Hi,

thanks for the kind words both from Maxon and the community. I am looking forward to my upcoming adventures with the SDK Team and Cinema community.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hi,

as @Cairyn said the problem is unreachable code. I also just saw now that you did assign the same ID to all your buttons in your CreateLayout(). Ressource and dialog element IDs should be unique. I would generally recommend to define your dialogs using a resource, but here is an example on how to do it in code.

BUTTON_BASE_ID = 1000
BUTTON_NAMES = ["Button1", "Button2", "Button3", "Button4", "Button5"]
BUTTON_DATA = {BUTTON_BASE_ID + i: name for i, name in enumerate(BUTTON_NAMES)}

class MyDialog(gui.GeDialog):

    def CreateLayout(self):
        """
        """
        self.GroupBegin(id=1013, flags=c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT, cols=5, rows=4)
        for element_id, element_name in BUTTON_DATA.items():
            self.AddButton(element_id, c4d.BFV_MASK, initw=100, 
                           name=element_name)
        self.GroupEnd()
        return True

    def Command(self, id, msg):
        """
        """
        if id == BUTTON_BASE_ID:
            print "First button has been clicked"
        elif id == BUTTON_BASE_ID + 1:
            print "Second button has been clicked"
        # ...
        if id in BUTTON_DATA.keys(): # or just if id in BUTTON_DATA
            self.Close()
        return True

Hi,

that your script is not working has not anything to do with pseudo decimals, but the fact that you are treating numbers as strings (which is generally a bad idea) in a not very careful manner. When you truncate the string representation of a number which is represented in scientific notation (with an exponent), then you also truncate that exponent and therefor change the value of the number.

To truncate a float you can either take the floor of my_float * 10 ** digits and then divide by 10 ** digits again or use the keyword round.

data = [0.03659665587738824,
        0.00018878623163019122,
        1.1076812650509394e-03,
        1.3882258325566638e-06]

for n in data:
    rounded = round(n, 4)
    floored = int(n * 10000) / 10000
    print(n, rounded, floored)

0.03659665587738824 0.0366 0.0365
0.00018878623163019122 0.0002 0.0001
0.0011076812650509394 0.0011 0.0011
1.3882258325566637e-06 0.0 0.0
[Finished in 0.1s]

Cheers
zipit

Hi,

sorry for all the confusion. You have to pass actual instances of objects. The following code does what you want (and this time I actually tried it myself ;)).

import c4d

def main():
    """
    """
    bc = doc.GetAllTextures(ar=doc.GetMaterials())
    for cid, value in bc:
        print cid, value

if __name__=='__main__':
   main()

Cheers,
zipit

Hi,

the nature of your problem remains a bit unclear to me. You talk about polygonal data and beveling edges, which I would interpret as the question for bevelling in a network of curves, .e.g. a polygonal topology, but you show the image of a curve and also your code operates in a plane. I assume you want interpret your mesh as a series of cross-sections/curves?

That aside, beveling (either curves or curves in surfaces, i.e. edges) is an application of interpolation and can therefor implemented in various forms, here are some approaches:

1. Piecing in arc segments. This what you are basically trying to do from the looks of your code. You normally would properly define a series of transforms (i.e. "matrices" in Cinema) to transform a base vector and by that construct the vertices making up the arc segment. This solution is not very suited for a data of intersecting curve networks, i.e. surfaces, it works better in something like a 2D Vector app.

2. Than there are multiple ways to construct a smooth curve over a series points. The easiest one are Chaikin's Curves which also have spawned a whole group of algorithms all following more or less the same one fourth three fourth idea and some of them can also be applied to meshes.

3. The next obvious candidates would be quadratic or cubic polynomials/curves. They can the can also be viewed as a combination of linear interpolations. This is called De Casteljau's algorithm. To get from multiple curves segments to splines, you just piece them together (there are multiple ways to do this). But in you case of beveling you probably will only need a single curve. Depending on how deep you venture into this topic this reaches from splines and curves (.e.g. a B-Spline or a Bezier spline) to surfaces (e.g. a NURBS surface).

