dast

As usual (for those familiar with my other plugins) I will provide versions of the plugin as development progresses. Notice that due to technical reasons the plugin does need to store data into your objects. This means that once you save the scene the additional data is present in your objects on disk. As long as you don't save the scene only the objects in memory are altered. Be sure to have a copy of your original objects before using this plugin !!! During my testing I have noticed that sometimes Cinema4D can not unwrap/relax the UVs as it can not obtain a handle to the UVs. This seems to be a limitation of the SDK and something I am still trying to resolve. As a workaround you then should open a Bodypaint TextureView window and drag-drop the UVW tag from the object manager into the TextureView window. For now this "work in progress" is R18 and windows-only. <obsolete file removed> Enjoy!

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks. Seamilar is more intended for interactive process, where you create the seams. As such, I didn't foresee starting from selection tags to perform the unwrapping. As it currently is implemented, when you activate the plugin with edges selected it will automatically read these and "convert" them to seams, creating the different UV islands in the process. For technical reasons I now only unwrap (relax + realign) when the user interactively selects a seam. I will have to add your suggestion to my to do list.

Since last time I had a look at implementing my own UV view, in order to allow for a visual feedback on the colored UV islands. Here is the result, playing around with an old character I had created for C4DCafe's "Inner workings" challenge (2006). The navigation seems a bit jerky, apparently related to the capturing software, as the navigation is fluid when not recording. In this demo video I open the new UV View window next to the BodyPaint Texture Window, for comparison, as well as due to limitation of SDK. I am still looking into this in order to find a workaround. Note: I probably didn't choose the perfect seams, but this was a simple demonstration. It already shows that a proper symmetry selection would be quite useful. I might have to raise that topic's priority on my to do list. So far, the implementation requires features available since R16, so unless further obstacles I would be aiming to release for R16 and above. Support for previous version would be possible, but with crippled undo/redo functionality.

@maliohammad I am a C++ software developer by trade, so the jump from Python wasn't the issue. In fact it was the other way round when I starting writing plugins in Python, last year. By now I still don't know the language by heart and extensively need to refer to its documentation. Same for MAXON's SDK , and unfortunately their Python and C++ SDK are not a simple one on one mapping. Which means I basically had to rewrite the whole original Seamilar plugin before being able to add the new UV unwrapping features. Took me nearly two weeks (full time), and then another week to figure out the unwrapping. Luckily I had already spent most of the time doing the research while implementing the Python plugin ... just waiting for MAXON to catch up with the Python SDK ;-) Looking back, I better had started with C++ from day one, I wouldn't have wasted waiting for a working SDK. @smibrand If you have some character models to share, sent me a private message as I would be thankful to have a more complex model to play with. @arail I don't know what Modo provides as UV functionality, we could discuss your needs, and see if I can fit these into Seamilar. For now I am mostly focused on getting a stable "framework" implemented. All "fancy" features (symmetry, auto unwrap, ...) will have to wait.

Thanks to all for the feedback so far. Thanks. Hence the name of this plugin. Haven't looked at 3D Coat since over a year, but I can say that it was a revelation to use the demo and a great inspiration to make my own tool. I am collecting ideas as we speak, as I am not to fond of BodyPaint's TextureView window. If possible I'd like to display a better UV representation, but I know the current SDK is limited in that area.

Working on the next version of this plugin (see here) I will probably retract this Python version from public, as well as stop any support for it.

