Introduction
Usage
History
Requirements
Installation

Bezier plugin introduces new kind of curves to the entire system: Bezier and B-Spline. If you're 3rd party developer that write Modeler tools please contact us to discuss about implementing Bezier curves support in your software, so user will be able to use both Catmull-Rom and Bezier at the same time!

Unlike LightWave's Bezier tool, TrueArt's Bezier is in its original form the all time. LightWave's Bezier is converted to currently the only supported by LightWave curve - Catmull-Rom curve as soon as you drop interactive tool.

Bezier and B-Spline give you much smoother curves in much smaller number of points than Catmull-Rom curves.

Click on the image to see it at full resolution.

Plugin installs in your LightWave yet another Polygon Handler class, therefore it behaves like any other built-in or 3rd party polygon: you can select it, copy, paste, delete, translate, rotate, scale, add or remove points etc. etc.

You can make Bezier by making 4 points with Points interactive tool or selecting existing points on your mesh and pressing Make Bezier.

If you want to create B-Spline (group of connected Bezier splines) you need to make or select more or less than 4 points and use Make Bezier.

After that operation you've Bezier or B-Spline curve that you can modify by any tool.

When you're done making group of such curves in f.e. spline cage, you will need tool that understand directly TrueArt's Bezier such as EasySpline, or use newly introduced in Bezier v1.5 interactive tool Freeze Bezier to convert them to LightWave's native Catmull-Rom curves.

This tool will create only intermediate points utilizing first and last points from original Bezier therefore you can have EasySpline active in Bezier mode, then use Freeze Bezier and immediately see result and even use Segments slider to adjust freezing resolution with real-time feed-back from EasySpline!

It's advised to freeze Bezier curves to new layer, leaving original curves in another layer.

If you want to combine spline patches with both Catmull-Rom splines and Bezier splines, you are welcome! Just select desired Bezier spline(s) right before activating Freeze Bezier and only selected will be frozen.

Download Bezier v1.7 for Windows 32 bit (81378 bytes).

Download Bezier v1.7 for Windows 64 bit (67559 bytes).

Download Bezier v1.6 for Macintosh UB (168370 bytes).

Changes made in the 1.7 (16-Jan-2011)

  • Added freezing mode Poly Chain.
  • Added freezing mode Hair Guide.

Changes made in the 1.6 (16-Aug-2010)

  • Fixed working in LightWave v9.6.

Changes made in the 1.5 (19-Jun-2006)

  • Added Freeze Bezier interactive tool.
  • The first official Macintosh release. Compilation without changes done 17-Jul-2006.

Changes made in the 1.0 (18-Mar-2006)

  • The first official Windows release.

Minimum Windows Requirements

  • LightWave v9.6+
  • Pentium or better
  • Windows 32 bit

Recommended Windows Requirements

  • LightWave v9.6+
  • x86 compatible CPU 2.0 GHz or better

Minimum Macintosh Requirements

  • LightWave v9.6+
  • PowerPC or better
  • MacOS X

Recommended Macintosh Requirements

  • LightWave v9.6+
  • x86 compatible CPU 2.0 GHz or better

Installing the product

In order to install the program, please extract the archive to some location on your hard disk.

On Windows ®, the archive is in the ZIP format. You will need 3rd party software such as WinZIP, which you can download from http://www.winzip.com (it's not included in the package), or other compatible software to decompress the archive.

Windows XP ® has built-in ZIP support (simply right click on the archive�s icon, and choose �Extract all files...�).

On Macintosh ®, the archive is in the SIT format. You will need 3rd party software such as StuffIt, which you can download from http://www.stuffit.com (it's not included in the package), or compatible software to decompress the archive.

The LightWave ® plugin does not require files to be in specific locations, which is a very nice feature. But for easier file management it is recommended that the plugin files (i.e. those with .p extension) be copied to your LightWave ® plugins folder (f.e. LightWave\Plugins\).

Installing LightWave ® Modeler Plugins

Run the LightWave ® Modeler executable. Select pop-down menu Modeler > Utilities > Add Plugins..., then choose the folder containing the new plugins and select them. You should see a message from LightWave that the plugins have been added successfully. The changes will be saved to your configuration file when you quit the program.

Click on the image to see it at full resolution.

Uninstalling the product

Uninstalling LightWave ® Modeler Plugins

Run the LightWave ® Modeler executable. Select pop-down menu Modeler > Utilities > Edit Plugins..., then select the plugin files and press the Delete button. The changes will be saved to your configuration file when you quit the program. Now you can safely remove the files from your hard disk.

Click on the image to see it at full resolution.