4. The last one, and that is the one Cinema probably uses for its edge tool is just Subdivision Surfaces. There are also multiple algorithms of varying complexity, but classical Catmull-Clark SDS have very nice properties (producing only quads for example) and are very easy to implement. The problem here is how to restrict the subdivision part of the algorithm so that you only generate new edges along the edge loop and not perpendicular to it and then come up with the correct modified weights for the smoothing.

Its all a bit vague, but your question is very broad, so I thought this might help.

edit: Forgot this, but should have put this first - Implementing a bevel tool is not trivial. Covering the default case is not that hard, but covering all the corner cases is, especially when you want to maintain secondary mesh attributes like texture coordinates. I would not go for reinventing the wheel here. Is there a reason why you do not want to use Cinema's edge bevel? Does it not work with SendModellingCommand?

Cheers,
zipit

Hi,

you use GetActiveDocument() in a NodeData environment. You cannot do this, since nodes are also executed when their document is not the active document (while rendering for example - documents get cloned for rendering).

Cheers
zipit

Hoi,

@blastframe said in Moving a Point Along an Arc by Distance from another Point:

• In your code comment you mention spherical interpolation between the arc segment. Is that the same as the quadratic bezier interpolation from the example you provided (code below)? I think that's also called slerp?

Yeah, slerp is a synonym for spherical linear interpolation. While linear interpolation, a.k.a. lerp, gives you points on the line segment spanned by its two input vectors, a spherical linear interpolation gives you points on the arc segment spanned between the unit vectors of the two input vectors. Cinema does not have a slerp for vectors for some reason, only one for quaternions. The whole interpolation and interpolation naming situation in Cinema's classic API is a huge mess IMHO. So you would have to write your own slerp. And slerp is not directly related to splines, only in the sense that you will need it when you want to linearly place points on that spline, as you then have to do the arc-length parametrization of that spline for which you will need slerp.

• How do I get the points to stop at the limits of the arc? In this case, it would seem to be limiting the angle to 0 and math.pi, but what if the start & end angles are different?

Basically the same way you did it in your code. The computed angle is an angle in radians. So to limit it to let's say [0°, 180°] you would have to clamp it to [0 rad,π rad]. There is also the problem that angles work the other way around in relation to the circle functions sine and cosine and your example. They "start on the right side" of the unit circle and then go counter clockwise. Which is why my code flips things around. Getting back to "your setup" should just a matter of inverting the angle, i.e. -theta instead of theta, and then adding π, i.e. 180°.

• If I'm not to use c4d.Vector.GetDistance, how would you recommend I get the geodesic norm? I found modules online like geopy, but I'd rather do it with standard Python.

Its the same thing in green. You get the Euclidean norm, a.k.a the "length" of your vectors, implying the radius of the circle they are sitting on. Then you can compute the angle spanned between them with the dot product. Finally you put this into the relation shown above, solve for the arc length and you are done. And to be clear, Geodesic norm is just a fancy name for saying the distance between two points on a sphere, while the Euclidean norm is the distance in a plane.

Cheers,
zipit

Hi,

you have to invoke AddUserArea and then attach an instance of your implemented type to it. Something like this:

my_user_area = MyUserAreaType()
self.AddUserArea(1000,*other_arguments)
self.AttachUserArea(my_user_area, 1000)

I have attached an example which does some things you are trying to do (rows of things, highlighting stuff, etc.). The gadget is meant to display a list of boolean values and the code is over five years old. I had a rather funny idea of what good Python should look like then and my attempts of documentation were also rather questionable. I just wrapped the gadget into a quick example dialog you could run as a script. I did not maintain the code, so there might be newer and better ways to do things now.

Also a warning: GUI stuff is usually a lot of work and very little reward IMHO.

