Copyright © 2016 GameLogicDesign Ltd Version 1.1 · The PRC plugin is used to export out the Cinema 4D scene as a .prc file. This is a relatively new file format but is currently

Copyright © 2016 GameLogicDesign Ltd Version 1.1.1

Disclaimer What’s new

Version 1.1.1 Version 1.1

Introduction Compatibility PRC Plugin PDF plugin

Installation Basics: Saving a PDF Opening a PDF file PDF Export Options

Main Options Selected Only Cameras Export Textures Texture Size

The texture size to create when sampling. Phong Normals Background Color Keep PRC File Password Protect

Owner Password User Password

Texture Settings Color, Specular, Environment, Luminance, Alpha Enable Basic Object Transparency

PDF Settings Lighting Page Width Page Height Use Default Placeholder Use Custom Placeholder Custom Placeholder Image Use Template

Templates Example Template: basic.json Example Template: basic_four_image.json Template Options


Designing your own template using Photoshop. Exporting Channels

All Channels Mix Mode Selection UVS

Color Mix Modes

Specular Environment Luminance Alpha Enable Basic Object Transparency

Tips for small file sizes Disable the Phong Normals option. Enable Render Instancing Keep Textures Sizes Small Reduce the number of materials Remove Texture Tags Subdivision Surfaces / HyperNURBS

Baking Textures Report any Issues or Feature Requests


Disclaimer Although we have made every effort to get the exported PDF files to reproduce what you see in Cinema 4D there will be cases where it may look different. For PDF exporting we are sampling images and blending textures so that it resembles what you see in C4D as closely as possible. We have also made every attempt possible to fully export all geometry, including support for MoGraph, Cloners, SubDivision Surfaces and XParticles, along with extensive support for instancing to ensure the file size is as small as possible. But there still may be cases that we have missed, please contact us at [email protected].


mailto:[email protected]

What’s new

Version 1.1.1 Small bug fix for texture tags that have no materials.

Version 1.1 Support for MultiByte Character sets for file names and file paths when saving. Password options to secure documents. Templates to define layouts for pages.


Introduction 4D Publish consists of 2 plugins for Cinema 4D. These plugins are found in the directories gld_pdf and gld_prc. Both of these plugins require a license for pdf publishing to work. The licensing may change in future.

Compatibility 4D Publish will only work in a licenced version of Cinema 4D or BodyPaint3D. It will not work in any of the Demo Versions, via Command Line or on a Net node.

PRC Plugin The PRC plugin is used to export out the Cinema 4D scene as a .prc file. This is a relatively new file format but is currently supported by Adobe Acrobat Reader and a growing number of other readers, including those on iOS via an iPhone or iPad. PRC files do not currently support animation. So you will only be able to export out static scenes. The PRC format currently supports all Polygonal and Procedural objects and will take the state of your scene at the current time, this means it will also take into account all deformers on your objects. There is support for Mograph, Array, Atom Array, Boolean, Boole ,Connect, Symmetry, Metaball and Instanced Objects.



It also supports XParticles when generating geometry. Turn on “Render Instances” for small files sizes. There is support for exporting of all textures and shaders. Shaders are sampled according to user settings and the textures can be told to be directly included at their given resolution. It supports Color, Specular, Environment, Luminance and Alpha Channels as well as a simple transparency option. This screenshot shows simple transparency at work on the table.


All UV projection types are supported as are the tiling settings for UVs. Multiple UV maps per Polygon Object are also supported.

Phong Tag normals are also supported. Note: We currently do not support mixing multiple materials per polygon.

PDF plugin The PDF plugin is responsible for packaging up the PRC file into a PDF document. It will also handle the export of the Cameras, set the default lighting setup used by the PDF document and also put in a placeholder image for when 3D is not available.


Installation To install the plugin just copy the ‘4D Publish’ folder directly into the Cinema 4D/plugins directory. When you next run Cinema 4D you will be notified that these 2 plugins do not have any licence numbers. A dialog box will appear to allow you to input the required licence numbers for these 2 plugins

Copy the licence numbers for each plugin into its corresponding box and press ok to continue. You will have received these numbers via an email after purchasing the plugin.


Basics: Saving a PDF From the File menu and choose Export>PDF.

A file dialog will appear to asking where you would like to save the file. Choose a filename and press save. Next the options will appear for the PDF Exporter. Leave the default settings as they are and press ok. Saving large complex scenes can take a while. Once it has saved you will find the output pdf file at the location you specified. During export a temporary .prc file will appear at the save location but this will be removed when the pdf is finally created. If you wish to keep the .prc file then you can do so by enabling the “Keep PRC File” option during export.


Opening a PDF file The first time you open a pdf file you will need to trust the file and click once onto the page before any 3D graphics will be displayed. Step 1: When you first run a file you will be shown the following.


Step 2: Select one of the options from the Options menu.

Step 3: Click anywhere in the center of the page. Note that you will not see the text “Click Here To Start” this is just shown here for demonstration purposes.


