cplane  

cplane.p is a free Modeler plugin for LightWave 6.x - 9.x  (PC and now Mac OSX)

** Mac OSX version compiled by  Richard Brak **   Thanks, Richard!

c-plane.lsc is a free Modeler LScript for LightWave 7.x    (PC or Mac) 

cplane.p consists of two plugins in one file: cplane create and cplane remove.

cplane create produces a virtual "construction plane" upon which you can build and edit

your geometry using all of LightWave's native tools.  It does so by rotating all geometry in

up to 300 active foreground and background layers (150 of each) so that the normal of the

selected polygon is pointing up the +Y axis.  The geometry is also moved so that the

selected polygon is flush with the y = 0 plane.  When you are finished, cplane remove 

rotates and moves everything back where it was.  New geometry travels along with the old.

Quickstart

1) Install cplane.p in the usual fashion.  I added two buttons to a custom menu:  

You might prefer a left mouse button menu:

2) Select a polygon to serve as a reference for cplane. 

 3) Run cplane create.  Geometry is rotated and moved into position.  Note that the original polygon is still selected.

4) *Important* Hit 'Shift-A' (Fit selected items in views).  This will establish the selected polygon as a 'ground plane' upon which

new geometry will be created.  If you omit this step, geometry may be created above or below the selected poly.  You can always 

zoom back out and change your views after you perform this step.  Now do your creating and editing.

5) Run cplane remove when you're done editing.  Everything moves back.  In this silly example, I put a hole in the rear wing.

Notes

• You can have up to 150 foreground and 150 background layers selected.
• Only geometry that is not 'hidden' will be affected.
• Each layer selected will use up two 'undos' for the 'create' operation and two for the 'remove' operation. Plan accordingly. 
• If you select more than one polygon as reference, cplane will use the last one selected.
• If you don't select any polygons for reference, cplane will pick one (the last one in the list when it scans through them).
• The selected poly must be in one of the foreground layers.
• You can run 'create' many times, but cplane will only 'remove' the last one.

c-plane.lsc operates somewhat differently from c-plane.p.  There is only one plug-in, 

and it has a simple interface:

Click 'Ok" to create the virtual construction plane.  To remove it, run the plugin again.  It 

will detect if there is a 'remove' pending, and the message will change to

"hit 'Ok' to clear c-plane, 'Cancel' to abort, or 'Reset' to allow new c-plane. "

Notes

• The behavior when more than one or zero polygons are selected differs from that described for cplane.p and may be unpredictable.
• Large models may take an extremely long time (minutes) to be rotated and moved.  Hide geometry to speed up the processing.
• The script version of cplane will appear as "ats_c-plane" to distinguish it from cplane.p.

Download  cplane.zip  (76 kb, 6/12/07)      cplaneOSX.p.sit   (26 kb, 1/28/04)

** Mac OSX version compiled by  Richard Brak **   Thanks, Richard!

Cplane is free software, but if you would like to help defray the cost of development and

help to keep free and inexpensive tools for LightWave coming, consider a small donation.

You decide on the amount, if any.  Thanks!

Comments are invited: street@ats-3d.com