TEXT_FONT] = fontdata
# font check in temp doc
# ----------------------------------------------------------
text_spline.GetClone().InsertUnder( temp_null )
temp_doc.ExecutePasses( c4d.threading.GeGetCurrentThread(), True, True, True, c4d.BUILDFLAGS_NONE )
text_spline_2 = temp_null.GetDown()
fontdata_check = text_spline_2[c4d.PRIM_TEXT_FONT]
font_check = fontdata_check.GetFont()
print( font_check[500] ) # will print the non existing font name, not the fallback default font
return text_spline
hi there,
i've built a python generator, where i use its cache unless some parameters are dirty. when close and reopen the scene, the cache is gone and has to be rebuild. in principal, is there (not too complicated) way to keep/save these caches inside the scene?
would this be possible with a python generator or a proper plugin?
i'm using python.
to be a bit more specific: by clicking a checkbox on the python generator, i do a cloth simulation in a temp doc. the result of the sim is convertet to polygons and returned by the python generator. the simulation is not super heavy, but it woud be nice if i could avoid the recalculation. so i'd like to store the point data in the scene/generator. i'd like to avoid external files too, if possible.
my code is a bit long at the moment, i would post a shorter version, if you say it should be possible ...
best, sebastian
@ferdinand said in SAVEDOCUMENTFLAGS_AUTOSAVE still added to the recent file list?:
But please provide instructions on how to use your code when required in the future.
oh shit, i'm so sorry. you're right. completly missed this one. 
...
and of cause thanks for the explaination / clarification.
hi there,
i recreated the autosave functionality (and tweeked the post-fix a bit) to be able to trigger it on demand.
then i noticed the saved files still show up in the recent file list, even though i added the SAVEDOCUMENTFLAGS_AUTOSAVE flag. the documentation says this should not happen. adding SAVEDOCUMENTFLAGS_DONTADDTORECENTLIST makes it work.
is this correct or a bug or something else wrong with my code?
cheers sebastian
import c4d, os, datetime
doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument # The currently active document.
op: c4d.BaseObject | None # The primary selected object in `doc`. Can be `None`.
def main() -> None:
# autosave
doc_path = doc.GetDocumentPath()
doc_name = doc.GetDocumentName()
now = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%d%m_%H%M%S")
doc_name_post_fix = f"{doc_name}@export_{now}"
prefs = c4d.GetWorldContainerInstance()
ausosave_on = prefs[c4d.WPREF_AUTOSAVE_ENABLE]
ausosave_dest = prefs[c4d.WPREF_AUTOSAVE_DEST] # 0=project, 1=custom, 2=user
if ausosave_on:
if ausosave_dest==0:
if not doc_path:
#print( "no doc path, fallback to user" )
doc_path = c4d.storage.GeGetStartupWritePath()
save_path = os.path.join( doc_path, "backup", doc_name_post_fix )
if ausosave_dest==1:
doc_path = prefs[c4d.WPREF_AUTOSAVE_DEST_PATH]
if not os.path.isdir(doc_path):
#print( "no custom path, fallback to user" )
doc_path = c4d.storage.GeGetStartupWritePath()
doc_path = os.path.join( doc_path, "backup")
save_path = os.path.join( doc_path, doc_name_post_fix )
if ausosave_dest==2:
doc_path = c4d.storage.GeGetStartupWritePath()
save_path = os.path.join( doc_path, "backup", doc_name_post_fix )
#print( save_path )
res = c4d.documents.SaveDocument(doc, save_path, saveflags=c4d.SAVEDOCUMENTFLAGS_AUTOSAVE | c4d.SAVEDOCUMENTFLAGS_DONTADDTORECENTLIST, format=c4d.FORMAT_C4DEXPORT)
if not res:
print( "error writing autosave on export" )
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
hi, thanks for the info.
i just updated to 2025.2.0 ... but i suppose the fix is not in this one yet? not sure when the release date was ...
Thanks for the preliminary feedback.
I'll wait patiently 
hi there,
i'm working on a command plugin with gedialog, that i want to dock in the layout.
one of the gui elements is AddCustomGui c4d.CUSTOMGUI_FILENAME.
the paths that are stored can be quite long.
the problem is, that the dialog wants to show the complete string, which makes the dialog extremely wide.
this only happens when the dialog is docked. then i can not scale the dialog smaller then the length of the string/filename.
if the dialog is not docked i can scale it smaller and the overflowing string is hidden.
sadly AddCustomGui has no properties initw and inith. i tried some combinations of flags but had no success.
am i missing something?
i could place the element in a scrollgroup, but then the "open document" button might be hidden in the part that is scrolled away.
any other options or workarouds?
