License


Copyright (c) 2020, Mike Green
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Context Highlighter


I don't use LSED for my programming, I use Context which is a language independent programming environment, which you can load up your own language highlighter.  Here's my highlighter for it. It may be missing some commands, I'd be grateful if you point any omissions out to me :)
DownloadContextLscript.zip

Lscript Reference


Here's my lscript reference manual compiled from both the LW reference manual and the release notes, as far as I've got through them.
Lscript
Download Lscript zip

Puppetmaster_Scripts

1 (30/01/08)
For those of us that used Puppetmaster, this couple of plugins allows you to load the puppetmaster segments and convert them to weightmaps, and then set up a bone rig in layout to work with them.
Download MG_Puppetmaster_Scripts.zip

Modeler Scripts



BlurVMaps

0.5 (06/06/08) Uses a more accurate method of blurring.
Blurs selected vmaps.
Download MG_Blur_VMaps_MD.zip

Box by Connected

1.0 (29/08/16)
Converts all connected groups of polygons into boxes in the background layer, for whatever purpose, say LOD.
Download MG_Box_By_Connected_MD.zip


BreakUp

0.71 (03/06/08) Now works with any LW (Prototype)
Breaks your object into bits. Dependent on the LW boolean so might be a little flakey in places, but I've tried to minimise this
Download MGBreakUpMD.zip

BuildWeb

1.1 (10/06/18) 1.1 Added a Minimum distance value
Connects selected points by two point polygons. Useful for building structures for dynamics, like balls that will stay spherical.
Download MG_Build_Web_MD.zip

Convert VMaps

v1.1 27/08/08
This allows you to convert one vmap to another, or choose which values from a vmap you want to use to make another vmap. So for example you can use the Green channel from a colour map and the z channel from a morph map to make a new UV map.
Download MGConvertVmapsMD.zip

Dial Creator

v1 010/02/24
This allows you to select a polygon and create a dial to fit that polygon. It has quite a few options.
Download MG_Dial_Creator_MD.zip

Extend and Bend

v1 07/02/24
This allows you to extrude a polygon out and bend it at the same time. Useful for pipe bends etc
Download MG_Extend_Bend_MD.zip

Images To Planes

v1.8 06/03/2014 Fixed bug in pixels/m
Images To Planes v2.0 26/11/2018 Updated to work with 2018, including Alpha channel support
This takes a selection of images and creates a series of planes with an image on each one. Useful for compositing etc. You also have the option to make a caption for the image as a 3d object, and select a suffix which will match images with their alpha for the transparency channel.
Download MGImagesToPlanesMD.zip
Download MGImagesToPlanesMD_2018.zip

Inverse Bridge

v1.1 (18/02/08) Fixed a bug for certain arrangements of polygons.Thanks to Exception for the report.
This works like bridge, but inverted. So you select a loop, or string of polygons and it will replace them with two polygon caps. This is useful for creating floors in buildings etc.
Download MGInverseBridgeMD.zip

Invert Weightmaps


This will allow you to select and invert weightmaps either around 0 or 50% with an option to invert points which have no value in the map.
Download MGInvertmaps.zip

Julienne 3d

4/06/2014 v1
This will allow you to slice your selected polys along 3 axes interactively. Download MG_Julienne_3D_MD.zip

JulienneRT

18/10/2009 V1.3 Fixed Division by zero bug.
This will allow you to slice your selected polys along one axis interactively. Download MGJulienneRT.zip

Lathe Axis


This allows you to lathe around an arbitary axis as defined by two selected points.
Download(8 only) MGLatheAxis.zip
Download(9 only) MG_Lathe_Axis_MD.zip

LatticeSplitPolygons


This allows you to split selected 4 sided polys into grids.
Download MGLatticeSplitPolygons.zip
LW8 : MGLatticeSplitPolygons85.zip

Multi Rail Clone

v1.0 (28/08/16)
Clones the foreground layer along ALL the background curves.
Download MG_Multi_Rail_Clone_MD.zip

Objects_To_Object

v0.3 (06/02/22)
Loads the objects from a selected directory into one object.
Download MG_Objects_To_Object_MD.zip

