Cinema 4D Converter

[Steve Bentley]

That converter would be C4D itself – C4D has a robust export system (under the file menu) Each export has its own settings in the preferences or you can access those at time of export in the Save dialog.

For things like SubD surfaces its best to make them editable (the C key) to get them back to polys. For deformations you can right click on the object that is being deformed and select “Current State to Object” And this will make a copy with the deformation baked in. For other exotic things like particles and tracers, you can export an Alembic file While you may not get traced particles out of the tracer you will get splines that trace the path traveled. There are few objects like the Matrix and particles that don’t generate any geometry (so they won’t export as geo) unless you assign some geometry to each particle. And remember to make all parametric objects editable ( a standard Cube in C4D may not export the way you think depending on format, because its not actually polys yet)

A couple of things to keep in mind. Y is up in C4D but Y is not always up in every package. Not all packages work in cm so when exporting you can tell C4D to “convert” to another metric. Like if you have been working in cm’s because you forgot to change it to mm, you can tell C4D you meant every cm to be a mm.

Also keep in mind that C4D is not a watertight or “manifold” modeler. It is just as happy trying to render a normal that is facing the wrong way or a cylinder end cap that is not sealed to the tube (all C4D parametric cylinders were like this prior to R21 and spheres weren’t sealed at the poles). So sending this to a 3D printer might not work because its not water tight. So check your models. Try optimizing them (Mesh menu) and this will often tie together points that lie on the same vertex but aren’t actually joined. And check those normals are all pointing out. Often Boolean operations will reverse normals. C4D is also not a solid modeller so many objects are just skin deep with nothing inside. A plane or sheet has no thickness. If you need it to have, use a cloth object on it and add some thickness.

You can also output you model without the SubD surface on it and have the user add their own. This will make the models smaller and they user can decide how much geo they want the model to have. Just make sure to recommend which type of SubD you worked with when modelling (Catmul or CatmulClark or Linear etc.)

You can also connect separate objects into one with either the Connect object (and then make it editable) or using the connect objects in the Mesh menu. This way your model will have one part instead of hundreds.

Using selection tags or vertex maps can translate to some export formats so the textures map properly when multiple textures are used on a single mesh.

Finally, C4D is not compliant with all formats you might think it should be. It will export a 3D studio file (.3DS) but not a 3D studio Max even though these formats are closely related and from the same application (although different ages of the program)

I would stay away from DXF because it’s a poorly defined standard and not all programs expect it the same way. A DXF can be a flat 2 line drawing can be a full 3D mesh.

[Danielle Gianninni]

Thank you so much Steve for your answer, and all the tips you gave me. I will do some tests here and let you know about the results. I think with your help I found a way to export my models with success! Thank once more and I will reply you soon! My best Steve 😉

ps- I will make the tests with really simple models, I think is the best way to follow and understand your tips.