Overview
Crate packages a Cinema 4D scene with every external asset it depends on into a
clean, portable folder or zip. It scans your scene, checks every asset on disk,
helps you relink anything missing, and then archives the whole thing so it opens
clean on any other machine.
It replaces the native "Save Project with Assets" workflow, which fails silently
when an asset is missing or relinks wrong. Crate always shows you what is missing
before it packages anything, and it uses Cinema 4D's own collect engine under the
hood, so even native database assets come across perfectly.
Requirements / Compatibility
Cinema 4D 2023 through 2026, Mac or Windows.
A Greyscalegorilla or Everything Bundle subscription.
No extra dependencies. Everything runs inside your live Cinema 4D session.
Installation
Plugins are installed via Cargo from the Tool page.
What you need:
A Greyscalegorilla or Everything Bundle subscription.
Cargo installed. Grab it at greyscalegorilla.com/cargo and sign in with your
Greyscalegorilla account.Cinema 4D 2023 through 2026.
Steps:
Open Cargo and close Cinema 4D if it is running.
Click the Connector icon in the lower-left of Cargo, choose Connect Software,
pick Cinema 4D, then select your version.Click Install Connector, then open Cinema 4D once to activate your license. If
you already use the Connector to send assets, skip this, the same Connector
handles tools.Back in Cargo, go to the Tool page and click Install on this tool.
Restart Cinema 4D. The tool is ready.
Updating: when a new version is out, an Update button appears on the tool card in
Cargo. Click it, then restart Cinema 4D.
Quick Start
Open the scene you want to archive.
Run Crate from the menu. Crate opens and scans
your scene automatically.Look at the asset list. Green checks are found, red flags are missing.
If anything is missing, click Search Folder for Missing, pick a folder to
search, and Crate relinks what it can find.Pick a Destination folder, choose Folder or Zip, and click
Archive.When it finishes, click Show Location to reveal the archive in your file
browser.
That is the whole flow. Everything below is detail on each step.
Feature Walkthroughs
Scanning your scene
Crate scans the moment it opens, so the asset list is there without pressing
anything. The Scan button is a manual refresh if you change the scene while
Crate is open.
The scan lists every external asset your scene references: textures, HDRIs,
Redshift proxies, Alembic and FBX caches, XRefs, and Maxon Asset Browser content.
Proxies and XRefs are followed, so assets they reference are pulled in too. Your
scene's own .c4d file is never listed as an asset.
If your scene has no external assets at all, Crate says so plainly. That is a
normal result for an all-procedural scene, and you can still archive it. If a
scan hits an error, Crate names the reason and puts the details in the console
rather than leaving you with an empty list.
Relinking missing assets
If any asset is missing, its row shows a red flag with the original path. To fix
it:
Search Folder for Missing searches a folder you choose, recursively, and
relinks every missing asset it can match by filename. File size is used as a
tiebreaker so a generic name like diffuse.jpg does not relink to the wrong
file.Relink Selected does the same for just the rows you select first. Use this
when one specific asset lives somewhere the blanket search did not cover.
When a filename matches more than one file, Crate does not guess silently.
Instead it offers a Best Guess: it picks the copy whose folder best matches
the original path and prefers full-res over preview or thumbnail copies.
Best-guessed assets are flagged Guessed in amber and sorted near the top so
you can review them before archiving.
You can run either relink again with a different folder for anything still
missing. If an asset is still unresolved when you archive, Crate warns you. You
can proceed anyway, and the skipped asset is logged in the manifest, or cancel.
Archiving
Pick a Destination folder and click Archive. Crate builds a clean project
folder with the scene, a standard tex folder holding every asset, and a
markdown manifest.
Under the hood the archive is built by Cinema 4D's own "Save Project with Assets"
engine, which is what makes it truly portable: every stored path is rewritten
relative, and Redshift node-material textures come across correctly. Your open
scene is never touched during this.
Folder vs Zip output
Folder leaves the finished project folder in place at your destination.
Zip compresses that folder into a single .zip and then removes the loose
folder, so the destination is left with nothing but the zip. This is the tidiest
option for a handoff.
Smart grouping
Turn on Smart-group assets by type to sort assets into tidy category
subfolders inside tex instead of a flat pile: Materials (one subfolder per
material), Texture Maps, Lighting, LUTs, Bokeh, XRefs, Caches, and Other.
Greyscalegorilla and Cargo product codes are used to decide category when
present, since the code identifies the type more reliably than the file extension.
Leave it off and everything sits flat in tex.
Image sequences
Image sequences are kept together in their own subfolder rather than dumped flat.
Crate only folds a true render sequence with contiguous frame numbers into one
row. A numbered variant pack with gaps in the numbering (like
studio_hdri_05, _06, _15, _18) stays as individual rows, so a genuinely missing
member can never hide behind a collapsed sequence.
Including a render
Click Include Render to bundle a render deliverable with the archive: a still
image, an mp4, or one frame of an image sequence (Crate pulls in the whole
sequence). Included renders land in a render/ folder and are listed in the
manifest. Clear removes the queued render.
The manifest
Every archive includes a plain-markdown manifest next to the scene. It records
the scene name and original path, Cinema 4D version and date, render settings,
asset counts (found, relinked, skipped), the full original-to-final path map, any
skipped assets flagged clearly, and your own free-text notes. It is your paper
trail if a client ever reports something missing after handoff.
Settings / Parameter Reference
Scene — read-only, shows the current document path.
Scan — manual refresh of the asset list (Crate also scans automatically on
open).Asset list — every external asset, grouped and color-coded: Found (green),
Missing (red), Guessed (amber).Search Folder for Missing — relink all missing assets from a folder you
choose, searched recursively.Relink Selected — relink only the selected rows from a chosen folder.
Notes — optional free text, saved into the manifest.
Destination — the folder the archive is written to.
Archive name — names the output folder (Folder mode) or the zip (Zip mode).
Defaults to the scene name, sanitizes illegal characters, and falls back to the
scene name if left blank. The .c4d inside always keeps its original name.Output — Folder or Zip.
Smart-group assets by type — off by default. Sorts assets into category
subfolders when on.Include Render / Clear — queue or clear a render deliverable to bundle.
Archive — runs the collect and writes the output.
Show Location / Open Manifest — on the completion summary, reveals the
archive or opens its manifest.
Tips
Leave a note in the Notes field for whoever opens the archive, like "render
at frame 120 for the hero shot." It travels in the manifest, no separate email
needed.Use Zip for handoffs so the recipient gets a single tidy file.
Dock the Crate panel and it will follow whichever scene you switch to, so it is
always ready for the scene you are actually in.An all-procedural scene with no external assets is still worth crating: you get
a clean, named project folder and a manifest.
Troubleshooting
Crate says "0 assets" but I know there are textures. Press Scan to
refresh. If the list is genuinely empty, your scene may be all procedural, which
Crate states plainly. If a scan errored, the reason is named in the dialog and
the full details are in the Cinema 4D console (Extensions > Console).An asset stays Missing after searching. Try Relink Selected on that row
with a folder closer to where the file actually lives. If it is still missing,
you can archive anyway and the skipped asset is logged in the manifest.A texture looks missing but the sequence is on disk. Looping or animated
sequences report frames past the real range as missing. Crate treats a sequence
whose frames exist on disk as found and collects the real frames.Something went wrong during archive. Open the Cinema 4D console. Crate logs
every step verbosely, so the reason is almost always right there.