Bringing your work in
Cinema 4D with Plnty Connect
A plugin that moves scenes between C4D and a board in both directions, with materials, textures and quad topology intact.
If your scene already lives in Cinema 4D, exporting it by hand every time you want to look at it in Plnty gets old within a day. Plnty Connect is a C4D plugin that moves work both ways from inside C4D. ## Installing it [Download Plnty Connect](https://plnty.app/downloads/plnty-connect-c4d-1.0.0.zip). It runs in Cinema 4D R25 or later, and the same download is in Plnty under **Settings**, **MCP and extensions**. 1. Unzip it. Inside is one folder, `plnty-connect`. 2. In Cinema 4D, choose **Edit**, **Preferences** and press **Open Preferences Folder…** at the bottom left. 3. Copy the `plnty-connect` folder into the `plugins` folder there. If there is no `plugins` folder yet, make one. 4. Restart Cinema 4D and open **Extensions**, **Plnty Connect**. Press **Sign in with Browser** in its panel and approve it in Plnty. ## What it does **Send**, C4D to Plnty. Pick objects in your scene and they arrive on a board as a mesh, with colour, normal and bump textures, full PBR materials, and quad topology preserved. **Receive**, Plnty to C4D. The plugin shows a grid of your assets. Double-click one and it imports into the open scene, at one of three size presets. ## What survives the trip - Geometry, including **quad topology** - Colour, normal and bump textures - Full PBR materials, including packed roughness and metallic - Multi-material objects, which split on the way out and recombine on the way back - Large scenes. Verified end to end on production Redshift scenes, including GLBs approaching 95 MB :::caution[Parametric objects get baked] C4D generators like Thicken, Loft, Boole, Subdivision Surface and Extrude are baked to polygons on the way out. The geometry is correct and the parametric editability is gone, because glTF has no way to represent a C4D generator. Coming back, those baked objects arrive alongside empty Nulls where the generators used to be. Tidy, but not editable as generators again. ::: :::note[One known material case] A polygon wrapped inside an Extrude generator loses its material assignment on export, because C4D renames the baked output and the material no longer matches. If a tray or a base comes through untextured, bake it manually before sending rather than leaving it wrapped. ::: ## The workflow it enables The reason to use it is iteration rather than transfer. 1. Block the scene in C4D where you already know the tools 2. Send it to a board 3. Render, restyle, generate variations, get comments from people who do not have C4D 4. Bring the result back and keep modelling The middle step is the one that was previously a series of exports, uploads and re-imports, each of which was a place to lose a material. :::tip[Send less than the whole scene] Sending the objects you actually want to look at keeps the board light and keeps the round trip fast. A whole production scene arrives fine and makes the board heavier for everyone sharing it. :::If your scene already lives in Cinema 4D, exporting it by hand every time you want to look at it in Plnty gets old within a day. Plnty Connect is a C4D plugin that moves work both ways from inside C4D.
Installing it
Section titled “Installing it”Download Plnty Connect. It runs in Cinema 4D R25 or later, and the same download is in Plnty under Settings, MCP and extensions.
- Unzip it. Inside is one folder,
plnty-connect. - In Cinema 4D, choose Edit, Preferences and press Open Preferences Folder… at the bottom left.
- Copy the
plnty-connectfolder into thepluginsfolder there. If there is nopluginsfolder yet, make one. - Restart Cinema 4D and open Extensions, Plnty Connect.
Press Sign in with Browser in its panel and approve it in Plnty.
What it does
Section titled “What it does”Send, C4D to Plnty. Pick objects in your scene and they arrive on a board as a mesh, with colour, normal and bump textures, full PBR materials, and quad topology preserved.
Receive, Plnty to C4D. The plugin shows a grid of your assets. Double-click one and it imports into the open scene, at one of three size presets.
What survives the trip
Section titled “What survives the trip”- Geometry, including quad topology
- Colour, normal and bump textures
- Full PBR materials, including packed roughness and metallic
- Multi-material objects, which split on the way out and recombine on the way back
- Large scenes. Verified end to end on production Redshift scenes, including GLBs approaching 95 MB
The workflow it enables
Section titled “The workflow it enables”The reason to use it is iteration rather than transfer.
- Block the scene in C4D where you already know the tools
- Send it to a board
- Render, restyle, generate variations, get comments from people who do not have C4D
- Bring the result back and keep modelling
The middle step is the one that was previously a series of exports, uploads and re-imports, each of which was a place to lose a material.