Cheers
zipit

import c4d
import math
import random

from c4d import gui

# Pattern Gadget
IDC_SELECTLOOP_CELLSIZE = [32, 32]
IDC_SELECTLOOP_GADGET_MINW = 400
IDC_SELECTLOOP_GADGET_MINH = 32

class ExampleDialog(gui.GeDialog):
    """
    """
    def CreateLayout(self):
        """
        """

        self.Pattern = c4d.BaseContainer()
        for i in range(10):
            self.Pattern[i] = random.choice([True, False])
        self.PatternSize = len(self.Pattern)

        self.gadget = Patterngadget(host=self)
        self.AddUserArea(1000, c4d.BFH_FIT, 400, 32)
        self.AttachUserArea(self.gadget, 1000)
        return True

class Patterngadget(gui.GeUserArea):
    """
    A gui gadget to modify and display boolean patterns.
    """

    def __init__(self, host):
        """
        :param host: The hosting BaseToolData instance
        """
        self.Host = host
        self.BorderWidth = None
        self.CellPerColumn = None
        self.CellWidht = IDC_SELECTLOOP_CELLSIZE[0]
        self.CellHeight = IDC_SELECTLOOP_CELLSIZE[1]
        self.Columns = None
        self.Height = None
        self.Width = None
        self.MinHeight = IDC_SELECTLOOP_GADGET_MINH
        self.MinWidht = IDC_SELECTLOOP_GADGET_MINW
        self.MouseX = None
        self.MouseY = None

    """------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Overridden methods
        --------------------------------------------------------------------"""

    def Init(self):
        """
        Init the gadget.
        :return : Bool
        """
        self._get_colors()
        return True

    def GetMinSize(self):
        """
        Resize the gadget
        :return : int, int
        """
        return int(self.MinWidht), int(self.MinHeight)

    def Sized(self, w, h):
        """
        Get the gadgets height and width
        """
        self.Height, self.Width = int(h), int(w)
        self._fit_gadget()

    def Message(self, msg, result):
        """
        Fetch and store mouse over events
        :return : bool
        """
        if msg.GetId() == c4d.BFM_GETCURSORINFO:
            base = self.Local2Screen()
            if base:
                self.MouseX = msg.GetLong(c4d.BFM_DRAG_SCREENX) - base['x']
                self.MouseY = msg.GetLong(c4d.BFM_DRAG_SCREENY) - base['y']
                self.Redraw()
                self.SetTimer(1000)
        return gui.GeUserArea.Message(self, msg, result)

    def InputEvent(self, msg):
        """
        Fetch and store mouse clicks
        :return : bool
        """
        if not isinstance(msg, c4d.BaseContainer):
            return True
        if msg.GetLong(c4d.BFM_INPUT_DEVICE) == c4d.BFM_INPUT_MOUSE:
            if msg.GetLong(c4d.BFM_INPUT_CHANNEL) == c4d.BFM_INPUT_MOUSELEFT:
                base = self.Local2Global()
                if base:
                    x = msg.GetLong(c4d.BFM_INPUT_X) - base['x']
                    y = msg.GetLong(c4d.BFM_INPUT_Y) - base['y']
                    pid = self._get_id(x, y)
                    if pid <= self.Host.PatternSize:
                        self.Host.Pattern[pid] = not self.Host.Pattern[pid]
                        self.Redraw()
        return True

    def Timer(self, msg):
        """
        Timer loop to catch OnMouseExit
        """
        base = self.Local2Global()
        bc = c4d.BaseContainer()
        res = gui.GetInputState(c4d.BFM_INPUT_MOUSE,
                                c4d.BFM_INPUT_MOUSELEFT, bc)
        mx = bc.GetLong(c4d.BFM_INPUT_X) - base['x']
        my = bc.GetLong(c4d.BFM_INPUT_Y) - base['y']
        if res:
            if not (mx >= 0 and mx <= self.Width and
                    my >= 0 and my <= self.Height):
                self.SetTimer(0)
                self.Redraw()

    def DrawMsg(self, x1, y1, x2, y2, msg):
        """
        Draws the gadget
        """
        # double buffering
        self.OffScreenOn(x1, y1, x2, y2)
        # background & border
        self.DrawSetPen(self.ColBackground)
        self.DrawRectangle(x1, y1, x2, y2)
        if self.BorderWidth:
            self.DrawBorder(c4d.BORDER_THIN_IN, x1, y1,
                            self.BorderWidth + 2, y2 - 1)
        # draw pattern
        for pid, state in self.Host.Pattern:
            x, y = self._get_rect(pid)
            self._draw_cell(x, y, state, self._is_focus(x, y))