Step 4: You will now be shown your exported 3D content


Step 5: By clicking in the scene with your mouse you will be able to move the model around, select parts of the mesh. If you select a part of your mesh and then right click you can also isolate just that part of the model via the popup menus (not shown in this document).

Step 6: From the menu, shown in the screenshot above, you can also change the Views, under which will be all your exported cameras from C4D. You can change the lighting to a different mode, or turn it off completely.


PDF Export Options

Main Options

Selected Only If enabled it will export only the selected objects in the object manager.

Cameras Will export out all cameras and add them to the pdf file. You will find them under the “Views” menu in the PDF files of the 3D scene.

Export Textures Will sample all the materials channels to capture the Shaders and the Textures


Texture Size

The texture size to create when sampling.

Phong Normals When enabled it will export out the normals for objects that have a Phong Tag. Note that adding normals to all your objects will roughly double the size of the file.

Background Color The color of the background of your exported scene.

Keep PRC File Enable this checkbox to keep the temporary .prc file. When unchecked the .prc file will be deleted after creating the final pdf.

Password Protect Enables password protection for your scene. You will need to provide both an Owner Password and a User Password to use this feature. The passwords can not be the same.

Owner Password This password is required and can not be the same as the user password. This password is used to set permissions on the document to restrict printing, copying or editing of the document. Permissions are not yet part of 4D Publish but this password is still required.

User Password The User Password is what a user will need to enter before they will be able to read the document. This can not be the same as the Owner Password.


Texture Settings

Color, Specular, Environment, Luminance, Alpha Export the Channel if it has a shader or texture map applied. See below for more information on what is supported for each channel.

Enable Basic Object Transparency When enabled this will make any objects, that use a material with a Transparency Channel, 50% transparent in the viewport. It does not make any use of any of the values in the Transparency Channel at all.


PDF Settings

Lighting A drop down list containing all the lighting setups that are supported by Adobe Acrobat Reader. But selecting one of these options it will set the initial lighting setup to be this option when you open the resulting PDF file. Experiment with the different lighting setups in Acrobat Reader to find a default setting that you would like to keep using for future exports.

Page Width Specify the width of the page in the PDF document.

Page Height Specify the height of the page in the PDF document.


Use Default Placeholder When this option is enabled it will put a placeholder image on the page. This image is only displayed if 3D viewing is not yet enabled in the pdf document. Once the user trusts the 3D document the 3D content will be displayed over the top of this image.

Use Custom Placeholder If you wish to use your own placeholder image then you can do so by enabling this option and specifying the image to use.

Custom Placeholder Image Specify the image to use as your custom placeholder for scenes that are not yet enabled for 3D viewing.

Use Template This will enable the use of the templates to layout the 3d window and additional images on the page. See the Appendix A: Templates section for more information on creating your own templates and how they work.

Templates When Use Templates is enabled the templates will be loaded from the gld_pdf/res/templates directory and you will be able to select them from this dropdown menu. When you select a template you will be shown all the available image slots that can be used on the selected template. When the scene is exported it will pace these images in the specified locations, according to the .json templates file. You do not need to use an each image for each slot. If no image is specified then it will simply not be filled when creating the pdf document. Note: Images are stretched to fill the area specified by the template. For best results make sure to use images that are the same width and height as what is written in the templates json file.


Example Template: basic.json This template will create an 800x600 page with a full size image in the background (at 800x600). The background image is displayed first if the user has not yet enabled the 3d for viewing. Once it has been enabled it will then show the 3d model over the top of this image at 800x600 resolution. Below you will see the Background Image option that the user can select during export, and the json file that is used to describe this template.


Example Template: basic_four_image.json This is an example of a template that uses multiple images.

The background Image will take up the full background of a 800x600 page. Side Image will be placed on the left Bottom Image will be placed underneath the 3D. Top Image will be placed like a banner at the top. 3D Image will be placed in the exact same location as the 3D model. The user can

specify an image here with instructions to indicate to the user that they should enable the 3d content and then click once to activate. When the 3D is loaded it will be placed over the top of this image.


The layout for this will look like the following

When all the images are filled in it will look something like this


The template json file for this template looks like this

You can add as many images as you require. All images will be drawn over the top of each other from top down, with the “3d” (which is the 3d model) being the last to be drawn. You can create as many templates as you need.


Template Options “page” : The size of the page to create in the pdf document

“dim” : This is the width and height of the image to be placed. “images” : An array of images

“name” : This is the name of the option that will appear in the PDF Settings tab at export. The name does not support multibyte character sets.

“pos” : The location of the image from the topleft corner of the pdf document. “dim” : This is the width and height of the image to be placed.

“3d” : The location of the 3d model to place on the page “pos” : The location of the model view from the topleft corner of the pdf document. “dim” : This is the width and height of the model view to be placed.

Designing your own template using Photoshop. If you have Photoshop then you can use it to help create the json file for your template.


