Hey @Gemini,

as I just said, there aren't any, even in the non-public C++ API. When you want to provide a layout, you must save it as a layout file and then load it via LoadFile.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hey @ECHekman,

COLORA and VECTOR4D are both Maxon datatypes. For how to deal with custom data types, you can have a look at this. But since this is a maxon data type and not a cinema data type, you cannot use a static_cast. When you do not want to store your maxon data wrapped as data, the only thing which remains is unsafely casting the data (but our style guide recommends using reinterpret_cast to make the unsafe nature obvious).

const maxon::ColorA* myColor = reinterpret_cast<const maxon::ColorA*>(geData.GetCustomDataTypeI(DTYPE_COLORA));

I had a look and we do this in some UI related places too, so this might be a side effect of the 2024 changes to data types in relation to that specific custom gui.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Ok thanks for the help Ferdinand. I will take the road of least resistance and just build on top of float64 vectors

Hello @Gregor-M,

when you have a problem with bit depths, please open a new thread. This is now a bug thread and we should keep it clean.

What I forgot to mention here is that there is one way to sort of fix this right now for you. There is an undocumented flag named RDATA_BAKE_OCIO_VIEW_TRANSFORM_RENDER on the render data (not the same as RDATA_BAKE_OCIO_VIEW_TRANSFORM which is exposed in the UI tto the user). With that you can bake the full transform chain into the bitmap. Such bitmap will then be displayed correctly in the PV. But when you save it to disk, it will be "incorrect", as it got the view and display transform baked into it (which is usually not what you want).

But it could be an option if you only volatiely render documents for displaying purposes only or are okay with rendering things twice (once with the flag for displaying, and once without it for saving). But that is of course very much a hack why we will fix this.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Graph Description is great and I love it.

I wrote a rough trace to generate descriptions from selected material and reconstruct a new material based on the descriptions.

I have more plans for this, but due to busy artistic work I had to suspend this project. It's really regrettable.

But I have more plans and ideas about this. Perhaps before I achieve my idea, the omnipotent @ferdinand already has these features built-in, who knows 😊

Cheers~
DunHou

Hey @T1001,

yes, you are on the right track there, to initialize an image as RGBA F32, you would do something like this:

static const Int32 size = 1024; const ImageRef image = ImageClasses::IMAGE().Create() iferr_return; const maxon::ColorProfile profile = ColorSpaces::RGBspace().GetDefaultNonlinearColorProfile(); const PixelFormat format = PixelFormats::RGBA::F32(); const Int32 channelCount = format.GetChannelCount(); // Init the bitmap with its size, storage convention, and pixel format. Whe choose here the // "normal", i.e., consecutive layout. An alternative would be a planar layout. image.Init(size, size, ImagePixelStorageClasses::Normal(), format) iferr_return; image.Set(IMAGEPROPERTIES::IMAGE::COLORPROFILE, profile) iferr_return;

Regarding the rest, I roughly cover this in my example. A little GeUserArea which wraps around some render buffer data. I rather not yet share it here, as it "misbehaves" still in one aspect, and I am not sure if that is my or the API's fault (will have to catch one of the Image API devs for that).

You can also have a look at the Color Management and OCIO manual as I covered there quite a bit of pixel format and buffer handling subjects. Last but not least regarding hardware acceleration: The Image API does not have much drawing functions, that is primarily done in the semi-public Drawport API. It depends a bit on what you want to accelerate, filling a buffer cannot be accelerated, you either fill things row by row, or just wrap around some existing memory.

When you need hardware accelerated drawing functions like drawing a circle, etc., then you indeed must use the Drawport API. To get access to it as an external, you would have to apply for Maxon Registered Developer membership, as this would also grant access to the semi-public Drawport API. As its name implies, the Drawport API is the API with wich viewports are drawn in Cinema 4D. You might be familar with BaseDraw, the Cinema API type which is used to draw into view ports. Similar to how you can get an ImageRef from a BaseBitmap, you can get a DrawPortRef from a BaseDraw. Under the hood, draw ports are also used to draw into bitmaps, and there is also a mechanism with which one can attach a draw port to a dialog (a draw port user area).

But not all parts of the Drawport API are semi-public, some are fully private. I would first have to check, if the bitmap drawing part is semi-public and I know for a fact that the user area is not semi-public (but we wanted to expose it at some point but I think it never happend).

