Thank you both for the answers!

Sorry about not finding that, Sebastian, it wasn't popping up when I searched the SDK.

Dan

Hello!
I have a pretty simple question about how to create a twirl down group in the Attribute Manager such as this

I managed to track down that it uses DESC_PARENT_COLLAPSE, but I'm having trouble setting it up in GetDDescription(). The SDK doesn't really help with it and the forums didn't turn up any results so I'm a bit lost. Thanks for any help.

Dan

Hello!

I'm working on a plugin were I want to take an input child object spline and use its points as a basis for an output. I'm able to get when the object is dirty reliably and only update when I have to. But when I have an object like an Oinstance or an Oconnector, I'm not getting a dirty message from them if the object inputting into them has been updated.

Aside from manually checking the object type and checking INSTANCEOBJECT_LINK and CONNECTOBJECT_LINK respectively I can't figure out a way to get if they have actually updated and therefore I have to update.

Is there way to get the dependence list for a given object so I can manually check it? Since the linked connect/instance isn't being marked as dirty I don't know another approach to use. Or is there a better way to know when an input into one of those objects has updated?

Dan

I understand, that makes sense to me.

Thank you for the help.

Dan

Hi Manuel, no worry about the wait! Thanks for the help.

When you say that there is a special case for the Text spline "Make Editable", do you mean core unique Cinema functionality? That's not something I can replicate, right?

Hi Manuel,

I think I understand! Definitely a few limitations but it seems doable.

I had a follow up question about how the Text object behaves in Cinema, since making it editable can return multiple splines. When Separate Letters is checked the object returns multiple splines underneath a null, but not when the checkbox is off. Would that be via GVO() or GetContour()? Does the function that gets called depend on the Seperate Letters checkbox?

Text Test.c4d

Additionally when a Text object is made editable when Separate Letters is checked it no longer works underneath an Extrude object, which makes sense because of the null. But it works when its before its been made editable. Is this just because the null doesn't exist internally?

Hi Manuel,

It's based on the topic you linked, but I thought it was a self contained issues so I created a new thread. Sorry if I should have continued that thread.

In regards to:

What i can tell is that the function GetContour is the one used when you edit the generator, and it only return one object and not a hierarchy. If you want to return a spline you have to merge all the spline you want in different segment.

What would be the best why to merge them? Just so I do it correctly.

Can you provide a bit more information about your goal here, if you just want to modify the spline, why you didn't created a modifier ?

My overall goal is more complicated. The end goal I'm working towards is being able to get all of the points of every object in the hierarchy underneath the plugin, regardless of object type. I would want to be able to know which points came from which object and able to do things like get polygons from polygon objects and the segments from splines. After getting all of that data I would generate a spline output.

It's all a lot more complicated than I thought it would be though and I've been having quite a bit of trouble making the parts of it work. Hopefully that clears up what I'm looking to do!

Thanks for the help!
Dan

Hello! I'm working on a Object Plugin that I want to take an entire spline hierarchy and return a modified output. I was running into a problem though that when I use Make Editable (using the C key), it is only returning the first element in the hierarchy. I stripped it all the way down to this code and it's still happening. I used the following python code on it and it was able to return the correct hierarchy along with being live in the viewport. The only issue is when it is made editable.

My python script's output is at the top, with the result of me making the plugin editable at the bottom.

#include "c4d.h"
#include "c4d_symbols.h"
#include "c4d_general.h"

class SimpleTest : public ObjectData
{
    INSTANCEOF(SimpleTest, ObjectData)
public:
    
    
    virtual Bool Init(GeListNode *node);
    
    virtual BaseObject* GetVirtualObjects(BaseObject *op, HierarchyHelp *hh);
    static NodeData *Alloc() { return NewObjClear(SimpleTest); }
     void CheckDirty( BaseObject* op,BaseDocument* doc);
    void HierarchyIterator(BaseObject* obj, maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*>* objectlist);
    SplineObject* GetContour(BaseObject *op,BaseDocument *doc,Float lod,BaseThread *bt);
    
    Int32 childContourDirty;
    Int32 childGVODirty;
};

void SimpleTest::HierarchyIterator(BaseObject* obj, maxon::BaseArray<BaseObject*>* objectlist)
{
    while (obj != nullptr)
    {
        
        
        HierarchyIterator(obj->GetDown(), objectlist);
        obj = obj->GetNext();
    }
    