cheers, sebastian
here is the code
import c4d, typing
ID_PLUGIN_CMD: int = 1025245
class MainDialog(c4d.gui.GeDialog):
ID_GRP_MAIN = 1000
ID_TEXT_1 = 1001
ID_TEXT_2 = 1002
extra_long_str = "this is some realy looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong text"
def __init__(self) -> None:
super().__init__()
def InitValues(self) -> bool:
return super().InitValues()
def CreateLayout(self) -> bool:
self.SetTitle("My Dialog")
self.GroupBegin(id=self.ID_GRP_MAIN, flags=c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT, cols=1)
self.GroupSpace(spacex=5, spacey=5)
self.GroupBegin(id=0, flags=c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT, cols=2)
self.AddStaticText(0, c4d.BFH_LEFT, name="path", initw=0 )
bc = c4d.BaseContainer()
self.AddCustomGui(self.ID_TEXT_1, c4d.CUSTOMGUI_FILENAME, '' ,c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT, 0, 0, bc,)
self.AddStaticText(0, c4d.BFH_LEFT, name="text", initw=0 )
self.AddEditText(self.ID_TEXT_2, c4d.BFH_FIT, 20,10 )
self.GroupEnd()
self.GroupEnd()
self.SetString( id=self.ID_TEXT_1, value=self.extra_long_str )
self.SetString( id=self.ID_TEXT_2, value=self.extra_long_str )
return super().CreateLayout()
def Command(self, cid: int, msg: c4d.BaseContainer) -> bool:
return super().Command(cid, msg)
class DialogManagerCommand (c4d.plugins.CommandData):
dialog: typing.Optional[MainDialog] = None
def Execute(self, doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument) -> bool:
if self.dialog is None:
self.dialog = MainDialog()
if self.dialog.IsOpen() and not self.dialog.GetFolding():
self.dialog.SetFolding(True)
else:
self.dialog.Open(c4d.DLG_TYPE_ASYNC, ID_PLUGIN_CMD, -2, -2, defaultw=300, defaulth=200)
return True
def RestoreLayout(self, secret: any) -> bool:
if self.dialog is None:
self.dialog = MainDialog()
return self.dialog.Restore(ID_PLUGIN_CMD, secret)
def GetState(self, doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument) -> int:
result: int = c4d.CMD_ENABLED
if self.dialog:
if self.dialog.IsOpen() and not self.dialog.GetFolding():
result |= c4d.CMD_VALUE
return result
def RegisterPlugin() -> bool:
return c4d.plugins.RegisterCommandPlugin(
id=ID_PLUGIN_CMD,
str="filename_test_01",
info=c4d.PLUGINFLAG_SMALLNODE,
icon=None,
help="",
dat=DialogManagerCommand())
def main():
if not RegisterPlugin():
raise RuntimeError( f"Failed to register {DialogManagerCommand} plugin." )
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
oh well ... tried option B) as planned.
a python tag tracks the dirty status of some objects and starts a c4d.SpecialEventAdd(). this is received as a core message in my dialog. but when i go looking for the dirty objects, they are not dirty anymore.
my workaround for now is, to have a str userdata on the pyhon tag. once the tag detects a dirty object, it writes its name into the str userdata. my dialog can then read the name of the object and find it. feels quite cumbersome but works for now.
would there be a better/more hidden way to store the data?
hi there,
i have a bunch of objects with userdata. then i have a GeDialog plugin with mostly the identical userdata. the dialog plugin is intended to control the objects from one common panel. but there might be cases, where the objects are adjusted direktly, so the dialog needs to be updated. i'm looking for a solution for this case.
A)
am i correct, the change of DIRTYFLAGS_DATA can not be tracked from GeDialog directly via the message system? i could only track things, that trigger a global event?
i suppose it could be done with a timer, that checks the doc/objects every few millyseconds, but that feels very unprecise.
B)
with a python tag i can easily track the dirty status of objects, but from what i've read here, i can not send data (list of dirty objects) direkcly to the dialog/command plugin. i can just call my dialog and make it aware to look and find the dirty objects.
C)
there also seems to be c4d.GePluginMessage() and PluginMessage(). but i never found a clear statement, which plugin types are supported. i never even got c4d.GePluginMessage() to return True, which made me doubt myself a bit.
so i would try to go with option B).
any objections or completly different suggestions?
cheers sebastian
hi @i_mazlov,
ok, good to know.
i also tried to insert the thicken generator into a temp_doc, activating the selections and executing passes. but that didn't work either.
@i_mazlov Thanks!
makes sens. seems i only used the forgiving commands until now.
the code is run in a python generator. so by returning the object, it will be inserted into the scene.
hi there,
i was shifting around some selections and noticed that some modeling commands seem to have no effect.
