On 05/12/2017 at 11:26, xxxxxxxx wrote:
When starting out this is what I would do.
1. Copy your "Cinema 4D" folder to somewhere else on your computer. IE "C:\Coding\Cinema 4D". You are copying the entire folder.
The reason to do this is so that you can make changes to the plugins folder without any "this folder is protected because its in c:\program files" messages. It also ensures you don't mess up your main version of C4D, which might have a tonne of other plugins installed and other things setup.
2. Go into the plugins folder and copy the cinema4dsdk, then paste it again at the same location, then rename it. IE "mycoolplugin".
3. Go into your new mycoolplugin folder and open up cinema4dsdk.vcxproj in the appropriate version of Visual Studio
You should not open it up in a newer version than you intend to use, otherwise it will change the project. So don't open it in 2017, then try 2015 then try 2013. This won't work. Make sure you only open it in the version you intend to use. So for R18 use 2013. If you have already opened it up before you copied the Cinema4dSDK, then I suggest installing C4D again from scratch into your new location, so that you have an un-altered version of the cinema4dsdk plugin.
4. Don't move your plugin. Just leave it in the plugins folder. Otherwise you will get the framework bugs you mentioned.
5. If you have previously compiled the cinema4dsdk plugin, then make sure to go into that folder and delete the cinema4dsdk.dll that it made since it will clash with your copy.
6. Instead of step (5) you should actually rename your plugin. You can do that by right clicking (or double click) in visual studio on the name "cinema4dsdk" and choose rename. The project settings will pick this up and your output file will then be whatevername.dll. Just make sure you don't ever have 2 dlls in your myplugin folder.
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So just to wrap up. Don't do anything extra. Just install c4d somewhere that doesn't have file protection issues (or copy paste). Then copy the cinema4dsdk and rename its folder name. Leave it in the plugins folder, don't move it around. Then remove stuff from the cinema4dsdk example that you don't need.
I do think that MAXON should ship a basic empty plugin as well as the cinema4dsdk. It would make things a whole lot easier for beginners.
I will try to cover all of this in a video in a few weeks if I have some time.