9.5.2

1064 • CHAPTER 22
XPRESSO EDITOR • 1065
To protect an XGroup, rst choose View > Locked to lock the XGroup’s contents. In the Attribute
manager, click on the Protect button. In the dialog that opens, enter your password for the XGroup.
The XGroup will now be password protected.
To unprotect an XGroup, you do almost the same as you did to protect it, except in reverse. First, click
on the Unprotect button and enter your password into the dialog that appears. 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 submenu.
Nodes
CINEMA 4D’s nodes work in radians. In other words, nodes use angular values
from 0 to 2*Pi rather than degrees from 0 to 360˚. If you want to work in
degrees, use the Degree node to convert from radians to degrees, and vice
versa.
Nodes are the primary building blocks of expressions and are designed to carry out the most diverse
of tasks, from reporting an object’s current position to processing math operations. Depending on
the node’s type, you can add various inputs and outputs to the node called ports. As with XGroups,
you add these ports using the inputs menu and outputs menu (the blue and red squares respectively
in the node’s title bar).
Four nodes. The Result node shows the value 1 if the cone and cube are at the same height (Y value).
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. Click a node to select it and load its settings into the Attribute
manager. To select multiple nodes, drag a marquee over them or select one of the nodes then Shift-
click the other nodes that you want to select; selected nodes have red borders.
You can switch nodes on or off via the Enabled option in the Attribute manager or the Disable option
from the node’s context menu, which is described later in this chapter.
To rename a node, select the node and enter its new name on the Attribute manager’s Basic Properties
page. The default name of a node indicates its type. If you rename a node, you can check its type in
the Attribute manager. You can also set the node’s data type in the Attribute manager; this denes
what type of data the node handles, such as integers or strings.
You can reassign an Object, Material or Tag node to a different object, material or tag. Simply drag
and drop the object, material or tag onto the inner part of the node (i.e. into the area where the port
names usually appear). The original ports will be preserved if still appropriate for the new object,
material or tag. Ports that cannot be preserved will be set to the ‘undened’ status.
Each XPresso node is described later in this chapter.