[Edit - Note: this thread should be located in the "Programming - C++" section of the forums. It ended up in the "Python" section by accident during one of the forums reorganizing sessions] For the original plugin version I would like to refer to this thread. A year has passed since the implementation of that Python plugin, and while I wanted this Seamilar plugin to do more than currently has been released, the Python SDK held me back. With the release of R18 MAXON provided additional bodypaint functionality in it's Python SDK, and I finally could implement the full version of the plugin as I envisioned it at the start. Or so I thought. Unfortunately, MAXON's dev support confirmed that the added functionality didn't work, so I was back to square one. Instead of waiting on a fix from MAXON, I went ahead and digged into the world of C++ plugin development, as this SDK didn't suffer the reported problems. A few weeks later and I have this "concept version" running. More development is required before it reaches a stable release version, but it already shows it's potential. No release date available yet. As for the supported Cinema 4D versions, this will depend on the needed functionality in the final version. One drawback of this being a C++ plugin: while the python plugin (being a script) is platform independent, a C++ plugin needs to be built (compiled and linked) on PC and on Mac separately. EDIT: If you want to know more about the progress of this plugin, feel free to browse through the many posts that have been written since the birth of the plugin, to its current state.

I have another suggestion for house rule: If a questions is posted and answered, the least decent thing the poster of the question could do is report back, provide feedback on the given answers. Regularly (but not most of the time) you'll see questions asked, with one or more solutions provided ... and never hear back from the original poster. The users who did take the time to post their solution would appreciate feedback if their answer was useful or not. It might help them to formulate their solutions differently in the future, in case it didn't fit the original post, etc ... More than once did it happen where I spend quite some time to explain a solution, with detailed text and screenshots, some attachments of xpresso setup or some python code ... and never heard back. I don't keep these users in a black list or so, but when I recognize their user-id I tend to ignore their future posts. end of rant.

While I do appreciate the suggestion, I don't fully agree. It seems obvious having an explanation provides for a better understanding of the solution. But not everyone is gifted with the possibility to clearly bring over their intention, and provide a "readable" (understandable) explanation. Additionally, there is the language barrier for non native English speakers. When I provide an answer, I often need to look up words, translation, etc ... This hinders my explanation. For some, providing comments is just second nature and comes fluently. For others it turns out to be a task, more of a chore actually, which takes up quite some time to pen down. (This "simple" reply did cost me 16 minutes in total to write down) So, yes, I am all for providing detailed comments on solutions by the poster, but it should not be mandatory.

Glad I could help.

Here is a scene file with userdata setup and python tag to control the groups. The reason for sharing the scene file, and not simply the python code, is that the userdata IDs are important. So with only the code and no userdata to refer to it would be hard to understand. Hope this helps. Python Show-Hide UserData.zip

You're welcome. For more details about workflow, you could have a look here: http://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/forums/topic/90805-c4d-learning-expedition-001-pro-level-uv-mapping/?page=1 It's almost a year old, but most information is still valid. Unfortunately not all links or videos did survive.

I don't have special use cases. The reason I created Seamilar was because I noticed I was constantly switching between loop selection, path selection, live selection, etc ... to get my seams selected to relax my UV islands. First thing I did - to speed up switching between the tools - was to assign these tools via their shortcut keys to some of the 12 mouse buttons (I have a Logitech G600). But with Seamilar it became much simpler, as I only need that one tool and switch between its single and extended selection mode via the Shift key, which is assigned to one of the two buttons on my 3Dconnexion Space Navigator. I thus have my left hand on the Space Navigator, my right on the mouse, and by controlling these 2 devices I can navigate my 3D view, hover over the required edges, select single or extended mode and click, click, click. No keyboard shortcuts, no switching of tools. Creating seams is now really only focusing on where to cut instead of figuring out how to select the edges to make up that seam ... what it used to be before. Attached is an example of asset I UV map using Seamilar. Now, the actual UV mapping is still a chore, but the workflow to create the separate UV islands is greatly sped up with the plugin. My workflow is to select seams on an object, perform a projection, relax using the selected seams as cut edges, then do some optimization. Then proceed with the next object, until all objects for that UV texture are done. Then I manually arrange the different objects UV on the single canvas. Export to FBX and perform the actual texturing in Substance Painter. So this Seamilar plugin only helps in a tiny part of the whole workflow.