MCOMMAND_SELECTALL
MCOMMAND_SELECTINVERSE
i realize i can use SelectAll on the BaseSelect. and i could surely build a loop, to invert the selection. but why are these commands there? they even return true, despite doing nothing.
this is my code and a demo file:
import c4d
doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument
op: c4d.BaseObject
def main() -> c4d.BaseObject:
obj = op[c4d.ID_USERDATA,1].GetClone()
bs_points = obj.GetPointS()
#bs_points.SelectAll( obj.GetPointCount()-1 ) # will select all points
c4d.utils.SendModelingCommand( c4d.MCOMMAND_SELECTALL, [ obj ], c4d.MODELINGCOMMANDMODE_POINTSELECTION, doc=doc) # not working
c4d.utils.SendModelingCommand( c4d.MCOMMAND_SELECTSHRINK, [ obj ], c4d.MODELINGCOMMANDMODE_POINTSELECTION, doc=doc)
c4d.utils.SendModelingCommand( c4d.MCOMMAND_SELECTINVERSE, [ obj ], c4d.MODELINGCOMMANDMODE_POINTSELECTION, doc=doc) # not working
bc = c4d.BaseContainer()
bc[c4d.MDATA_CONVERTSELECTION_LEFT] = 0 # 0 = points
bc[c4d.MDATA_CONVERTSELECTION_RIGHT] = 1 # 1 = edges
bc[c4d.MDATA_CONVERTSELECTION_TOLERANT] = False # tolerant conversion
res = c4d.utils.SendModelingCommand( c4d.MCOMMAND_CONVERTSELECTION, [ obj ], bc=bc, doc=doc)
res = c4d.utils.SendModelingCommand( c4d.MCOMMAND_EDGE_TO_SPLINE, [ obj ], doc=doc)
return obj
circumvented the problem by generating 3 thicken objects - one for each surface part (shell, start cap, end cap). then created selection tags and stitched everything together with a connector object.
hi there,
the thicken generator object is a super cool and powerful tool. i'd like to use it inside of a python generator object, to create some more complex geometry. for this i need some of the selection options of the thicken generator. but activating e.g. 'shell' selection from within the python generator will mess up the output geometry of the thicken object and not generate any polygon selection tag. see attached c4d file.
after converting the python generator you have access to the built hierarchy and the generated thicken generator. when you select it and then try to activate some selection options ther will be no selection tags created. so it looks like something in the thicken generator is broken/uncomplete, when it is created within a python generator object.
is there any way to make this work, or is this a special case/limitation?
def main() -> c4d.BaseObject:
source_obj = c4d.BaseObject( 5170 )
source_obj[c4d.PRIM_CYLINDER_CAPS] = False
thicken = c4d.BaseObject( 1060179 )
source_obj.InsertUnder( thicken )
thicken[c4d.SOLIDIFYGENERATOR_SELECTION_POLYGON_BOUNDARY] = 1 # does not create tag, will mess up (delete) geo of the selected polys
return thicken
hi ilia @i_mazlov,
thaks for the advice about threading and the dummy document and the fishy part.
I continued testing the last days and noticed that it seems to work, when i insert a clone of the fieldlayer.
hi there,
I'm having a weird issue with fieldlayers in r2024.
I want to add a layer to a fieldlist. In r2023 it worked quite fine. Now I get a reference Error.
But when I print anything, the error is not raised.
In my example I use a python generator, but it seems to happen with a python tag, too.
Or am I using/inserting the fieldlayers wrong?
cheers sebastian
python generator :
import c4d
def main() -> c4d.BaseObject:
obj = c4d.BaseObject(c4d.Ocube)
res = c4d.utils.SendModelingCommand( c4d.MCOMMAND_MAKEEDITABLE, [obj], c4d.MODELINGCOMMANDMODE_ALL, doc = doc )
if not res: print("error")
else: obj = res[0].GetClone()
vertex_tag = obj.MakeVariableTag( c4d.Tvertexmap, len(obj.GetAllPoints()) )
vertex_tag.SetName( "vertex_highlight_reinforce" )
vertex_tag[c4d.ID_TAGFIELD_ENABLE] = 1
fields = vertex_tag[c4d.ID_TAGFIELDS]
f_layer_1 = c4d.modules.mograph.FieldLayer( c4d.FLquantize )
fields.InsertLayer( f_layer_1 )
vertex_tag[c4d.ID_TAGFIELDS] = fields
#print ("") # with print active, no error will be raised
return obj
results in the following error:
ReferenceError: the object 'c4d.modules.mograph.FieldLayer' is not alive
hi @i_mazlov,
thanks for the answer. good to know about this status / limitation.
for my current case I found a solution without folders..
found the solution ... the corresponding type is called: FLweight