Basic Properties

You should already be familiar with these settings from Cinema 4D ( see Objects ).

Icon

Icon File / ID

Sometimes, when working with numerous icons that look the same, you want to have a better overview of it all. This is what this function does. Objects and tags can be assigned their own icons or existing icons can be re-assigned or colored:

Examples for tags that were colored, replaced by existing ones and custom tags.

Note the Show Custom Icons command in the Object Manager’s View menu, which lets you switch to the Cinema 4D icons.

There are a few objects and tags (e.g., Material tags) that can’t be colored because they are controlled by Cinema 4D directly.

Here, you can either

load a bitmap - whereby an alpha channel will be evaluated, if present. Internally, this bitmap will be scaled and distorted accordingly if it has a different size than 64*64 pixels (which is used internally by Cinema 4D).
or
enter an existing command ID for corresponding icons. These IDs can be found in the Command Manager.

Icon Color

Color

This function can be used to color an existing or a custom icon. You can select from the following options:

None: No coloring will take place
Display Color: Each object can be assigned a Display Color in the Basic tab. This will be used here. Since the Display Color can also assume a layer color objects can also be colored according to the layer to which they are assigned.
Custom: Lets you select a custom color.

Tags have no Display Color and can therefore only be colored using a custom color. To do so, activate the Icon Color option.

Load/Save Presets

These commands can be used to save icons as a preset or to load an icon.

General details regarding the Preset System in Cinema 4D can be found there.

Name

You can assign all objects and elements (e.g., shaders) any name you like. The object or element will appear under this name, e.g., in the XPresso Editor or in the Timeline.

Layer

If the element (object, tag, track, etc.) has been assigned to a layer, you will find the layer name and color here. Layers can be dragged here directly from the Layer Bowser or from other similar fields. You can also use the menu behind the small triangle button on the right to assign layers or remove the element from the current layer. Show in Manager opens the Layer Manager.

Click on the small triangle to the left of Layer to show the layer properties. This gives you access to all properties that are otherwise only accessible via the Layer Manager.

Viewport Visibility

Here, this setting reflects the visibility settings (gray, green, red) of the Object Manager.

You can select from the following:

Undefined: The Child object's setting will be applied.
On: Object will be shown in the Viewport.
Off: Object will not be shown in the Viewport but will be rendered.

Renderer Visibility

Here, this setting reflects the visibility settings (gray, green, red) of the Object Manager.

You can select from the following:

Undefined: The Child object's settings will be used.
On: Object will be taken into consideration for rendering.
Off: Object will not be rendered.

Display Color

You have the following options here, which define how the object is displayed in the view, provided that Material is deactivated in the Viewport in the Options menu (if Material is activated there, it will always be displayed - independently of the following options).

Material: This displays the material color (or texture) of an assigned material.
Layer: With the Layer option the object, if it is assigned to a layer (see Layer Manager), will colored according to the layer color.
Automatic: This displays the material color (or texture) of an assigned material. In the absence of a material, the color defined below will be applied.
Custom: Use this to assign a custom color.

Color

Defines the display color. Click the color box to access the system color chooser or click the small triangle to access Cinema 4D’s color chooser. Choose the desired color.

Enabled

Switches Generators, Deformers and primitives on or off. Disabled objects are not visible in the Viewport.

Priority

What's new and interesting in Hair, though, is the Priority setting.

Use this setting to define the refresh rate of the Hair object (see also Cinema 4D Tags).

The following will be refreshed:

The guide roots.
The hair dynamics

The following rules apply:

If you use the Hair object to generate polygons or splines, Priority should be set smaller than that of the generators.
If you use XPresso in conjunction with the Hair object, make sure that XPresso is executed after the refresh of the hair. Otherwise, XPresso will always lag one frame behind or unexpected effects can occur.

Tip:If you arrange guides on other guides (activate the Hair object and subsequently select Add Hair), a second Hair object will be created. Having done this, it is now very important that the correct sequence is selected using the Priority setting. The guides rooted on the hair-covered object must be calculated before the guides that were subsequently created and attached to the guides already rooted on the object.

Tip 2:If you want the HAIR Object to affect an object which is in turn affected by Cloth the guides may subsequently no longer be visible. If this happens simply switch Priority to Generators 101.