So, long story short, when you think you need all that, I would recommend reaching out via our contact form or directly apply for registered developer membership.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hi @heytraile,

Please have a look at our Support Procedures: How to Ask Question section. Usually it is very helpful if one provides a relevant code snippet, demonstrating the issue. This helps to reduce the room for any misinterpretations of your original question.

Regarding the issue you're describing, the "null" being logged to the console is often a symptom of an implementation issue within a function that overrides the base implementation. Specifically, if a function (such as Message() or RestoreLayout()) is expected to return a particular type (e.g., bool), but instead returns None or a mismatched type, it can result in unexpected behavior and the "null" log.

Cheers,
Ilia

Hello @T1001,

Thank your for reaching out to us and for splitting your questions into multiple topics. But let's put this topic on hold here until we have asked your other question (which I set as the main question).

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Thank you very much, @i_mazlov! This is what I needed!

I would heavily recommend using the extension, as it will automatically curate the paths for you. I.e., when you use the extension and connect to a Cinema 4D instance, it will make sure that the dummy modules of that Cinema 4D version are on the search paths.

But when you really do not want to use it, you can also just edit your config so that the dummy module paths are discoverable for auto complete and the linter.
2a76cd6c-35aa-451f-82db-02b03694e72d-image.png

What you will need in any case, is the Python and Pylance extension for VS Code, as they are the extensions which make use of these settings. When you install the connector, they will be installed automatically as a dependency.

0b5d77af-5f23-4203-9a0a-276b8eafc62e-image.png

Cheers,
Ferdinand

I just simply add a plugin to C4D which creates a user menu into C4D all in one pack without adding any script into the user C4D preferences folder ( library / scripts ) . Menu and script embedded solution all in one plugin inside.

Hi @RyanTheDev,

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: Asking Questions.

About your First Question

Please elaborate on your question, there's no good reference or solution you can get without providing the context. What is a "custom file type"? do you mean you've implemented BaseSceneLoader plugin? When you try to open dialog? Is it happening on main thread? What's the code that does this? What does it mean "keeps failing" - does it give you error instead?

You can also have a look at SCENEFILTER::DIALOGSALLOWED flag, if it's applicable in your case.

Cheers,
Ilia

@Dunhou It seems corect! Well done.

@ferdinand Okay I will do it in the future. Thanks for the code snippet, always helps to learn!

Hi @llealloo,

please excuse the delayed answers.

To the best of my knowledge in the near future there're no plans for integrating usd python bindings into c4d python system.

By the way, with the 2025.0 release internal usd library was properly updated to OpenUSD 24.08, so we expect the double loading usd issue to be solved under OSX.

Cheers,
Ilia

I tried using a timer to solve this problem, but I still want to know if there is a more direct way

import c4d import threading from c4d.gui import GeUserArea, GeDialog GADGET_ID_GEUSERAREA = 10000 class DropArea(GeUserArea): def __init__(self): # Used to store all objects involved in the drag-and-drop operation self.currentDragObjects = [] # Flag to indicate whether a drag operation is in progress self.isDragging = False # Define a timer to delay the handling of the drag completion self.dragTimer = None def Message(self, msg, result): # Handle drag-and-drop messages if msg.GetId() == c4d.BFM_DRAGRECEIVE: # Check if the drag was lost or canceled if msg.GetInt32(c4d.BFM_DRAG_LOST) or msg.GetInt32(c4d.BFM_DRAG_ESC): self.isDragging = False return self.SetDragDestination(c4d.MOUSE_FORBIDDEN) # If the drag just started, clear the previous object list if not self.isDragging: self.currentDragObjects = [] # Initialize the storage list self.isDragging = True # Mark the beginning of the drag # Verify if it is a valid drop area if not self.CheckDropArea(msg, True, True): return self.SetDragDestination(c4d.MOUSE_FORBIDDEN) # Get the dragged file object dragInfo = self.GetDragObject(msg) if dragInfo is not None: dragObject = dragInfo['object'] # Check if the object already exists in the list to avoid duplicates if dragObject not in self.currentDragObjects: self.currentDragObjects.append(dragObject) # Reset the timer to delay the handling of drag completion if self.dragTimer is not None: self.dragTimer.cancel() # Set a short timer (e.g., 0.2 seconds) to determine if the drag operation is complete self.dragTimer = threading.Timer(0.2, self._finalize_drag) self.dragTimer.start() # Set the mouse cursor to a valid state return self.SetDragDestination(c4d.MOUSE_MOVE) # Call the base class Message() method to handle other messages return c4d.gui.GeUserArea.Message(self, msg, result) def _finalize_drag(self): # Delayed execution to ensure all dragged objects have been received self.isDragging = False if self.currentDragObjects: # Print all dropped files print(f"Dropped files: {self.currentDragObjects}") # Additional logic can be executed here, e.g., handling file paths or other content # Clear the object list for the next drag-and-drop operation self.currentDragObjects = [] # Redraw the user area (if UI update is needed) self.Redraw() class ExampleDialog(GeDialog): geUserArea = DropArea() def CreateLayout(self): self.SetTitle("Drag Area") if self.GroupBegin(0, c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT | c4d.BFV_SCALEFIT, cols=1, rows=0, title="", groupflags=0, initw=100, inith=100): self.GroupBorderSpace(8, 8, 8, 8) self.GroupSpace(2, 2) # Add the user area gadget self.AddUserArea(GADGET_ID_GEUSERAREA, c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT | c4d.BFV_SCALEFIT, 200, 200) # Attach the user area to the gadget self.AttachUserArea(self.geUserArea, GADGET_ID_GEUSERAREA) self.GroupEnd() return True if __name__ == "__main__": global dlg dlg = ExampleDialog() dlg.Open(dlgtype=c4d.DLG_TYPE_ASYNC, defaultw=200, defaulth=200)