Step 1: Duplicate one of the json files from gld_pdf/res/templates and give it a new name for your templates. Step 2: Create a page in photoshop at the dimensions that you need. Step 3: Set this as the page dim in your json file

Step 4: Select the Rectangle tool and draw where you want an image to be on your page

Step 5: Make sure the layer is selected for your new rectangle

When it’s selected it should have handles around the rectangle and something like this in photoshop.


Step 6: Copy the coordinates for this box, from the properties window, into your json file, and give the image a name so that you can recognize it when you export.


Exporting Channels

All Channels

Where applicable all of the above shown options are respected for each of the individual channels. Some channels may not have all of these options and some channels may have additional options also. Additional options will be outlined for each specific channel in the following documentation.


Two Special points to note are the Mix Mode and Selection.

Mix Mode When Mix Mode is set to Add, Subtract or Multiply it will do its best to try to represent the same result as Cinema 4D. However in some cases it may not be exactly the same.

Selection Selection tags work when you have multiple materials assigned. If you only have 1 material and use a selection tag then currently it does not respect this situation and the uvs will appear on the whole model.

UVS Multiple UV sets, Multiple Materials and all Projection types are supported. NOTE: We only support a Single Material per Polygon. If you have Multiple Materials on an object then only the first material on a Polygon is used for that Polygon. There is no blending of Materials.


Color Export the Color Channel.


If this option is disabled, or there is nothing in the color channel, then it will use the Objects color if it is enabled in the object settings.

If Use Color is off, and there is nothing in the Color Channel, it will set the color to be Grey (50%).


Mix Modes The following shows some uses of the Mix Modes and color settings that are supported. The Normal mode is fully supported, however other modes such as add, subtract and multiply, are supported as best as can be so that they are as close as possible in Acrobat Reader as they are in C4D. Results may vary however. Cinema 4D

Adobe Acrobat Reader


Brightness: 100% Mix Mode: Normal Mix Strength: 100%






Specular Export the Specular Channel


We currently do not support the new Reflectance settings. To get specular reflection you will have to use the Default Specular tab in the Reflectance Channel. The only setting that is supported for specular is the “Width”. This allows you to adjust the falloff of the specular on your model. You can combine this setting with a color, or texture, and also adjust the Brightness of the overall effect. You will not be able to get the exact some specular effects using these settings, but by tweaking them you may be able to get close. If you require exact control over where specular highlights should be then you can use a texture to specify them.


Environment Export the Environment Channel


Luminance Export the Luminance Channel


Alpha Export the Alpha Channel

Note: To use Alpha you must have the Soft setting enabled. The invert option is also supported.


Enable Basic Object Transparency When enabled this will make any objects, that use a material with a Transparency Channel, 50% transparent in the viewport. It does not make any use of any of the values in the Transparency Channel at all.


Tips for small file sizes

Disable the Phong Normals option. If you don’t require normals then disable the Phong Normals checkbox when exporting. Cinema 4D calculates normals dynamically in a C4D scene so the file size can stay smaller. Acrobat Reader however needs all the precalculated normals within the file itself. Including normals will roughly double the size of each object in your file.

Enable Render Instancing Although we just mentioned this, it is worth stating again. For optimal results, and small file sizes, you should check “Render Instances” where ever it is found on your objects. This setting can be found on MoGraph Cloner, Array, Instance Object and possibly other objects also. By enabling this setting it will create an instance of the geometry in the PRC file and reference it for each instance of the object in the scene. If this option is disabled then it will create duplicate geometry within the file itself leading to very large files if the scene contains a lot of clones or instances.



Keep Textures Sizes Small If you are using textures and your resulting file is too large then try setting the Channel Sampling Size to a lower value. If you have the Use Actual Textures option enabled then this will be using textures at their exact dimensions. Disable this option if you wish to sample the textures.

Reduce the number of materials If you have a scene with hundreds of materials then they will all have their channels sampled and added to the document.

Remove Texture Tags If you don’t need textures on an object then just set the objects color and remove its Texture and UV Tags.

Subdivision Surfaces / HyperNURBS Exporting uses the Editor ‘Subdivision Editor’ level when exporting. Keep this low to ensure a small file. Disabling of Subdivision Surfaces it not currently supported. A value of 1 is the lowest you can use. Setting it to 0 will disable the object.


Baking Textures If you are using lighting in your scene then the best way to capture this is to bake the lighting to textures maps using the Bake Objects dialog. More documentation on how to do this will be added to this document and tutorial videos will also be created to take you through this process to create more realistic scenes for your clients. These images show baked in lighting in the resulting PDF file, viewed in Acrobat Reader.



Report any Issues or Feature Requests If you find any issues with this document, or the plugin, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] and we will fix any problems as quickly as possible. We will also be creating a series of tutorial videos to help you get more familiar with PDF workflows and how they can help you communicate ideas with your clients. If you have any requests for any content either for this document, or tutorial videos then also let us know.


mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Copyright © 2016 GameLogicDesign Ltd Version 1.1 · The PRC plugin is used to export out the Cinema 4D scene as a .prc file. This is a relatively new file format but is currently