    """------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Public methods
        --------------------------------------------------------------------"""

    def Update(self, cid=None):
        """
        Update the gadget.
        :param cid: A pattern id to toggle.
        """
        if cid and cid < self.Host.PatternSize:
            self.Host.Pattern[cid] = not self.Host.Pattern[cid]
        self._fit_gadget()
        self.Redraw()

    """------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Private methods
        --------------------------------------------------------------------"""

    def _get_colors(self, force=False):
        """
        Set the drawing colors.
        :return : Bool
        """
        self.ColScale = 1.0 / 255.0
        if self.IsEnabled() or force:
            self.ColBackground = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_BG)
            self.ColCellActive = c4d.GetViewColor(
                c4d.VIEWCOLOR_ACTIVEPOINT) * 0.9
            self.ColCellFocus = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_BGFOCUS)
            self.ColCellInactive = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_BGEDIT)
            self.ColEdgeDark = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_EDGEDK)
            self.ColEdgeLight = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_EDGELT)
        else:
            self.ColBackground = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_BG)
            self.ColCellActive = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_BG)
            self.ColCellFocus = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_BG)
            self.ColCellInactive = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_BG)
            self.ColEdgeDark = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_EDGEDK)
            self.ColEdgeLight = self._get_color_vector(c4d.COLOR_EDGELT)
        return True

    def _get_cell_pen(self, state, _is_focus):
        """
        Get the color for cell depending on its state.
        :param state   : The state
        :param _is_focus : If the cell is hoovered.
        :return        : c4d.Vector()
        """
        if state:
            pen = self.ColCellActive
        else:
            pen = self.ColCellInactive
        if self.IsEnabled() and _is_focus:
            return (pen + c4d.Vector(2)) * 1/3
        else:
            return pen

    def _draw_cell(self, x, y, state, _is_focus):
        """
        Draws a gadget cell.
        :param x:       local x
        :param y:       local y
        :param state:   On/Off
        :param _is_focus: MouseOver state
        """
        # left and top bright border
        self.DrawSetPen(self.ColEdgeLight)
        self.DrawLine(x, y, x + self.CellWidht, y)
        self.DrawLine(x, y, x, y + self.CellHeight)
        # bottom and right dark border
        self.DrawSetPen(self.ColEdgeDark)
        self.DrawLine(x, y + self.CellHeight - 1, x +
                      self.CellWidht - 1, y + self.CellHeight - 1)
        self.DrawLine(x + self.CellWidht - 1, y, x +
                      self.CellWidht - 1, y + self.CellHeight - 1)
        # cell content
        self.DrawSetPen(self._get_cell_pen(state, _is_focus))
        self.DrawRectangle(x + 1, y + 1, x + self.CellWidht -
                           2, y + self.CellHeight - 2)

    def _get_rect(self, pid, offset=1):
        """
        Get the drawing rect for an array id.
        :param pid    : the pattern id
        :param offset : the pixel border offset
        :return       : int, int
        """
        pid = int(pid)
        col = pid / self.CellPerColumn
        head = pid % self.CellPerColumn
        return self.CellWidht * head + offset, self.CellHeight * col + offset

    def _get_id(self, x, y):
        """
        Get the array id for a coord within the gadget.
        :param x : local x
        :param y : local y
        :return  : int
        """
        col = (y - 1) / self.CellHeight
        head = (x - 1) / self.CellWidht
        return col * self.CellPerColumn + head

    def _is_focus(self, x, y):
        """
        Test if the cell coords are under the cursor.
        :param x : local x
        :param y : local y
        :return  : bool
        """
        if (self.MouseX >= x and self.MouseX <= x + self.CellWidht and
                self.MouseY >= y and self.MouseY <= y + self.CellHeight):
            self.MouseX = c4d.NOTOK
            self.MouseY = c4d.NOTOK
            return True
        else:
            return False