Hey @MMayrh,

Thank you for reaching out to us. This is not how this parameter works. The parameter DOCUMENT_PREVIEW_IMAGE is of data type BitmapButtonStruct, not of BaseBitmap.

54c636b2-05c8-4e3a-af41-9edf7e80bd24-image.png

The documentation is a bit misleading here. This is not the document preview bitmap, but sort of the preview bitmap delegate. I.e., an entity that is used to retrieve a preview bitmap (for a document in this case). A BitmapButtonStruct wraps a node, an ID, and a dirty flag.

3e4681a7-7db6-45b7-a1da-5279cc028cf2-image.png

This parameter does not make too much sense in the Python API, here is what the C++ API does when the parameter is access for a document:

459e7ff6-a8fe-4abf-ae35-adc803c17170-image.png

I.e., it returns itself (the doc), the ID of the parameter (DOCUMENT_PREVIEW_IMAGE) and the dirty state of its internal current preview bitmap as the BitmapButtonStruct bbs. What you could technically try, is implement a node, e.g., an object, and then set that object as the preview provider for a document. Your node would for that have to implement MSG_DESCRIPTION_GETBITMAP, because that is what effectively will be called. But that is all very theoretical, DOCUMENT_PREVIEW_IMAGE is largely unused in our code base, and I do not see any implemnation for the SetParameter part. So, the document will likely just ignore you trying to overwrite its preview provider. There could be some base implemenation kicking in, but I doubt it.

But what you definitely cannot do, is just set there a bitmap to overwrite the preview image of the document (assuming that was what you wanted to do). That would also not make too much sense since a document is constantly recalculating its preview image. So, on the next update that image would be gone (if it would work like that).

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Yes, we will treat it as a bug. Apparently we implemented it, but then someone disabled the implementation (probably because it caused performance issues or something like that), and then we forgot do follow up on that disabled implementation. Generally we cannot give ETA's for fixes but we try to do them in a timely fashion, i.e., within a couple of minor releases such as 2024.1, 2024.2, 2024.3, etc. I am not the dev here, so I can give even less guarantees. We will update this thread when something blocks us from fixing this in the near future.

And yes, it does work in C++. The reason why this is not working in Python is because of the C++ API changes with 2024.0. This link shows how you sample things in C++, the changes revolved around making sampling a field a const operation, i.e., an operation which does not change data on the object. Which was before not the case and now requires that mutable data to be manually passed arround as the extraData as shown in the example. The changes were carried out to speed up the core of Cinema 4D.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

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. Therefor I moved your topic to the General Talk which is the place to make request to the community. While Cinema 4D SDK board is purely about development questions.

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: Asking Questions.

About your First Question

There is no such plugins (at least that I'm aware) in Cinema 4D, however you may be able to find issue in your mesh via the Mesh Checking features available in the Mode of the Attribute Manager.

1d38a2e5-3304-415b-803b-bf6859b55c34-image.png

I let the community answers regarding your request in case a developer have done a plugins that may fit your needs.
Cheers,
Maxime.