Paste In Lowest_Layer

v1.0 (10/02/22)
Cuts the selected polygons from the current layer and pastes them into the lowest layer, or a background layer if one is selected and leaves the current layer selected.
Download MG_Paste_In_Lowest_Layer_MD.zip

Paste_In_Lowest_Layer

Radial_Array_Packed 05/12/09 Added Fibonacci cloning


This clones an item into a radial array. I wrote this as a way to make sunflower heads, which are packed with seeds.
Download MG_Radial_Array_Packed_MD.zip

Random Select


This will allow you to select points/polys by a percentage.
Download MG_Random_Select_MD.zip

Reorder Polygons

v1 (07/02/2024)
This plugin allows you to select one or more polygons and then it reorders the whole mesh connected to them outwards from each polygon.
Download MG_Reorder_polygons_MD.zip

Scatter


This scatters connected groups of polys according to the settings.
Download MG_Scatter_MD.zip

Set Dimensions


This will allow you to resize selected items to a specific size, or scale them uniformly by a particular dimension.
Download MGSetDimensions.zip

Select Polygons By Size


This will allow you to select polys either by x/y/z size or by radius.
Download MGSelectPolygonsBySize.zip

SharpSmooth


Designed as a replacement for LW's curve smooth command, (ctrl-s) this will
a) if you have curves selected, smooth those curves as normal.
b) if you have points on curves selected, will split/or unsmooth those curves at those points.
Basically it acts as a toggle between a sharp and a smooth corner on a point.
DownloadMGSharpSmooth.zip

SmoothAssist v1.2 (new method)


For all you smooth shift modelers out there. When you smooth shift 0m and then drag points about, this will clean up after you. If you merge after smooth shifting, you can end up with 2 point polys around the polys you've smooth shifted, but whose points you haven't moved. This selects them all and removes them, leaving you free to continue modeling.
Download MGSmoothAssist.zip

Split by Seams

v1.1 Now no requester.Yay!
This will split the selected points along UV seams, allowing you to perform operations on discontinuous UVs .
Download MGSplitBySeams.zip

Subpatch Cylinder


This plugin makes 8 sided cylinders with quad poly ends in real time suitable for turning into subpatched cylinders.
Download MGSubpatchCylinder.zip

Ultimate Clone

v1.3 02/01/10(Fixed random rotation bug)
This allows you to clone multiple background objects across the points or polys of a mesh. You can have random sizes, rotations, align the clones to axes or the poly/point normals, or just clone to a percentage of the mesh. It's trying to do what all the other clone plugins do, hence the ultimate name.
Download MGUltimateCloneMD.zip

UV Quantize


This performs a quantize function, like LW's own, on your UVs.
Download MGUVQuantize.zip

UV Normalise

V1.0 (29/08/16)
This normalises your UVs, scaling them so they range between 0 and 1 in UV space. It works on selected points, but you'll probably need to unweld them as Modeler doesn't distinguish between selected discontinuous points and unselected discontinuous points.
Download MGUVNormalise.zip

UV Relax

v1.3 Now no requester!
This smooths out overlapping UVs which you might get when you UV map an ear for example.
Download MGUVRelax.zip

Voronoi_Shatter

2/11/10
This breaks an object up according to the Voronoi method. It uses Lightwave's own boolean function to do the breaking, and thus becomes more likely to create bad geometry the more pieces an object is broken into. User beware!
Download MG_Voronoi_Shatter_MD.zip

WizzyWig

V2
This generates Hair guides for FFX. You can grow multiple areas of hair, have the splines for the hair in the forground, and polygons which share the spline's Surface or Part in the background. Hair will sprout from the polygons and follow their respective splines
Download MGWizzyWig.zip
Download MG_Wizzy_Wig2_MD.zip

Layout Scripts

Generic

Bake_Selected_Instancers

V1
This allows you to select items with instancers applied to them, for example nulls, and clone the instanced meshes to their positions in the instancer. Useful if you need to replace instances with actual meshes. It parents the new clones to the item they were instanced by. Some limitations: Due to a limitation in the SDK it only copies in Local mode (ie the mode which doesn't use the instanced objects position/rotation/scale) and it only does it for the current frame.
Download MG_bake_selected_instancers_GN.zip

