SaveIncBak

Description

SaveIncBak is a LightWave 3D Modeler plugin that works in a different way than LightWave’s native incremental backup saver.

This plugin was born from a thread on NewTek’s OB forum where Miguel Méndez Menéndez posted this idea how he thought the incremental saver should work in future LightWave versions. I liked the idea as well, and wanted it right away, so I wrote this small little tool to bring that functionality to LightWave now.

While LightWave’s native saver increments the current object with a _vXXX extension for each increment and then syncs the new file with Layout through the hub, this plugin always keep the original filename without any version extension as the most recent version, and stores all backups in it’s own folder, keeping the objects folder free from cluttering up with tons of versions of each object.

Usage

SaveIncBak is a pretty straightforward tool designed to be completely transparent to the user, enabling saving with incremental backups.

SaveIncBak creates a new folder at the location where the LightWave object is saved called objectName_backup. Each time the plugin is executed it moves the last saved version of the current object into the backup folder naming it objectName_v000.lwo where 000 is the current version number, which increments on each save. When the last saved object has been moved into the backup folder the current version in modeler gets saved as the latest original objectName.lwo file.

If you are going to use this tool frequently I’d advice to map the tool to a keyboard shortcut in modeler.

Demonstration Video

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Download

Available downloads for the SaveIncBak tool.

Latest Release

• Version 1.1 - 29 Jun 2008

Older Releases

• Version 1.0 - 27 Jun 2008

Installation

• Copy the JS_SaveIncBak.lsc to LightWave’s plug-in folder.
• If “Autoscan Plugins” is enabled, just restart LightWave and it’s installed.
• Else, locate the “Add Plugins” button in LightWave and add it manually.

Then add the plugin to a button or a keyboard shortcut in Modeler to have it available for usage.

Compability

SaveIncBak has been tested on LightWave 3D 9.x, win32 and win64. As of the latest update (v1.1) it should also work on the Mac platform. If not, please let me know.

Changelog

The development history of SaveIncBak.

Version 1.1 - 29 Jun 2008

• Update to make the plugin work correctly on the Mac platform.
• Shortened the internal name to JS_SaveIncBak.

Version 1.0 - 27 Jun 2008

• Initial release of the plugin.