    def _fit_gadget(self):
        """
        Fit the gadget size to the the array
        """
        oldHeight = self.MinHeight
        self.CellPerColumn = int((self.Width - 2) / self.CellWidht)
        self.Columns = math.ceil(
            self.Host.PatternSize / self.CellPerColumn) + 1
        self.MinHeight = int(IDC_SELECTLOOP_GADGET_MINH * self.Columns) + 3
        self.MinWidht = int(IDC_SELECTLOOP_GADGET_MINW)
        self.BorderWidth = self.CellWidht * self.CellPerColumn
        if oldHeight != self.MinHeight:
            self.LayoutChanged()

    def _get_color_vector(self, cid):
        """
        Get a color vector from a color ID.
        :param cid : The color ID
        :return    : c4d.Vector()
        """
        dic = self.GetColorRGB(cid)
        if dic:
            return c4d.Vector(float(dic['r']) * self.ColScale,
                              float(dic['g']) * self.ColScale,
                              float(dic['b']) * self.ColScale)
        else:
            return c4d.Vector()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    dlg = ExampleDialog()
    dlg.Open(c4d.DLG_TYPE_ASYNC, defaultw=400, defaulth=400)

Hello @shetal,

thank you for reaching out to us. The reformulation of your question and the conformance with the forum guidelines on tagging is also much appreciated.

About your question: As stated in the forum guidelines, we cannot provide full solutions for questions, but provide answers for specific questions. Which is why I will not show here any example code, the first step would have to be made by you. I will instead roughly line out the purpose of and workflow around VideoPostData, which I assume is what you are looking for anyway.

VideoPostData is derived from NodeData, the base class to implement a node for a classic API scene graph. Node means here 'something that lives inside a document and is an addressable entity', examples for such nodes are materials, shaders, objects, tags, ..., and as such 'video post' node. As mentioned in its class description, VideoPostData is a versatile plugin interface which can be used to intervene a rendering process in multiple ways. The most tangible place for VideoPostData in the app is the render settings where video post plugins can be added as effects for a rendering process as shown below with the built-in water mark video post node.

VideoPostData is an effect, meaning that you cannot use it to invoke a rendering process and on its own it also cannot forcibly add itself to a rendering and must be included manually with the RenderData, the render settings of a rendering. However, a user could make a render setting which includes such watermark effect part of his or her default render settings. One could also implement another plugin interface, SceneHookData, to automatically add such effect to every active document. We would not encourage that though, as this could be confusing or infuriating for users. Finally, such VideoPostData plugin would be visible by default like all NodeData plugins, i.e., it would appear as something in menus that the user can add and interact with. To prevent this if desired, one would have to register the plugin with the flag PLUGINFLAG_HIDE suppress it from popping up in the 'Effect ...' button menu. I cannot tell you with certainty if it is possible to hide programmatically added effect nodes from the users view in the effect list of a render settings. There are some flags which can be used to hide instances of nodes, but I would have to test myself if this also applies in this list, it is more likely that this will not be possible.

To implement a VideoPostData plugin interface, one can override multiple methods and take different approaches, the most commonly used one is to override VideoPostData::Execute(Link) which will be called multiple times for each rendered frame. The method follows a flag/message logic which is commonly used in Cinema 4D's classic API, where one gets passed in a flag which signalizes in which context the method is being called. Here the context is at which state of the rendering this call is being made, and the chain is:

• VIDEOPOSTCALL::FRAMESEQUENCE - Series of images starts.
• VIDEOPOSTCALL::FRAME - Image render starts.
• VIDEOPOSTCALL::SUBFRAME - Sub-frame starts.
• VIDEOPOSTCALL::RENDER - Render precalculation.
• VIDEOPOSTCALL::INNER - Render precalculation.
• VIDEOPOSTCALL::INNER - Immediately after rendering.
• VIDEOPOSTCALL::RENDER - Immediately after shader cleanup.
• VIDEOPOSTCALL::SUBFRAME - Sub-frame rendering done.
• VIDEOPOSTCALL::FRAME - Frame rendering done.
• VIDEOPOSTCALL::FRAMESEQUENCE - Complete rendering process finished.

