Collaboration with other software
About model and data exchange with 3rd party solutions: Revit, Solibri, dRofus, Bluebeam, structural analysis solutions, and IFC, BCF and DXF/DWG-based exchange, etc.

exporting to c4d

Anonymous
Not applicable
I think that I've tried just about all the various options and so far find the OBJ format to work the best. However, when I export by materials, which makes sense, ALL the AC geometry of that material comes in as ONE single polygon object in C4D. This is a major, major pain as there is no easy way to split all the polygons like the explode command in autocad...you have to do it polygon by polygon. What I would really like to see in the file transfer is all the polys of one material to come in under a single null object in C4D so that each part is easily accessed amd edited in C4D and yet comes in already "sorted" by material under the null object. This would save a lot of time. By the way, that is the way FormZ objects come in, except I used to do it by layers, but same concept.

Have I missed an option here somewhere that might work better? I did try the AC to C4D exchange plugin...and offhand can not remember the results as far as how the geometry came in.
151 REPLIES 151
owen
Newcomer
ejrolon wrote:
I thought it turned your eyes blue, let you see the future or in heavy doses fold space.
hehe nice pick .. so maybe Gergely is pulling our leg?
cheers,

Owen Sharp

Design Technology Manager
fjmt | francis-jones morehen thorp

iMac 27" i7 2.93Ghz | 32GB RAM | OS 10.10 | Since AC5
Wokka
Contributor
owen wrote:
Gergely,

..... However it really should not have taken 8 months to let us know what was going on - this situation with the devkit not providing to update C4D with external model info would have been quite quickly apparent no? Instead we were left completely in the dark with nothing other than 'its Maxon's responsibility'.......

Exackly
! I, for one, would NOT have updated to R12 last December if I'd known of this issue. Luckily I still haven't updated to R11 C4D (and don't intent to) so maybe your suggested workaround will be possible. R11 doesn't hold much interest for us arch vis guys.
Give us an option Graphisoft, don't leave us sitting in the dark again.

It's Saturday morning here and I wake up to this! There goes my happy weekend. Now to write a letter to my Maxon guy.........

What a complete fu^& -up!
Both companies should be ashamed of the way this has been handled!
Warwick Lloyd-Martin
3 D E N V I R O N M E N T
http://www.3de.com.au
Windows 11 Pro 64bit
ArchiCad 4.55>27 AUS
Lumion 12.5/2023
D5 Render
Anonymous
Not applicable
I've been following this thread with some interest as I have been pestering my graphisoft guy here in NZ for some time about the lack of an archicad12 C4D exchange add-on. I have AC12 but have been delaying using it thinking/hoping that the updated add-on would be just round the corner.

The C4D exporter released last year by graphisoft was exiting... for roughly 30 seconds until it became clear it was nothing like the old .ac4d exporter and seriously useless.

I use archicad 11 and C4D 11 and the .ac4d file created by the AC11 exchange add-on works perfectly in C4D11 by the way - exactly as it did in C4D 10 & 10.5.

This raises the question of why, if a file created by the archicad11 add-on can work, regardless of this Maxon "melange" issue, why can't the add-on be updated for AC12? Is there a coding problem or is it a policy decision. If it is policy that future connectivity with C4D needs to follow this melange protocol (whatever that might be) would it not be a respectful gesture to we extremely patient customers for gsoft/maxon to update the old .ac4d add-on as an interim measure - to allow us to garduate to AC12 if for no other reason.
owen
Newcomer
boacon wrote:
I use archicad 11 and C4D 11 and the .ac4d file created by the AC11 exchange add-on works perfectly in C4D11 by the way - exactly as it did in C4D 10 & 10.5.

This raises the question of why, if a file created by the archicad11 add-on can work, regardless of this Maxon "melange" issue, why can't the add-on be updated for AC12?
raises a very big question indeed ...

so there is an Architexture Exchange installer for C4D R11 then? The only missing part is the plugin for AC12 ..

anyone know how to hack a plugin to work with a newer version of AC?
cheers,

Owen Sharp

Design Technology Manager
fjmt | francis-jones morehen thorp

iMac 27" i7 2.93Ghz | 32GB RAM | OS 10.10 | Since AC5
Anonymous
Not applicable
Gergely wrote about the "melange" platform and how it does not "currently support updating the C4D model based on the modified ArchiCAD model".

At the risk of repeating what has already been said elsewhere, the lack of the ability to update is far from the only problem. For a start the structure of the .c4d file that is created by the new exporter is terrible.

The old .ac4d file (if you choose the "material" export option which I'm sure most people do) creates a file where every archicad material has one single polygon within a null object with the C4D material applied. This is particularly useful if you want to further edit the polys in cinema (say to chamfer sharp corners). Also if you want to grow grass (using hair or fast fur) based on the terrain material polygon or distribute some trees/people/whatever using mograph/ditools it is easy when you have a single polygon as the base for the distribution. It is also simple in that cinema's object manager does not become too cluttered and it is easy to find things.

The .c4d file created by the new exporter contains a huge number of polygons - even if you only have 1 material in your archicad model you could still end up dozens and dozens of poly's in the .c4d file.

To do what I described about in this scenario I would need to go through a major exercise to connect all the related poly's into one.

In short - even if the material update ability were resolved the exporter would still be close to useless.

Am I wrong? What other features of the new .c4d exporter are rubbish?

