You can minimize or maximize a node by double-clicking its title bar to move a node, drag its title bar to re-size a node, drag a side or corner. The Result node shows the value 1 if the cone and cube are at the same height (Y value). To reveal the contents of the XGroup, disable View / Locked from the context menu and choose the desired display mode from the context menu’s View sub-menu.įour nodes.
First, click on the Unprotect button and enter your password into the dialog that appears. To unprotect an XGroup, you do almost the same as you did to protect it, except in reverse. The XGroup will now be password protected. In the dialog that opens, enter your password for the XGroup. In the Attribute Manager, click on the Protect button. To protect an XGroup, first choose View / Locked to lock the XGroup’s contents. You can password protect XGroups using this button, which will hide the contents of the XGroup until the password is entered. You can also switch the node on by passing a Boolean value of True or the value 1 to its Enable port. The nodes inside the XGroup will only be processed if the XGroup is active. This option allows you to switch the XGroup on (active) or off. Selected groups will be highlighted with an orange outline. Multiple XGroups or nodes can be selected by Shift+clicking on them and then, for example, moving then to a single group. A simple click on the XGroup window’s title bar will select the XGroup, e.g., for copying and pasting or to access the settings and data types in the Attribute Manager. Clicking and holding on the title bar will let you drag the XGroup window and clicking and holding on the XGroup window’s frame (the cursor will change to a scale symbol) will let you scale the window. Double-click again to restore the window. This is especially important when the XGroup receives values from the nodes, to ensure that the XGroup receives up-to-date values.ĭouble-clicking on the XGroup window’s title bar will reduce the window to the title bar. If this option is enabled, nodes that are outside the selected XGroup are evaluated first. On the Attribute Manager’s Node Properties page, you will find an option called Inputs First.
To select multiple XGroups, drag a marquee over them, or select one of the XGroups then Shift+click the other XGroups that you want to select selected XGroups have orange borders. To select an XGroup, click the XGroup’s title bar. When creating your own expressions, you will often need to select an XGroup to, among other things, load its settings into the Attribute Manager so that you can edit them. To re-size an XGroup, drag a side or corner.
To restore an XGroup window to full size, double-click the title bar again. To minimize an XGroup to its title bar, double-click the title bar. To add ports to the XGroup, choose the desired ports from the XGroup’s inputs menu (blue square) and outputs menu (red square).
You can also move the contents by pressing the cursor keys. To move or zoom the contents, drag the move or zoom icon in the top right corner of the XGroup. You can navigate the contents of an XGroup in a similar way to the Cinema 4D viewport. Use XGroups to organize nodes into groups. You can save and load XGroups to reuse them in other projects. In addition to acting as a container, an XGroup can be connected to nodes and other XGroups. You will then find it easier to understand, navigate and modify the expression. Like real containers, XGroups help you to put related items in the same box for better organization. XGroups are containers for nodes, other XGroups and their wires. Much can be learnt from these examples by reading the comments and then trying out your own changes. In addition, you will also find a variety of example expressions on your Cinema 4D CD, each documented with comments.
To learn XPresso as quickly as possible, we recommend that you work through the tutorials in the Cinema 4D Tutorial manual and, if something is not clear, look it up in this reference for a full description. This will cause the cylinder to point in the same direction as the cube in the viewport. In this example, the cube’s rotation value is being sent to the cylinder. The ports under the blue squares are input ports and receive values from other nodes or XGroups. The ports under the red squares are output ports and send values to XGroups or other nodes. the two circles, both labeled Rotation, are ports. The illustration above shows two nodes: one for a cube and another for a cylinder.