reference materialUsing Config Settings to Improve Lightwave Productivity Over the Network
by Ben Bumgarner
Intro - Why don't these simple little settings just stick?
Are you tired of loading up lightwave just to find out that the time you spent setting menus and displays options that gave you three hours of super productivity the night before was all a waste? For most of you this is nothing new and has been a repeating cycle of hell for several years. I can now say that if you repent it can all end! No more opening up lightwave to same dull mundane interface that everyone is used to! No more missing plugins! Now it can be your interface! With all the tabs and buttons, you ever wanted!
Quick Brief - One step closer to Heaven.
Because of the way networks are setup and permission to network is given you by law are a peon, simpilton, or just a mere student. What does this mean you ask? This means that changes that you make to lightwave are by default forgotten because you are not an Administrator. So that bit of information right their friend leaves you in a pickle. But thanks to a Siggraph trip and the help of a one Josh Albers I learned a little trick. So let's start cutting the fat off that five minutes a day setup time that you spend making lightwave the way you want it, and start getting productive.
Step 1 - Finding that darn config directory.
The first thing you have to do for this to work is find where lightwave saves all those helpful user settings at. By default the downtown animation lab saves its config directories inside the lightwave program directory [C:\LightWave\75Configs] (1A)


1A - Lightwave Config Directory

1B - Create a folder named LWConfig in your node
After finding these files you want to open up your node and create a folder to save these files to. Name this folder LWConfig (1B)

1C - Copy the config files into the folder created
Now copy all of those config files into the folder like so. You will notice that I have a couple more files than what you will start with. Those are from other settings like motion mixer that are not saved unless you use them. Once you have established a place to save your config files on your node and copied them over move on to Step 2.
Step 2 - Letting Lightwave know where to look.
For this step you are going to want to copy the shortcut files that start up modeler and layout. You can do this from the actual directory or a quick way that I use is to go the start menu then go to the Animation folder then right click opening the explore button. I click on it then copy the shortcuts. (2A) Second open up your node and paste those shortcuts in the root directory like so. (2B) Now that you have establish your shortcuts this is were you must launch modeler and layout from if you want to keep your settings. You will understand this shortly.

2A - Reveal shortcuts through explorer


2B - Copy the shortcuts into your root folder
In your node right click on the layout shortcut and select properties, you should see the following. (2C) What we are focusing on is the Target Directory (-cC:\LightWave\75Configs) This is what tells lightwave where to look for the config files. What you are going to do is tell lightwave to look onto your node and always pull your Target: settings from your node when loading lightwave. First select and highlight -cC:\LightWave\75Configs and delete it. Enter the following -c\\YourNode\YourDirectory\LWConfig like (2D) You will do the exact same thing for modeler too. Once you have established your config directory everything should work like a charm.


2C - Default Target Directory

2D - What your Target directory should look like
Step 3 - Testing to see if this tutorial was a total waste of your time

Now I'm going to show you a quick way to test if everything is working properly. Double click on your new LAYOUT shortcut in your node. Lightwave should open up. Hit the d key to open your display properties. (3A)

You should see the following. Now we are going to do a couple simple changes that are very helpful in speeding up productivity in lightwave. Like boosting the max OpenGL lights and boosting the OpenGl Textures size. If you look at (3B) you will see some good things to change. What you change is really up to you. Once you have set your display preferences close layout and then open it right back up. If everything worked as plan your settings should have stayed the same. If not don't fret. It hardly ever works the first time. Just start from step one and carefully make sure everything is named correctly. Even the smallest letter mistake can cause this not to work.


3A - Default Display Properties

3B - A Good Default Display Setting for LAYOUT
Step 4 - Enjoying your new found productivity

All your precious little settings should now come up every time you load lightwave. Below is an example of things you can do in modeler. (4A) I have rename the main toolbar to more fit a vocabulary that I'm comfortable with. You can now load more plugins and add tools to bars that are not standard such as the magic bevel tool. There really is no limit to what you can do. The only limitation with this trick is window placement. The main reason your windows don't stay in the same place when lightwave is loaded is because that is dictated by the video card, not lightwave. Maybe if we are lucky someone will write a tutorial for it.



4A - Mold? Modify? What is he thinking?
   
   
   
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