These flags are accompanied by information if the flags denotes the opening or closing of that 'step' in the rendering process. A developer often then restricts its plugin functionality to a certain flag. I.e., in your case you only want to execute some code when the closing VIDEOPOSTCALL::FRAME is being passed, i.e., after a single frame and all its sub-frames have been rendered. Execute() also passes in a pointer to a VideoPostStruct(Link) which carries information about the ongoing rendering. One of its fields is render, a pointer to a Render(Link). This data structure represents a rendering with multiple buffers and provides the method GetBuffer() which returns a pointer to VPBuffer buffer. In your case you would want to retrieve the RGBA buffer for the rendering by requesting the VPBUFFER_RGBA buffer (Link) with GetBuffer().

This buffer is then finally the pixel buffer, the bitmap data you want to modify. The buffer is being read and written in a line wise fashion with VPBuffer::GetLine() and ::SetLine(). Here you would have to superimpose your watermark information onto the frame. I would do this in a shader like fashion, i.e., write a function which I can query for a texture coordinate for every pixel/fragment in every line and it will then return an RBGA value which I could then combine with the RGBA information which is in the buffer at that coordinate. The details on that depend on what you want to do, e.g.,

• Should the watermark be tiled across the frame or just live in a 'corner'?
• Should it contain alpha information?
• Can the user influence it, or is it just a png file on disk?
• etc...

and the answers to that are mostly algorithmic and not directly connected to our API which limits the amount of support we can provide for them. If this all sounds very confusing to you, it might be helpful to look at our video post examples I did post in the previous thread, e.g., vpreconstructimage.cpp, as this will probably make things less daunting.

If you decide that you do not want to take this route for technical or complexity reasons, you could write a SceneHookData plugin which listens via NodeData::Message for MSG_MULTI_RENDERNOTIFICATION(Link), a message family which is being sent in the context of a rendering. There you would have to evaluate the start field in the RenderNotificationData(Link) accompanying the message, to determine if the call is for the start or end of a rendering. Then you could grab the rendering output file(s) on disk with the help of the render settings from disk and 'manually' superimpose your watermark information. This will come with the drawback that you might have to deal with compressed video files like mpeg or Avi and all the image formats. Some complexity in that can be hidden away with our BaseBitmap type I did mention in my last posting, but not all of it. There is also the fact that you might run into problems when this plugin runs on a render server, where you cannot easily obtain write or even read access to files of the render output.

I hope this give you some desired guidance,
Ferdinand

Hi,

I cannot reproduce this neither. The interesting question would be what does print random.seed for you and is this reproduceable on your end?

My suspicion would be that someone or something treated random.seed() like a property instead of like a function, which then led to - with all the "Python functions are first class objects" thing - random.seed being an integer. Something like this:

>>> import random
>>> print(random.seed)
<bound method Random.seed of <random.Random object at 0x103b62218>>
>>> random.seed(12345)
>>> random.seed = 12345 # 'accidently' treating it like a property
>>> print(random.seed)
12345
>>> random.seed(12345)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'int' object is not callable

Cheers
zipit

Hey Frank,

I agree, but the problem is that projecttool also does play an automated inhouse-tool role, as you might still be aware of, and there these additional files are likely not welcome. But I will try to find a place for this idea, which then would have to be an option of the tool on a per project basis.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hello @gheyret,

thank you for reaching out to us and please excuse the slight delay. You are misunderstanding the purpose of PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_HOTKEY, which admittedly is badly explained, and I also had to do some digging myself to understand how this is meant to be used. In bullet points:

