Introduction
Usage
History
Installation

Quantize is a LightWave ® Modeler plugin that quantizes an object's points to a specified resolution.

It's a more modern version of the built-in LightWave ® plugin with the same name. The difference between them is that our plugin is an interactive tool, therefore you can see the results in real-time, while adjusting parameters in the control panel. Moreover, it contains several new parameters: Offset X, Y and Z.

The plugin operates on selected points. If there are no selected points, then all points in the primary foreground layer will be modified.

This plugin behaves similarly to the built-in LightWave ® modification tools like Move, Rotate or Size and is immediately active.

On the left image you can see the plugin control panel.

If you don't see this after running the plugin you should press the 'n' key to open the Numeric options window.

The Offset X, Y and Z parameters define an offset which is applied to all points before quantizing.

These parameters are unavailable in the built-in LightWave ® Modeler plugin.

Sensible values for these parameters run from 0.0 to Step X, Y and Z. Values outside this range will be internally truncated. f.e. if step is 1.0 and offset is 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, they will have exactly the same effect as 1.0.

Step X, Y and Z parameters define the resolution of a grid to which the point's positions will be 'snapped'. f.e. if step is 1.0 and a point is between 0.0 and 0.5 (without) the new position will be 0.0. if a point is between 0.5 and 1.0 the new position will be 1.0.

Grid turns on and off displaying grid and control handles which can be moved by mouse. By dragging outside corners of grid Step X, Step Y or Step Z can by modified. Center handle changes Offset X, Offset Y and Offset Z position. Introduced in version 2.0.

Download Quantize v2.0 for Windows (26509 bytes).

Download Quantize v2.0 for Macintosh (3608 bytes).

Changes made in the 2.0b (13-Apr-2004)

  • The first Macintosh release.

Changes made in the 2.0 (09-Apr-2004)

  • The major rewrite of the user interface code.
  • Added Grid option and control handles.

Changes made in the 1.0 (30-Nov-2003)

  • The first Windows release.

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.