Browser Search, Categories and Asset List

Asset Browser Search

The Asset Browser's search function can be used to quickly find any available assets – whether they were installed with Cinema 4D, are located on the Maxon servers or in your own libraries.

At the top you will see a series of tabs. Click on one of these tabs to display only those specific asset types. This can be used as a pre-selection (see also Auto Switch) to narrow down the search.

At the left of the Search Bar you will see a magnifying glass icon. Click on it to show or hide the tree view. If the tree view is hidden, all hits – regardless of any selected folders – will be displayed.

Search Bar

Enter a name (or the Syntaxdescribed below) to display all corresponding assets.

By presing Ctrl + F you can jump to the search bar at any time or display it.

Tip:Note that the assets are currently available in English and can therefore only be searched for using English-language search terms.

Syntax

By clicking on the arrow at the far right of the Search Bar you will open a drop-down menu with a range of selectable search operators that can help narrow the search, e.g., according to file size. You can add any number of search operators – separated by a space – that will have to be met for a search to be successful. You can also enter the same operators multiple times (e.g., size>=:1mb size<=:2mb to search for files with a size that lies between 1MB and 2MB).

Tip:Note that the operators displayed here in the respective languages will be displayed in English in the Search Bar. Otherwise the search will not work.

Example

You want to find all assets in whose name the term "sofa” occurs and whose file size is at least 30MB.

Proceed as follows:

  1. Type "sofa” into the Search Bar, open the search operator drop-down menu and select Size
  2. The location at which the desired size can be entered in the Search Bar is highlighte in blue. Enter "30mb”.
  3. All corresponding files will be displayed immediately.

If, for example, you want to find all assets that contain the term "tree”, enter "tree” (incl. quotation marks) followed by a space to prevent assets with similar terms being found, e.g, "street”. Use quotation marks to search for the specific term between them.

You can also enter search operators manually, without using the search operator menu. Make sure you don't forget the colon.

The search operators below are available. Upper and lowercase are irrelevant (the English term can be typed directly into the Search Bar).

The following applies for the list above when entered:

  1. Numbers/Date: Relational operators such as <, >, <=, >=, = (the "equal to” operator can be dropped and will have an effect automatically) are possible.
  2. type: The following asset types can be entered:
    • object: Only Cinema 4D objects, i.e., in addition to objects in a scene: generators, deformers, effectors, etc.
    • node: Only Node assets
    • scene: Only Cinema 4D scenes
    • material: Only materials
    • media: Only images, videos, sound files
    • image: Only images
    • movie: Only videos.
    • category: Only the category in which the Node assets were saved when created (e.g., Math)
    • smartsearch (only within saved Smart Search names
    • operator: Only Op Nodes (applicable in the Scene Manager).

Special Keyword Search Functionality

Nodes are equipped internally with special terms so that a Node can be listed when a series of characters from these terms is used.

Example: The Color Correction Node contains the internal terms "correction, tones, HSL, HSV”, etc. If these are entered as a series of characters, the Color Correction Node will also be listed. Another example would be Noise names (e.g., Luda, Stupl, etc.) with which Noise Nodes can be found. Here, a very useful special function also comes to bear: If you create the asset found using the term "stupl”, it will be set to the Noise Type Stupl. This also works with the Mix Node, for example (e.g., enter "multiply”).

For several Nodes such as the Blend Node, this can even be taken further if, for example, you use "multiply background” to filter (multiple series’ of characters can be combined using a logical AND) and create the Blend Node, both the selection menu Blend Mode as well as Alpha Handling will be set accordingly

The Node name itself will also be found, of course (and will have a higher priority than the search terms).

Categories

Almost all assets are structured hierarchically in categories. This helps maintain an overview and bundle thematically similar assets.

The asset list is arranged alphabetically and cannot be modified in relation to this. If you Cmd/Ctrl+click on a folder's "+” symbol, the entire sub-hierarchy will be opened. Shift+clicking on the symbol will open equal hierarchical levels.

If you want to create custom categories where you can save custom assets, this can, of course, also be done (see the commands in the Asset Browser's Create menu).

At the very top of the category area you will find special categories in the Quick Access hierarchy. Click on them to open a list of assets they contain:

Incomplete Assets

Incomplete assets can have the following origins:

Tip:Links to textures and other files will be displayed in the Asset Browser as dependencies. In the Detail area there is a tab of the same name where all of these are listed.

Note also in conjunction with this the Project Asset Inspector..., which provides details regarding incomplete links.

Commands

Right-clicking on a category will make a range of commands available. Most of these can also be found in the Create menu and they are also described there in the documentation. The following command is not in the Create menu:

Delete Category

This command is only available for custom categories you created yourself. Assets in these categories will not be deleted but will be assigned to the Uncategorized category.

Asset list and downloading assets

The asset list displays individual assets, some with previews. In consideration of the selected categories on the left and the search filter and search bar, the assets can be selected or loaded in corresponding sub-categories (double-click or drag & drop into the respective manager). The sub-categories can be opened and closed by clicking on the small arrow on the left next to the name.

Assets displayed in both view modes. Note for each the download and favorite icons.

For each asset you will see up to three clickable icons with the following functions:

Sometimes you will also see an asset with a warning icon next to it. In this case, a required additional asset is missing (e.g., a texture). You should then take a look at the Dependencies tab in the Info area.

In the list view, the favorite or download status can be added by clicking and dragging vertically with the mouse.

In the tile view, these icons will be displayed on the respective preview images – if they are scaled large enough. Otherwise the favorite and download status will be displayed if you hover over the preview with the cursor.

At the bottom of the asset list you will see interface elements with the following functions:

If you click on a sub-tab while pressing the Shift key will open all sub-tabs; while pressing Ctrl/Cmd, only the tab on which you click will open – all others will remain closed.

Commands

Right-clicking on an asset will display a number of fitting commands. Most of them are also available in the Asset Browser's main menu and are also described there. You will not find the following:

Copy/Add Keywords

These commands can be used to copy the keywords of the selected assets to the clipboard and then assign them to all selected assets.

Show Details

Opens the Information area and shows all details for the selected assets.