9.5.2

EDIT MENU • 157
6. Edit Menu
The Edit menu contains some of the most frequently used commands in CINEMA 4D such as Undo
and Redo; hence, you’ll nd these commands on most of the local Edit menus. Besides giving details
of these commands, this chapter also explains the signicance of the internal buffers and the drawing
pipeline. Understanding how these features work will help you to avoid and/or solve various issues.
The undo buffer
Some functions, such as Save, are not recorded in the undo buffer and subsequently cannot
be undone.
CINEMA 4D’s multiple undo enables you to undo up to as many changes as RAM permits. The
maximum number of undos is dened by the Undo Depth on the Document page of the preferences
— the default value is 10.
CINEMA 4D differentiates between memory-intensive actions and non-memory-intensive actions.
Examples of memory-intensive actions include deleting an object and moving an object’s points. Non-
memory-intensive actions include selecting and renaming objects. Non-memory-intensive actions
can be recalled 10 times more than the Undo Depth value in the preferences. For example, with Undo
Depth set to 12, you can undo 12 delete object actions or 120 select object actions. You can also mix
both types of action, e.g. you can undo 6 delete object actions and 60 select object actions.
When you perform an action in CINEMA 4D, information about that action is written to an area of
memory called the undo buffer. The Undo and Redo functions use the information in the undo buffer
to undo changes.
Example
 You create an object and change its scale to (400/400/400) units. You move
the object to coordinates (100/-300/0).
 At this point, the undo buffer contain the following action history:
- 1. Create object at position (0/0/0).
- 2. Scale object to (400/400/400) units.
- 3. Move object to position (100/–300/0).
 The buffer’s current state is step 3, the move action. If you use the Undo
function, CINEMA 4D undoes the current state (move) then sets the current
state to step 2 (scale).
 If you use the Undo function again, the scale action is undone and the current
state is set to step 1 (create).