9.5.2

750 • CHAPTER 17
OBJECT MANAGER • 751
Many commands can be reached in the Object manager, using the context menu. To access the context
menu, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) an element such as a type icon, a tag or a
visibility dot. The commands shown will depend on the type of element from which you selected the
menu.
When you select a command in the Object manager, it is applied to the selected object or objects.
Drag-and-drop
Drag-and-drop is the technique of clicking on an object, holding down the mouse button and dragging
the object to another position; when the target location is reached, you release the mouse button and
the object will be dropped there. Depending on the target location, this may have different results.
Rearranging objects
There are many ways to re-arrange objects in the Object manager and these are described below.
The icon on the left shows how the mouse pointer changes while doing the action described on the
right.
Drag an object between two others or to the end of the list.
If you want drag to create a copy, use Ctrl-drag.
To change the object hierarchy, drag the object on top of an existing one in the list. This
makes the dragged object a child of the other.
If you want to create a copy and make it a child of another object, use Ctrl-drag and move
the mouse pointer over an object.
You can also drag-and-drop tags. To transfer a tag from one object to another, drag the
tag icon on to the line of the other object.
If you want to create a copy, use Ctrl-drag.
If an operation is not available, this icon appears.
You can select multiple tags and move them all at the same time. However, note that for some tag
types, only one tag may be used per object. For example, an object may have one Phong tag only.
These tags are known as ‘lone’ tags. A lone tag will not be moved or copied if a tag of the same type
exists for the destination object.
Each object in CINEMA 4D, such as Polygon object or Spline object, has a set of properties. To access
an object’s settings, select the object and its parameters will be shown in the Attribute manager. These
settings are described in Chapter 7, ‘Objects Menu’.