When you need a free-form CINEMA 4D Exchange shape in your ARCHICAD project, or you would like to modify an existing ARCHICAD element using CINEMA 4D Exchange, do the following:
•To create a new CINEMA 4D Exchange object, use the File > Interoperability > CINEMA 4D Exchange > Create new element in CINEMA 4D Exchange command, available while working in the 3D window.
•To edit elements, select them and use the Edit selected elements in CINEMA 4D Exchange command, available while working in the 3D window only.
By default, the commands are at the bottom of your Interoperability menu, but you can customize your work environment anytime.
In either case, ARCHICAD will launch CINEMA 4D Exchange and transfer the content of the 3D window. After the transfer, ARCHICAD will switch into “Synchronization” mode. During this time, no user interaction is possible in ARCHICAD and you should work in CINEMA 4D Exchange only.
Note: ARCHICAD will ask you to locate CINEMA 4D Exchange manually the first time you use it. This is a one-time-only question; ARCHICAD will remember this location later. If the location of CINEMA 4D Exchange changes on the computer (e.g. because of an upgrade), you can re-set the location using Remove CINEMA 4D Exchange preferences in the File > Interoperability > CINEMA 4D Exchange menu.
In this case, the next time you select “Create new element in CINEMA 4D Exchange” or “Edit selected elements in CINEMA 4D Exchange”, you will be prompted to navigate to the CINEMA 4D Exchange executable location.
If you decide to cancel the CINEMA 4D Exchange editing process, you can click the “Break connection to CINEMA 4D Exchange” button in the synchronization dialog, but in this case you will not be able to get the model back from CINEMA 4D Exchange.
Important: If you start CINEMA 4D Exchange separately from ARCHICAD, don’t use the “Send back to ARCHICAD” command in CINEMA 4D Exchange. You can use the connection only if:
•You start CINEMA 4D Exchange from ARCHICAD and
•ARCHICAD is still in “Synchronization” mode
In order to restore the connection, do the following:
1.Save your scene as a CINEMA 4D Exchange file in CINEMA 4D Exchange.
2.Switch to ARCHICAD, activate the 3D window and establish the connection with CINEMA 4D Exchange using the Create new element in CINEMA 4D Exchange command.
3.In CINEMA 4D Exchange, merge the previously saved CINEMA 4D Exchange file.
Note: For configuration options, see the Export Parameters section.
In CINEMA 4D Exchange, you will receive the entire contents of ARCHICAD’s 3D window.
•Elements which were not selected for editing will be in the “ARCHICAD environment” object group on the “ARCHICAD environment” layer. Elements of this group will be semi-transparent in CINEMA 4D Exchange. Their purpose is to help you position your design correctly. Editing these elements will have no effect on their ARCHICAD representation, and changes will be lost when you return to ARCHICAD. If you wish to modify these elements, then return to ARCHICAD, select them in the 3D window and use the “Edit selected elements in CINEMA 4D Exchange” command.
•If you used the “Edit selected elements in CINEMA 4D Exchange” command in ARCHICAD, the selected elements will be listed outside the ARCHICAD environment group and you can edit them freely. The objects will be hierarchically organized according to the current CINEMA 4D Exchange export settings (see the “CINEMA 4D Exchange Export / Import Settings” section for further info).
When you finish the CINEMA 4D Exchange design, you can send the information from the Editor window back to ARCHICAD using the File > Send to ARCHICAD command. This returns the model to ARCHICAD and keeps CINEMA 4D Exchange open for the next editing cycle.
If you created new elements in CINEMA 4D Exchange, ARCHICAD will automatically place the new objects at exactly the same location as in CINEMA 4D Exchange.
If you edited selected elements in CINEMA 4D Exchange, the original elements will be replaced with the new geometry.
The material and geometry information of CINEMA 4D Exchange is saved in the retrieved GDL object and will be used the next time you edit the object, but the content of ARCHICAD environment is newly generated during each export.