Perhaps we could create a comprehensive list of features of the old add-on which were good and those of the new add-on which are no good or productivity defeating. This would be valuable feedback for graphisoft/maxon/nemetschek and perhaps compensate for the obvious absence of any archicad/cinema users amongst those developing this add-on.
Wokka
Contributor
Steve,
Sounds like a good idea and I'd be happy to contribute. The problem is it took them 8 months to respond to the original issue, somehow I have lost a lot of confidence in there ability to either listen to their users or impliment any wishes. Look at the wish lists that have been ignored from the last 2 releases.....
Sorry, I was hoping I'd be in a better mood after a good weekend......but I'm not.
Warwick Lloyd-Martin
3 D E N V I R O N M E N T
http://www.3de.com.au
Windows 11 Pro 64bit
ArchiCad 4.55>27 AUS
Lumion 12.5/2023
D5 Render
Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi Warwick,
Yeah there is a strong likelihood our suggestions will be ignored but I'd rather not say nothing.

One thing to point out is that the .c4d file that is created by the archicad12 exporter contains materials which have the same names as the archicad originals. This means that the old material exchange plugin can be used.

It does require that you have a cinema reference file containing materials whose names match those of archicad exactly. If you don't already have such a file it doesn't take that long to create one containing your favourite cinema materials (vray, FR or whatever) renamed to suit.

There are issues of course with the sheer number of objects in the c4d file. Although they are logically grouped it doesn't make sense to me to have a separate object for each wall for example.

The main problem is the mapping (which seems to be either UVW or cubic). If you need to re-scale the mapping, and who doesn't, it is time consuming as a material may be assigned to dozens or hundreds of objects which have to be found and remapped one by one (or is there a way to rescale multiple texture tags in one hit?).

Of course if you change the archicad model you can quickly re-apply materials again but the mapping will be lost.

All in all not really helpful at all but I thought I'd mention it in case others hadn't picked it up.
Wokka
Contributor
Steve,
Thanks for the information.
What a huge workaround! Personally I'll just have to stick to R11 ArchiCad and 10.5 C4D. My base Archicad model changes hourly..(bloody architects..)
I sent my issues to Graphisoft Australia again this morning and Maxon and at 11:00PM our time, I haven't heard a thing. I'm hoping you guys in the Northern hemisphere have some luck contacting the right people.
I wonder if the Allplan and Vectorworks exchange is in the same state??
Warwick Lloyd-Martin
3 D E N V I R O N M E N T
http://www.3de.com.au
Windows 11 Pro 64bit
ArchiCad 4.55>27 AUS
Lumion 12.5/2023
D5 Render
owen
Newcomer
Wokka wrote:
Steve,
Thanks for the information.
What a huge workaround! Personally I'll just have to stick to R11 ArchiCad and 10.5 C4D....
I wonder if the Allplan and Vectorworks exchange is in the same state??
yes too much work - i think it would be easier to export using the old 3DS method, at least that still gives you the option to save by material instead of the small forest of objects the 'new degraded' version defaults to with no other option. 3DS has its workaround issues too though. The whole point of the Exchange Plugin is to maintain the material mapping so you don't need to do it over and over. The plugin MUST do this at bare minimum.

The more i think about it there is no good reason the plugin should not be updated for at least AC12+C4D10.5. We will be in touch with GS Australia about this just as soon as this deadline has passed and tempers have subsided a little.

As for Vectorworks I had a quick look around on the forums and i did not see any fiery discussions about it not working .. so i can only assume that it is (or there are very few VW+C4D users, which i doubt).
cheers,

Owen Sharp

Design Technology Manager
fjmt | francis-jones morehen thorp

iMac 27" i7 2.93Ghz | 32GB RAM | OS 10.10 | Since AC5
owen
Newcomer
Gergely,

I will quote Karl to explain my understanding of the need for add-on recompilation with ArchiCAD version changes - i think this quote is particularly relevant to the issues at hand. Karl is of course welcome to comment..

(that is actually a non-too-subtle request Karl!)
Karl wrote:
...The add-on issue is no different. All kinds of resources change as software evolves .. Recompilation is essential for plug-ins so that they can properly access restructured resources. Sometimes this is a simple matter. Other times, things change enough that some reprogramming is required for the plug-in to interface with the latest version of the software. The business model of the 3rd party developer determines if they want to charge for their recompiled version or not. Graphisoft provides all of the tools for add-on creation and maintenance at no charge. What more would you have them do - simply stop improving the product?
There is one irrefutable fact we have - Cinema R10.5 does not suffer from this 'melange' issue. It is working with AC as we speak - the C4D-side plugin accepts ArchiCAD geometry exported as an .AC4D from AC11.

This leaves only 2 options as to why the AC-side plugin cannot be updated to work for AC12:


1. There were some changes internal to AC12 v AC11 that change how model elements are defined for the purposes of export via an add-on. In other words it is impossible for an AC12 add-on to export model geometry in the same format as AC11 did.

2. It is a business decision by Maxon not to update this plugin. AC12 was released prior to C4D R11 so i do not think the 'supporting a superseded version' argument holds up - even if they knew when R11 was due for release, 10.5 was the current version at the time and so it should have been promptly supported.


Now i have not completely discounted the chance of an option 3 (a business decision on GS behalf), but i still trust in what you said earlier.

I'm sure i speak for everyone involved when i say we are very, very eager to hear back directly from you on this issue. Going through 3rd parties (i.e local vendors) is often a frustrating experience - we often get the impression they know as little as we do.
cheers,

Owen Sharp

Design Technology Manager
fjmt | francis-jones morehen thorp

iMac 27" i7 2.93Ghz | 32GB RAM | OS 10.10 | Since AC5