LW - Plugin Installation

Owned by thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 25 Jun, 2013
2 min read

Installer for Windows

The plugin has an installer wizard so you will not have to manually copy files into LightWave’s "Plugins" folder. The installer auto-detects the path of the installed LightWave 9.6 to 11.5. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are supported.

 

 The wizard auto-detects LightWave installation location (please click on the image for a full-size view).

 

The installer only copies the plugin files into the "Plugins" folder; after that the user has to add it in "Layout" manually with the following steps:

  1. Select the Utilities tab and choose Add Plugins from the menu.
  2. Navigate to LightWave’s "Plugins" folder and select the nextlimit32.p or nextlimit64.p plugin file (depends on the platform).

When the plugin has been added successfully the following message is displayed:

16 plugins have been successfully added.

 


Add the RealFlow plugin in "Layout".


Installer for OS X

Unzip the zip file and load it from Utilities > AddPlugins menu as described above.

 

Master Plugin

The installed RealFlow plugin contains several plugins that appear in different parts of the program. All functionalities are accessible and can be controlled via a master plugin called “Next Limit Plugin Manager”. To add the master plugin select the "Utilities" tab and choose "Master Plugins" from the menu, or hit Ctrl/Cmd + Q. Select the "Next Limit Manager" in the plugin list of the "Master Plugins" window as shown in the following figure.

 


Add the "Master" plugin.

 

To open the GUI, double-click on the "Next Limit Plugin Manager" or right-click and select "Properties". The tab bar shows the available functions from left to right:

  • Particle Import. Imports RealFlow particle BIN or PXY (proxy) sequence with the selected attributes.
  • Particle Export. Exports particles to RealFlow BIN sequence.
  • SD Import. Imports RealFlow SD scene file.
  • SD Export. Exports scene geometry and camera.
  • Mesh Import. Imports RealFlow mesh BIN or MD sequence with the selected attributes.