Save with Suffix

V1
This allows you to save all objects in a scene with an additional suffix
Download MG_Save_With_Suffix_GN.zip

Copy Paste Keys

V1
This allows you to select an object and copy a section of it's keys to a selection of objects.
Download MGCopyPasteKeys.zip

Clone Item to Items

V1
This allows you to select an object and copy it to the position and rotations of a selection of objects.
Download MGCloneItemtoItems.zip

Dissolve Version

1
These set the selected objects to 100% or 0% dissolved, and if they have an envelope on them, it will create a key for it at the current time, using the key type (TCB, Linear, Stepped etc) that the first key on the channel has.
Download MG_Dissolve_GN.zip

LightMesh

V1
This allows you to convert an object with a colour Vmap into an array of coloured lights at it's vertices.
Download MGLightMeshGN.zip

MakeIKBGoal

V1 26/Sep/07
This creates a goal item at the position of the first item, parented to the second item selected. This way you can move your IKB hand to your IKB head and pin it there easily.
Download MGMakeIKBGoalGN.zip

MirrorHierarchy

V1.1 30/Sep/07
This can be used instead of LW's own slightly faulty MirrorHierarchy command.
Download MGMirrorHierarchyGN.zip

MotionMixerControl

V1 (for 9.2+ only)
This allows you to turn off/on MotionMixer plugins for a selection of items and their children, so it can beused alongside IKB
Download MGMotionMixerControlGN.zip

PreviewRangeToggle

v1 26/Sep/07
Assigned to a hotkey, this will flick the preview range between the render range, and 100 frames either side of the current frameslider position, allowing you to switch between an overview of your animation, and a working area.
Download MGPreviewRangeToggle.zip

Renamer

21/04/08 Fixes bugs and now if one object is selected, renamer will work on it and its children.
This allows you to rename multiple items. Find/replace, numeric increments and other forms of renaming are supported.
Download MGRenamer.zip

ReplaceImages


This allows you to replace images en masse in your scene. For example, you might want to replace all psds with tgas, or replace all images with images of the same name from another directory.
Download MGReplaceImagesGN.zip

Save Transformed

(05/06/08)
With the Save transformed script, you can select items in a scene and save them in their current positions/deformations. It comes with a second script which allows you to load a lot of meshes from a directory into one obect. With the two scripts together, you can compile a scene into one object.
Download MG_Save_Transformed.zip

Select Children/Recursive


With these you can select children of selected objects or recursively select all it's descendants.
Download MGSelectChildren.zip

SewCoincidentPoints

LW9.2 only
With this you can greatly speed up sewing set up by selecting all your items to be sewn, and using this. If the seams have coincident points (points in the same place) then they will be sewn together. It saves a clothfx SETTINGS file for each object, which can then be loaded for each item using the Load button. You can greatly speed up processing by making a selection set vmap of the points to be sewn.
Download MGSewCoincidentPointsGN.zip

Subpatch


Assign these three to a hot key each and switch between 1/2/3 levels of subdivivision more easily.
Download MGSubpatch.zip

Update bones

(13/12/09)v1.8 Now optionally moves IK goals to their IK chains.
This modifies the current skeleton in an object so that it's position/rotation/scale matches that of the skelegons in the object. So if you've added motion modifiers and set up IK on your skeleton you can go back into Modeler and change the Skelegons position in there and update Layout to match. It will optionally add in new skelegons, or remove ones not belonging to the Skelegons, reparenting their children if neccesary. The brand new version also switches on and off motion modifiers while working, so should avoid any screw ups with them, but channel modifiers aren't affectable in this way, so try not to use them unless they won't affect your bones in the rest pose.
Download MGUpdateBonesGN.zip(9.2 or above)
Download MGUpdateBone.zip(9 or earlier)