}

void SimpleTest::CheckDirty( BaseObject* op,BaseDocument* doc)
{
    BaseObject* child = op->GetDown();
    if(child == nullptr)
    {
        childContourDirty = -1;
        op->SetDirty(DIRTYFLAGS::DATA);
        return;
    }
    Int32 childDirty = child->GetDirty(DIRTYFLAGS::DATA | DIRTYFLAGS::MATRIX | DIRTYFLAGS::CACHE);
    
    
    if( childDirty != childContourDirty)
    {
        childContourDirty = childDirty;
        op->SetDirty(DIRTYFLAGS::DATA);
    }
}
BaseObject* SimpleTest::GetVirtualObjects(BaseObject *op, HierarchyHelp *hh)
{
    
    if (op == nullptr || hh==nullptr)
    {
        return BaseObject::Alloc(Onull);
    }
    
    BaseObject* childspline = op->GetDown();
    
    if (childspline == nullptr)
    {
        SplineObject* temp = SplineObject::Alloc(0, SPLINETYPE::LINEAR);
        
        return temp;
    }
    
    Bool opDirty = op->IsDirty(DIRTYFLAGS::DATA | DIRTYFLAGS::MATRIX);
    Int32 childDirty = childspline->GetDirty(DIRTYFLAGS::DATA |DIRTYFLAGS::MATRIX | DIRTYFLAGS::CACHE);
    
   
    if (childDirty ==childGVODirty &&  !opDirty)
    {
        
        return op->GetCache();
    }
    op->NewDependenceList();
    op->AddDependence(hh, childspline);
    Bool dirty = FALSE;
    if (!dirty)
    {
        dirty = op->CheckCache(hh);
    }
    if (!dirty)
    {
        dirty = op->IsDirty(DIRTYFLAGS::DATA | DIRTYFLAGS::MATRIX);
        
    }
    if (!dirty)
    {
        dirty = !op->CompareDependenceList();
    }
    if (!dirty)
    {
        
        return op->GetCache(hh);
    }
    
    if (op->GetDown()!= nullptr)
    {
        SplineObject*obj =static_cast<SplineObject*>( op->GetDown()->GetClone(COPYFLAGS::NONE, nullptr));
        
      
        return obj;
    }
    return BaseObject::Alloc(Onull);
    
    
}



SplineObject* SimpleTest::GetContour(     BaseObject *      op,
                                     BaseDocument *      doc,
                                     Float      lod,
                                     BaseThread *      bt
                                     )
{
    
    if (op->GetDown()!= nullptr)
    {
        SplineObject*obj =static_cast<SplineObject*>( op->GetDown()->GetClone(COPYFLAGS::NONE, nullptr));
        return obj;
    }
    SplineObject* temp = SplineObject::Alloc(0, SPLINETYPE::LINEAR);
    
    return temp;
    
    
}


Bool SimpleTest::Init(GeListNode *node)
{
    BaseObject        *op = (BaseObject*)node;
    if (!op)
    {
        return FALSE;
    }
    
     childContourDirty = 0;
     childGVODirty = -1;
    return TRUE;
}





Bool RegisterSimpleTest()
{
    AutoAlloc<BaseBitmap> bases;
    Filename bg;
    
    return RegisterObjectPlugin(1052851, "Simple Test"_s, OBJECT_GENERATOR| OBJECT_INPUT| OBJECT_ISSPLINE , SimpleTest::Alloc, "Simple Test"_s, bases, 0);
}

Python Script

import c4d
from c4d import gui

# Main function
def main():
    doc.InsertObject(op.GetCache().GetClone())
    c4d.EventAdd()

# Execute main()
if __name__=='__main__':
    main()

I'm not really sure the issue, I've had trouble with caches in the past and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dan

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I went back and re-tested everything again. It seems specifically to be an issue with using a Tracer and an Emitter as the inputs for OffsetY.

Here's a gif showing the result I'm getting. I'm not sure how to embed it like you did.

And the scene is just the Emitter and Tracer but here it is: Tracer Emitter.c4d

Dan

Hello, I know its been a while since I last posted on this thread by I've finally had enough time to go over the wonderful example you provided. I assumed I should reply in this thread instead of making a new one though.

It works in all the circumstances that I've been testing it in, except for one, which is great!

So I had two followup questions. The current problem I'm running into is when I make it editable it while using a Tracer object(It also happens with connect and spline mask objects) I get an error and it breaks in these lines of code in GetContour().

# Retrieves a Clone working spline.
        childSplineClone = SplineInputGeneratorHelper.GetCloneSpline(childSpline)
        if childSplineClone is None:
    		return None

When not making it editable and just playing through the timeline it returns it perfectly though. The difference in the two circumstances seems to be whether GVO or GetContour is being used to return the spline. GVO is used when moving frame to frame, but GetContour is used when making it editable.

So my question is in regards to using both GVO and GetContour. I thought GVO should be used for returning objects and GetContour should be used when returning splines but in this case both are used, although the latter is breaking. Is it acceptable practice to use both of them and should I switch it to always use GVO so I can get the correct output?

Dan