Importing Mathematica files to Cinema 4D
1. Create your solid in Mathematica.
a. Figure 1 below shows an example of the code.
b. Label your plot. For example in Figure 1, “n = RegionPlot3D…”
2. Type “Export[“Graphics3D.wrl”, n]”. You can choose your own title instead of Graphics3D. This is illustrated in Figure 2.
a. Experience has taught us that Cinema 4D does not read .stl files from Mathematica particularly well. Instead we’ve found .wrl files work.
3. The object will be saved as “Graphics3D.wrl” on your computer.
4. Click “open file directory”, as seen in Figure 2. This will open the folder where your object file is saved. From here you can move it to your desired folder.
Figure 1
Figure 2
5. In Cinema 4D, click “File → Open (or Merge, if you already have your equations ready see “How to Put Equations on 3D Solids” for this) → Select” your .wrl file.
6. Delete all of the “lights” (bright lines at the origin). You can do this one of two ways:
a. Click on each light individually and press “Delete”.
b. In the drop down menu for your object, pull the “Polygon” down until you see a left hand arrow, then delete the “Axis” and all the “Light” parts inside of it.
7. Check the normal vectors to the surface.
a. First clicking your object, then by clicking on the “make editable” button (on top left of screen with the two spheres and arrows).
b. Next, click “Live Selection” (cursor with orange ring around it) and select some polygons on your object. They should be yellow. (If they are blue, your object is inside out.)
c. You can add arrows to the normal vectors by looking just above the viewport and clicking “Options → Normals”.
8. If your normal vectors are not facing the correct direction do the following:
a. Select the solid.
b. Click “Polygons” on the left hand side of your screen.
c. Then click “Select → Select All”.
d. Click “Mesh → Normals → Align Normals”.
Ryan McDonnell (’17), Emily Jaekle (’16)
Prof Elizabeth Denne
Washington & Lee University