Incorporate maps, sections and drawings in Cinema 4D

This short article will teach you how to add plans, sections and other kinds of drawings to your Cinema 4D file. You can then use these as background images when you are modelling. I will show you two ways to do this, depending on what you need.

Method 1: Background image in the Viewport

The easiest way to use an image as a background in Cinema 4D is to use the background function of your Viewport. First, store the image you want to use in the same folder as your Cinema 4D file or in the subfolder 'tex'. Then go into your Viewport where you want to use that image as a background. For Topview, press F2; for Sideview, press F3; and for Frontview, press F4. Once you've selected your Viewport, find the menu at the top of the window and open the Options menu. You'll find Configure at the bottom. Alternatively, you can simply use the shortcut Shift+V.

In the Attribute Manager, you'll find the tab labelled Back and, secondly, the field marked Image. Click the three dots beside it and choose the image you want to use as a background. The fields Offset X, Offset Y, Size X and Size Y control the position and size of the image in your viewport. The question is how to scale the image to the correct dimensions, and your model will have them too. This method has its drawbacks, as we will not be able to work very accurately with it, but for most cases, it will be enough. To find the correct dimensions, we need an object with which we can compare the image. To do this, we create a Cube with the standard dimensions of 2x2x2 metres. We then move the cube to the correct position on the scale of the drawing we are using.

Now, we need to adjust the background plan to fit the Cube exactly. You can zoom in as much as possible and try to fit it by using the Offset X and Offset Y fields, as well as Size X and Size Y. This may take some time, but you will eventually get a result you're happy with.

You can't be too exact with this method, but it'll usually work when you want to add a background image.The image will be in the background of the Viewport, so it won't disturb your modelling process because it'll always be behind everything you're building. The second method uses a different approach, which is more accurate, but you have to put the plan on a virtual object within your 3D world, and this can sometimes disturb the modelling workflow. So you need to decide which method works best for you.

Method 2: Plan on a plane

This second method is much more accurate, as we can use the Measure & Construction tool. First, we need the plan, section or drawing as a texture in the Material Manager. Make sure, as in the previous method, that you copy your image into the same folder as the Cinema 4D file, or even better, in the subfolder tex. Then, create a new material by double-clicking in the Material Manager. Double-click the new material to open its properties. Give it a proper name and under the Color category on the left, find the field Texture and click the three dots beside it to open your image file. Turn off all other channels and for better distinction, right-click on the preview sphere on the top left and choose Plane Backlight. The preview changes from a sphere to a plane, which corresponds better to our plan. Don't close the Material window just yet, as we need to copy the image dimensions from it in a minute.

We now need to create a Plane object. This must be the same size as the image we want to attach. In the Attribute Manager, you'll find the fields Width and Height. These must match the image resolution. You can find this in the centre of the Color category of the still open material. Just copy the first value into the Width field and the second value into the Height field. Set the Width Segments and Height Segments to 1. You can now close the material window and drag and drop the texture onto the Plane object. As you can see, the dimensions are correct, which will help us a lot. You can also see that the quality of the image is not that good. By default, Cinema 4D uses a very memory-friendly display mode, but we can change that to see our plan better. To do this, re-open the material window and search for the Editor category on the left. In it, you'll find the Texture Preview Size field, which is set to default. Change that to 2048x2048 (16 MB) and close the material window. Everything should be clear to you now...

We need to find out what dimension the image has and calculate the scaling factor to correct that. To do this, change to the Topview by pressing F2. If you can't see your texture, it is due to the Shading option. Press N~C to make the texture visible, then zoom into the scale to get a better view. We will use the Measure & Construction tool from the Tool menu. Activate the tool, then click on one side of the scale, ideally where the '0' is. A red arrow will appear, starting at your selected point and pointing to the absolute zero point. Zoom out a bit to find the end of the arrow. Click on it and drag and drop it to a different point on the scale where you can read the measurements of the plan. In my example, I choose the 5m point. In the centre of the arrow, you will see the actual dimensions, in this case: 789,793cm. This value must become 500cm.

To do this, we will use the scale function of the Coordinate Manager, which you can find at the bottom of the screen. It is between the Material Manager and the Attribute Manager. The central column is set to Size by default, but you can change this to Scale. The scale is currently set to 1. To calculate the correct scale to get our 789,793 cm measurement down to 500 cm, we need to do a simple calculation. We can use the scale fields (X, Y or Z) to do this. We enter 500/789,793 as the calculation is 500, which is the value it should become, and 789,793 is the value we measured. Pressing the Tabulator key changes the field and performs the calculation, which in my case is 0.633. Copy this value into the other two fields and press Apply. Next, adjust your measurement again, as the Plane object has moved due to the scaling. When you measure again, you will have a pretty accurate measurement of your plane! You can then move the plane to wherever you want, but don't move it again. To do this, right-click on the plane in the Object-Manager. Under the sub-menu Cinema 4D Tags, you'll find a tag called Protection. Click on it, and the object will get a new tag in the Object-Manager. You will notice that you can't move it anymore, so you won't accidentally change its position.