How Do I Transfer Custom Layouts, Databases, and Plugins From One Cinema 4D Version To Another?

There are a lot of things you may want to transfer from version to version that are time consuming to re-make every time you switch Cinema 4D versions.  Because of this, we've made it as easy as possible to transfer all of this custom content from version to version!

There are different techniques for each type of thing you want to transfer so here's how to transfer your content from version to version, by type of content:

Layouts

While using Cinema 4D, you may want to modify the layouts you use to personalize your experience.  You may even have used Cinema 4D's "Save as Startup Layout" feature so that you can use the custom layout without having to switch layouts at all.

To transfer your custom layouts to a new version, just go to Window > Customization> Save Layout As and save the layout file to your desktop, or whichever folder you'd like to save it in.

You can then choose "Load Layout" in the new Cinema 4D release to load that Layout into the new version.  Once you've done this, you can also choose "Save As Startup Layout" as well so you don't have to switch layouts after launching Cinema 4D.

Databases

If you have custom assets saved to a local Asset Browser on your machine, you can simply load these same assets into new versions of Cinema 4D.  Depending on the version you're using, there are two ways to do this:

S26 and higher:  Open the Asset Browser and from the Database menu, choose "Connect Database"

S24 and R25:  Go into the Asset Browser and from the Create Menu choose "Mount Database"

Then choose the folder where your assets are located, and click "Select Folder".  Once complete the database should be loaded.

Plugins

Much like custom assets, you can load plugins into Cinema 4D quite easily just by pointing Cinema 4D at the plugins folder you used before.

Just go to Edit > Preferences, and go to the Plugins section.  In here, click "Add Folder" and then find your Cinema 4D plugins folder and choose OK.  Once you close and re-open Cinema 4D, all of your plugins should load back in!

Important notes in regard to plugins:

• This will NOT work if you manually create a "plugins" folder in your *Cinema 4D installation folder and add it to your plugin search path:
  *C:\Program Files\Maxon Cinema 4D 20** (Windows)
  *Applications/Maxon Cinema 4D 20** (Mac)
  
  
• Many plugins will need to be updated to work with new versions of Cinema 4D, so even though you've done this properly, it may not work for all plugins.  If it's not working, try contacting the plugin developer and see if the plugin is compatible with the release of Cinema 4D you're trying to upgrade to.