1. First of all, you do not need any special flags to assign a shortcut to your CommandData plugin. A simple PLUGINFLAG_SMALLNODE will be enough.
2. Then there are these two flags PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_HOTKEY and PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_STICKY which are often used in conjunction internally. When you only pass PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_HOTKEY, a command with your plugin id will be emitted continuously while the user is pressing the shortcut assigned to your plugin which did register with that flag. If also PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_STICKY is being passed, there will only an opening and closing event for the key down and key up events.
3. The Move Parent plugin you want to imitate is internally not a CommandData plugin, it simply registers its ID as an hotkey in a way not available to the public. But there are some CommandData plugins of ours which register as 'PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_HOTKEY' or 'PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_HOTKEY| PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_STICKY'. And all these CommandData plugins then have one thing in common: They do nothing, or nothing related to the hotkey, as their Execute method will never be called or at least never be called in the context of the hotkey.
4. So, hotkey means here that when you assign a shortcut to your plugin and press that shortcut key, a global hotkey message will be emitted. Which then can then be polled in other places. E.g., with EditorWindow.IsHotkeyDown or GeUserArea.IsHotkeyDown. Which is also why CommandData.Execute() will not be called when you pass the PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_HOTKEY flag, since Cinema does assume you handle the associated logic in another place.
5. So, to use PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_HOTKEY, you will usually need at least two plugins. One that registers the hotkey and one that makes use of it. You could technically imagine a CommandData plugin which registers as a hotkey and the also makes use of the hotkey in its dialog window in some shape or form. But that will have the side effect that you cannot open the dialog with that hotkey, because CommandData.Execute() will never be called for that plugin when pressing the shortcut/hotkey. But you could still open the dialog by clicking with the mouse.
6. If you want just some continuous execution, e.g., do XYZ while Shift + A are being pressed, you should just implement a normal CommandData and then poll in your CommandData.Execute() for these keys being pressed and do stuff while they are and stop doing when not. You can poll for the input state with c4d.gui.GetInputState and you can figure out the shortcuts assigned to your plugin with c4d.gui.GetShortcut, as shown in the code at the end of the posting.

The description for PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_STICKY was either always wrong or is outdated, as it does indicate that 'PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_HOTKEY | PLUGINFLAG_COMMAND_STICKY' will cause CommandData.Execute() to be called - which is not true.

I hope this helps,
Ferdinand

"""Example for retrieving the shortcuts for a plugin id.
"""

import c4d

def GetPluginShortcuts(pid: int) -> list[list[tuple[int]]]:
    """Retrieves the shortcuts for a plugin-id.
    
    Args:
        pid (int): The plugin id.
    
    Returns:
        list[list[tuple[int]]]: The shortcut sequences for the plugin.
    """
    # Get all shortcut containers for the plugin id.
    count = c4d.gui.GetShortcutCount()
    matches = [c4d.gui.GetShortcut(i) for i in range(count)
               if c4d.gui.GetShortcut(i)[c4d.SHORTCUT_PLUGINID] == pid]

    # build the shortcut data.
    result = []
    for item in matches:
        sequence = []
        for i in range(0, c4d.SHORTCUT_PLUGINID, 10):
            a, b = item[i], item[i+1]
            if isinstance(a, (int, float)):
                sequence.append((a, b))

        if sequence != []:
            result.append(sequence)
    return result


if __name__ == "__main__":
    # The shortcuts for your plugin id.
    for item in GetPluginShortcuts(1208170):
        for a, b in item:
            print (a, b, c4d.gui.Shortcut2String(a, b))
    # The shortcuts for the dissolve tool (multiple shortcuts)
    for item in GetPluginShortcuts(440000043):
        for a, b in item:
            print (a, b, c4d.gui.Shortcut2String(a, b))

Hello @ymoon,

thank you for reaching out to us and please excuse the slight delay in my answer. While the answers given here are all helpful (thanks guys!), I would press for taking a few steps back.

1. It is neither normal, nor acceptable that Cinema 4D does crash. I would turn to customer support with your problem, to see if either your bug/problem is already known and/or if there does exist a workaround. This is primarily important because that there is no guarantee that turning to Python will make your problem go away. Please note that we are not customer support here, you can get it in the support center of ours.
2. If your files are so heavy that your machine starts to buckle under the load of running a full Cinema 4D and rendering your scene, you can use one of the two GUI-less Cinema 4D instances we do offer, the Commandline and the c4dpy executables.
3. In Python you can run the render queue. You can find the documentation for it under c4d.documents.BatchRender.
4. I would normally either use c4dpy or just a normal Script Manager script for invoking a batch render, but if this is really the only option which fits your case, you could also write a plugin that listens in PluginMessage() for one of the early plugin messages, e.g., C4DPL_STARTACTIVITY as pointed out by Frank. But this solution of writing a full plugin seems unnecessarily complex.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hello @jwzegelaar,

thank you for reaching out to us. Your screenshot, build error message, and the structure of the solution explorer as well as the fact that there are no frameworks in your solution explorer indicate that you have:

