Important Note

Despite the fact that the configuration files are very much simpler in version 4, I fully realise that messing around with config files is not everyone's idea of fun. If you're having trouble with this aspect of Zip-It, please call or email me for help - I'd much rather spend a few minutes getting you set up than have you unable to use the plug-in. You'll find contact info on the User Tab.

Installing Zip-It 4

Copy Zip-It4.p to your LightWave plug-ins folder. Copy the setup.bat file to your LightWave configs folder (or to your folder in "Documents And Settings") and double-click. This will add to (or create) the LWUser.cfg file that contains the external plug-in data specifications. You should delete the batch file once this is done. Finally, add the plug-in in layout.

You might want to add a Zip-It entry to your menu - I put it where "Content Manager" used to be... ;)

Upgrading from Zip-It 3

Simply copy the plug-in (Zip-It4.p) to your LightWave plug-ins folder and Add the plug-in in Layout. Zip-It 4 is backward-compatible with Zip-It 3 config files and your licence key remains the same - just rename it as, or copy it to, Zip-It4.lic

Using Zip-It 4

By default, Zip-It saves the current scene, objects, images and external files to the root of your C: drive. The Options Panel lets you specify the output directory and how to handle image sequences.

You can save time and space with the new Quick-Zip function that saves only those files that have recently changed. So, if you take a job home to work on over the weekend, set 2 days as the time limit in Zip-It Options and Quick-Zip your scene.

If image sequence handling has not been set in the options panel and Zip-It finds an image sequence, it pops up a requester asking if you wish to save the full sequence, only the part of a sequence used in the scene, or only the first image in the sequence. Note that it determines the extent of the sequence by looking at the range of frames in Layout's Render Options panel. Additionally, it will save only every nth frame, as determined by LightWave's Render Frame Step setting.

How It Works

Unlike Zip-It 3 which required a complex system of tokens to help it parse scene files, Zip-It 4 requires only a list of file extensions and the name of the type of data:

Change History:

Future Plans:

Currently, Zip-It issues a warning message if it is unable to locate a file. It would probably be better if it offered the user a chance to locate the file at the time. Of course, having been warned of the problem, you could add it manually.