The ability to load and save 3D elements, animations, or even materials into native Cinema 4D or third-party formats is an essential capability of Cinema 4D for processing data from other programs or passing data to other applications. This page presents the most important information regarding this topic.
When using third-party formats, it may happen that the existing objects, animations or materials are modified. This affects materials in particular since each 3D software and each renderer have different philosophies for interpreting shaders, lights and cameras. The most prevalent problems occur when importing and exporting geometry since they can include vector data that is universal. This primarily affects the scaling factor of the data, the orientation of the axis system in space but also how Cinema 4D Generators are handled. You will therefore find defaults for all supported file formats under Edit>Preferences>Import/Export.
Note also these tips for displaying imported objects in Cinema 4D.
By default, however, these file settings are also displayed again each time a foreign format is imported or exported, if the options for Show Import Dialog or for Show Export Dialog are activated in the Import/Export section of the program preferences. The actual export is initiated via File>Export. Here you will also find a list of the supported formats.
If you only want to save individual objects, e.g., to save a 3D model for 3D printing in the STL format, this object can be selected and used directly in the Object Manager via File>Export Selected Object As .... However, no materials will be included.
Note that you do not have a separate import command to open supported foreign formats. Cinema 4D automatically recognizes foreign formats via .File>Open The same applies if you drag a file from the Explorer/Finder into Cinema 4D. This will also automatically open the respective file if it's supported. If the Merge on Drag & Drop option is enabled in the Import/Export menu of the Preferences menu, files that are dragged into the Cinema 4D Viewport can also be added to an open project. Alternatively you can use the Add Project... command in the File menu.
An active project can be saved as a Cinema 4D file via File>Save Project or Save Project As .... No external components of this project such as sound files, caches, textures, etc., will be integrated into the Cinema 4D file formal and will remain at the location at which they were saved. To save such a project so it can be properly archived or opened at a different workstation, the File>Save Project Incl Assets should be used. This will gather the scene components in a single directory.
If the project uses different Takes, these can be saved separately using the File>Save all Takes Incl. Assets command. A selection of Takes can be archived using the File>Save Marked Takes incl. Assets command. If you only want to save individual objects, e.g., to save a 3D model for use as an external reference, this object can be selected and the File>Save Selected Object As ... command in the Object Manager can be applied. The same command can also be found in the File menu.
To load a scene in Cinema 4D file format (.c4d), you can use File>Open Project ... or File>Add Project .... The latter can also be found in the Object Manager under File>Merge Project.... If the desired project was recently saved, this file can also be opened via File>Open Recent. Alternatively, files can be loaded directly by dragging them from the Finder/Explorer into the Cinema 4D Viewport.
Materials can be saved and loaded independently of other scene components. This is helpful if, for example, you save a material library and often load it to different projects. You will find the respective commands for saving materials in the Material Managers's Create menu under Save Materials As ... or Save All As .... In the same menu you will also find the Load Materials... command which can be used to load the materials of a specific Cinema 4D file. Note that this includes Cinema 4D files that contain additional objects. In any case, only the materials will be loaded from these files.
Adobe Substance 3D Designer lets you develop parametric materials that can also be used in Cinema 4D. For this, an import function is available under Extensions>Substance Engine. You will find more information on this topic on these pages.
XRefs can be used if multiple persons are working on a given project or existing objects and materials should be reused in a new project. These objects create a connection to a saved Cinema 4D file and include it as a reference in the current project. All necessary commands can be found under Create>XRef. If you use Redshift to render, a special Redshift Proxy object can be used. This can also reference a saved scene with objects and materials. However, the file must be saved in the special Redshift Proxy format (.rs). This can be created by saving the project via File>Export>Redshift Proxy (*.rs). This saved data can then be integrated into a project via Create>Redshift Proxy.
Meanwhile, other programs have joined the MAXON family, such as ZBrush, Forger and Move by Maxon. For these programs, separate connectivity is available, respectively, which works both ways, i.e., from the respective app to Cinema 4D and vice-versa. Compared to the classic export and import, these workflows bear the advantage that no date has to be reinterpreted or gets lost.
Cineware is a freely available Cinema 4D technology that enables other programs to directly use the Cinema 4D data format and display textured objects. Applications that directly support Cineware include Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator as well as the Unreal and Unity game engines. When exchanging information between Cinema 4D and these applications, certain rules can be established, e.g., if Generators should be converted automatically or the resolution in which shaders should be converted to bitmaps. For this you can use the Cineware options in the Project Settings menu. Save Project for Cineware... in the File menu can be used to save the opened project, which can then be loaded via the Cineware application in the 3-party application.
Visit https://help.maxon.net/cw/en-us/ for the latest information on Cineware connections.