Update Configs

(13/03/20)v1
This copies your config files but changes their filenames to a new version number and saves them to a new subdirectory so you don't have to do everything from scratch.
Download MG_Update_Configs_GN.zip

Visibilty


These allow you to hot key the visibilty of your selected objects between invisible, bounding box,frontface wireframe, polygons and textured.
Download MGVisibility.zip

Master

LayersMC

v2.6
v3.2 (19/01/10) fixes minor bug when clearing layout items from the scene
This adds layers functionality to LW. You can group items one of 3 ways, as a Display layer, Render layer or Selection layer. Display layers allow you to hide or view your group in different ways, or lock them from selection. Render layers allow you to set the render flags (Visible by camera/rays, or shadow options) for the group. Selection layers are just selection sets which WORK with load from scene.
You also now have the ability to assign hotkeys to all the items of a certain type in a certain layer. You could for example group all your characters fingers in a Selection layer, then when the panel is active you hit the hotkey to select those fingers. I assign '8' to the MGOpenLayersGN command so I can just hit 8 to select the layers panel, and then hit the hotkey of the layer that I want to select.
Note: If you're using a version of lw before 9.6 use the legacy LayersMC as NT recently fixed item referencing(Maybe from 9.5 too) and the latest version cleans up the hack which tried to work around the problem, but doesn't load items lists generated by the hack version
Download MGLayersMC.zip
Download MGLayersMCLegacy.zip (For use with older scenes which used layersMC previously)

MotionCapture

V1
This adds a little motion capture control to Lightwave. You choose the tool (move, rotate etc) you want to capture and press go. The plugin will then countdown and start playing in Layout so you can animate your item and then it will stop on the last frame.
Download MGMotionCaptureMC.zip

Animation

AddCollisionNulls


This allows you to selecta group of objects and parent collision spheres to them which are scaled roughly to the objects size and shape. This can be used as a faster though less accurate collision model which you might be able to get away with.
Download MGAddColliisionNulls.zip

Copy Paste Poses


This allows you to copy and paste poses from one object to all selected objects.
Download MGCopyPastePoses.zip

JointSetup


This enables you to toggle on and off various motion and view based attributes to make setting up a character easier. You could do all this in the spreadsheet scene editor, but this collects the settings all in the same place.
Download MGJointSetup.zip

Make Muscle Bone

v1.5(21/07/12) Fixed UI glitch
This enables you to select a bone and a target bone, and applies a muscle motion modifier, so as the target moves towards the first bone, the bone expands around the x and y axis and shrinks on the z-axis, bulging like a muscle.
Download MGMakeMuscleBoneGN.zip
Download MGMakeMuscleBoneLegacy.zip(For use with older scenes which used layersMC previously)

Make Stretchy


This turns all selected items into stretchy items which can be scaled in any axis without affecting the size of their children.
Download MGMakeStretchy.zip
Download MGMakeStretchyLegacy.zip(For use with older scenes which used layersMC previously)

Motion Limiter

v1.1 Now interactive
This limits an object between adjustable intervals on any axis (in parent coordinates) This works interactively if you have motion paths on
Download MGMotionLimiter.zip

Hierarchy to Bones

1/10/2008 Rewrite. Should be more robust, and makes joints separately from influence bones.
This allows you to convert a hierarchy to bones, for example motion capture in the form of nulls to a skeleton animated the same way. Select the hierarchy's parent and off you go. You can scale the hierarchy.
Download MGHierarchyToBones.zip

Parent Follower

V1.1 (fixed small bug in calculation)
This is a quick to apply follower for parent rotations which obeys rotation channel locks and Bone rest positions along with an easy setup script.
Download MGParentFollower.zip

RecordPivotRotation


This does a standard record pivot rotation/reset pivot rotation, but does it for all items selected.
Download MGRecordPivotRotation.zip

ResetGoals


Select a hierarchy for which you wish to reset the IK goals to their IK controlled object's positions and run this.
Download MGResetGoalsGN.zip

SpringyThingy

v 2.81(19/10/07)Fixed bug with start time
This makes an object follow another with proper wibbly inertia. Good for antennae, tails or other wobbly bits.
Download MGSpring.zip
Download MGSpringLegacy.zip(For use with older scenes which used layersMC previously)