1. Either opened a project in your solution instead of the solution itself. So, if you have a directory \myFancysolution\, then there should be a file \myFancysolution\plugins\project\plugins.sln, which is the one you have to always open to build or debug a solution. Your screenshot does cut unfortunately the title bar and with that the file path of the opened "thing", but it looks very much like that you have opened something along the line of \myFancysolution\plugins\customcommandline\project\customcommandline.vcxproj. I.e., a .vcxproj project file instead of a .sln solution file.
2. Or that your solution has been somehow corrupted. In this case I would recommend rebuilding the solution with the project tool. There are two projectdefinition.txt files which your solution should contain at least. One in \myFancysolution\plugins\project\ which should define the build targets (Win64, OSX) and the included projects (at least your customcommandline project) and one in \myFancysolution\plugins\customcommandline\project\ which must include the frameworks your project is using, again the target platforms, the project type (likely DLL in your case) and other things. More information on the projecttool and its features can be found in the Project Tool Help Page.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hi @Cairyn,

I do not really know where this has been claimed, but there was a note in our internal systems which summarized this thread as that the data types DTYPE_REAL, DTYPE_LONG, and DTYPE_BOOL should be written with .SetValue(). For which our documentation currently makes the slightly misleading claim that is should be used for float values. Which I believe was at least partially the starting point of this thread.

I just wanted to make sure that no unclarities remain for future readers, DTYPE_BOOL keys/tracks should be written with SetGeData() and .SetValue() can be used for DTYPE_REAL and DTYPE_LONG type keys.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hello @Cairyn,

I have just updated the Python docs regarding the class CKey. These changes will be reflected in an upcoming release of the Python SDK. One minor thing for you and to avoid confusion for future readers of this thread: The information brought forwards here that keys of type DTYPE_BOOL must be written with CKey.SetValue() is incorrect. .SetValue() must only be used for writing DTYPE_REAL and DTYPE_LONG parameters, i.e., float and int values in Python terms. DYTPE_BOOL key values must be written with CKey.SetGeData().

Cheers,
Ferdinand

import c4d

def main():
    """Example for writing the 'use color' track of a material.

    The function expects the first material in the document to have a 
    'use-color' track, i.e., an animation for the little check box for the
    color channel. It will write into the first key of that track.
    """
    # Get the first material of the document and its first track.
    mat = doc.GetFirstMaterial()
    if mat is None:
        raise RuntimeError("No material found.")
    track = mat.GetFirstCTrack()
    if track is None:
        raise RuntimeError("Material has no tracks.")

    # Bail when this first track is not for the boolean "use color" parameter 
    # of the material.
    if track.GetDescriptionID()[0] != c4d.MATERIAL_USE_COLOR:
        raise RuntimeError("'Use-Color' track not found")

    # Get the curve of the track and its first key. 
    curve = track.GetCurve(c4d.CCURVE_CURVE)
    if curve.GetKeyCount() < 1:
        raise RuntimeError("Curve has no keys.")
    key = curve.GetKey(0)

    # Print the current value of the boolean key and then set it to `True`.
    print (key.GetGeData())
    key.SetGeData(curve, True)

    # Push an update event to Cinema 4D.
    c4d.EventAdd()

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

Hello @SteveJLV,

the example has been fixed and both computations now will reflect the correct result. The fixed example will be included with an upcoming release of the Python SDK documentation.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Hello @shetal,

without any further questions or replies, we will consider this thread as solved by Monday the 20th and flag it accordingly.

Thank you for your understanding,
Ferdinand

Hello @kbar,

I should have replied here since there is at least an implied request in your last answer. I have added a task for this in our documentation task pool and added the tracking tag to this topic. Without any further questions or replies, we will consider this thread as solved by Monday the 20th and flag it accordingly. But that does not mean that the topic is forgotten, due to its to fix tag.

Thank you for your understanding,
Ferdinand

Hello @rui_mac,

without any further questions or replies, we will consider this thread as solved by Monday the 20th and flag it accordingly.

Thank you for your understanding,
Ferdinand