How to install: In Cinema 4D (PC) go to Edit>Preferences, this opens the preferences dialog. Now select the button "Open Preferences Folder" at left bottom, this opens a windows explorer. Double click the "plugins" folder in the windows explorer and copy the unzipped Seamilar folder into this folder. Restart Cinema 4D, and plugin should be available. How to use: I have tried to explain the basic usage at the start of this thread, including some screenshots. Edit: I just realized I never uploaded the latest version, as there seemed to be a problem with version 1.2 Edit 2 : <removed obsolete file>

metal - I guess some Apple/Mac related SDK or something similar? If it's only Apple/Mac then I guess MAXON will look next to it, as I have understood they only use SDK/libraries that are multi platform.

As I am in the middle of a project, I still am working with R17 and haven't installed R18 (have still to download it). According to the documentation of the R18 Python SDK, MAXON did replace some attributes from the reflectance layer, which means that the current SPETI plugin will not work in R18. I was working on a next version to fix a few bugs and add some more features, but this difference between R17 and R18 SDK is slightly annoying, meaning I will have to maintain 2 plugin versions, as they both require different code. As there are a few options available, I'd like to request feedback from users. In order not to clutter up this thread I'd like SPETI users to PM me mentioning their Cinema 4D version: - "R18" if you're an R18 user stuck with a non working SPETI 0.5 - "R17" if you're an R17 user with no intention to upgrade to R18 Thanks

Very sad news indeed. While I didn't know the man in person, nor didn't use his plugin suite, it still feels like a big loss. Dan, you will be missed.

Don't worry, you're not the only one. I am too busy working on my project(s) that I have no time to download and install R18. A few more days (weeks?) before I switch to the latest version.

I had promised myself one thing when I would release the next version of this plugin, and that was to also provide a video showing the basic usage of SPETI (both the Assign and Config tabs). But after a few days of trying I can only confess that I simply am not made to explain things. I have tried the spontaneous way, as well as following a written down scenario. Again and again. All iterations failed their goal of clearly explaining what to do, why, when. Kudos to those who make entertaining video tutorials ... it just isn't my thing. Well, after all, this plugin isn't rocket science, so you'll eventually figure out how to use it without me explaining. <file removed> (as before, R17 only)

Finally found (made some) time to work on the missing pieces of this plugin. Some more testing days ahead, but next version should be available soon. I have added support for different image formats (bmp, jpg, png, tif), selectable in the Assign tab. Most work, however, has been done in the Config tab as I now have added the feature to add custom "channels" (known as TextureSet images). Although this was implemented rather easily, much more time was needed to provide support for multiple layers in the reflectance material channel.

Thanks for your feedback. As mentioned earlier, support for different file formats is on my todo list, and will make it in the next version. For the preset to be saved, the user needs to press the "save changes" button in the config tab. I don't like this myself, and am looking for a different way to handle this, but to constantly save the preset with every single change isn't very optimal. So far I thus rely on the user pressing the save button. These presets should be stored in a subfolder of the plugin, and automatically loaded next time you start the plugin. From your description it seems something goes wrong during saving or loading (assuming you pressed the save changes button). Does the console show any error message related to saving/loading

You're welcome. No further development yet, as most features I needed are implemented. Next on the list is the ability to select the input image format. Currently only bmp supported (I encountered some Cinema 4D crashes trying to import png's from Substance Painter, and thus focused on one format that did work). I am sure custom channels will be needed in future, so I am running this idea in the back of my head. I am also wanting to replace the warning and error icons (simple colored boxes with question/exclamation mark) with more meaningful icons.

I haven't described the pipeline in full details, but following are plugins I created to automate the process. http://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/forums/topic/91939-new-plugin-colorid-mapper http://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/forums/topic/92673-new-plugin-substance-painter-exported-texture-importer-speti

No further development yet as now I am actually USING the plugin. How better to demonstrate by a simple render. Left is the untextured object, and right the same scene with textures created in Substance Painter and imported via SPETI. (ground and sky are "basic" C4D materials)