Wheel

v1.7 10/03/08(now saves rotation direction)
This makes an object rotate around it's axis the further it moves.
Download MGWheel.zip
Download MGWheelLegacy.zip(For use with older scenes which used layersMC previously)

Import/Export

Import CSV

1/07/18 v1.1 Will now import all values not just the first 3 in the line.
This script imports a text file and applies it to the position of the selected item. Each line of the text file must be of the form
minutes:seconds,X,Y,Z,H,P,B,SX,SY,SZ etc (filling the item's channels as it finds them) ie
10:12.64,2,3,1
Download MG_Import_CSV_Motion_GN.zip

Save and Backup


These two scripts will save backups (with incremental suffixes) of the current lws/lwo to directories called Old in the Scenes and Objects directories respectively, keeping the original name as the current version.
Download MG_Save_And_Backup.zip

MTL Import/Export

V1.6 Added a work around to .obj imported objects
This allows you to load and save MTL files (AliasMaterial files) for use with .obj format. There is also a Maya MTL exporter,which produces mtl files in the same format as Maya, for those programs which only adhere to the Maya format. The original is more flexible, but some programs have problems with this.
Download MGMTLImpExp.zip

Papagayo Importer

v1.3 20/01/10 There's now a Smooth interpolation option and a fade frames setting.
This allows you to select an object with morph targets, and load a .dat file exported from the free lip sync program Papagayo (available from here) It has the option of fading phonemes depending on how close the surrounding phonemes are, much like the human mouth will skip shapes when speaking quickly.
Download MG_Papagayo_Import_GN.zip

Save Selected

v1
This allows you to save only selected objects in layout.
Download MG_Save_Selected_GN.zip

3rd Party

These are plugins which seem to have disappeared from the net, so I've put them up on my page to keep them available. If the originator of them is unhappy with this, just contact me and I'll take them down.

AutoIK

Select the top of your item chain, and the bottom of your item chain, and apply this to add a goal and set the selected channel controllers of your  items to IK.
Download AutoIK.zip

Background conform plus

Just like BGCOnform, but with more control..
Download BackgroundConformPlus.zip

Boolean texture

This can be applied as a clip map to two objects, and by setting the options, you can get an animated boolean on those objects.
Download BooleanTexture.zip

Shift Spline Transform

Like the spline deformation tool for layout, but on steroids.
Download SplineTransform.zip

mn_DrainBGVMap

Allows you to transfer a vmap from a background object to a foreground object irrespective of point count
Download mn_DrainBGVMap.zip

Moho/AnimeStudio Scripts

MotionBaker

This allows you to bake moho/animestudio animations per frame, allowing them to be imported into other packages so the animation to be read correctly.
Download mg_motion_baker.zip

Bone Parent Master

This matches a bone's name in on layer, with a bone of the same name in the parent layer, and makes the parent bone control the child's bone. This is useful where you have a switch layer with a bone layer parent, and you want to animate the bones in the bone layer but still deform the switch layers. Just copy the bones from your parent object to the switch layer, then apply this script in the Embedded script toggle in the Layer properties panel. It will control the length, strength, offset and position/angle/scale of the matching bone.
Download mg_bone_parent_master.zip

Line Width Magnet

23/10/10 Added sensetivity for the resize control
This is like the line width tool, but has a fall off. It is an adapted script from the original by Ramón López
Download mg_line_width_magnet5.zip
Download mg_line_width_magnet6.zip

Magnet

15/09/10
A modification of the FA_Magnet tool which allows you to alter the falloff using the Alt key and dragging.
Download mg_magnet.zip

Dat to Morph Dial

24/05/110
A menu addon for keying the selected bone to the positions of bones named after papagayo phonemes in its exported .dat file. Export the voice dat file from papagayo, select the MorphDials blending bone (the one called "AI;E;...") and choose the script, which will then prompt you for the .dat file. It will then move that bone to the position of each of the phoneme bones and key it.
Download mg_dat_to_morphdial.zip