Layout Object Replacement

    Object replacement can be useful in situations where it's not possible to get the effect you want just by moving points around.  LightWave doesn't let you morph objects with different numbers of points, so if you need something to, for example, break apart, you have to make all the pieces individually and then set them back up in Layout.  However, it's even conceivable to use this in character animation. However, the object replacement plug-ins that come with LightWave are less than ideal.  You either are stuck with a fixed object sequence that you can't change (forcing you to possibly duplicate objects for the effect you want), or a text file that you have to edit and re-load every time you want to make a change.  The RealiTools Object Replacement plug-in lets you parent the object replacement to an object, so if you want to make a change, you just change the motion of that object.
    The first control, Control Object, lets you choose an object in the scene that you want to keep track of.  This one will control the plug-in.  Usually, it's a NullObject, but you can use any object you want.  Next is the Control Axis.  This lets you choose which axis of motion you want to control the plug-in.  That is, the plug-in only cares how much you move the object on this axis.  So, if you choose the Y axis, you can move the object wherever you want on the X axis without making a bit of difference.
    The Path is the base path for the files, the directory they're stored in.  The Prefix is the part of the name before the numbers.  Say your objects are named obj001.lwo, obj002.lwo, obj003.lwo, etc.  The Prefix would then be obj.  The Suffix, likewise, is the part after the number.  This is, by default, .lwo, but you can change it if you want.  Sequence Digits is the number of numbers in the filename (how about that!).  In the example above, this would be 3.
    Finally, Loop Start and Loop End let you loop through the objects instead of just blindly getting the numbers and tacking them on.  Say you only had three objects, numbered 001, 002, and 003.  You wouldn't want to have the plug-in try to load an object numbered 000, because it simply doesn't exist.  (Note that there's no harm in it, the plug-in will just not make any changes if it can't find the file.)  By setting Loop Start to 1 and Loop End to 3, you can ensure that no matter where you move your control object, you'll get something within that range.
    As the control object moves along the axis you choose, the plug-in will replace the object with the plug-in applied based on where that control object is.  So, if the control object is at 15 units, the plug-in would load obj015.lwo.  However, if you set the Loop Start to something other than 0, the plug-in will always add that to the number it chooses.  Thus, if the control object was at 15 units and Loop Start was at 5, the plug-in would try to load obj020.lwo.  One thing that's important to note is that LightWave seems to have a bit of a lag in the position it reports from the control object.  So, if you find that you get an object that's one less than what you set the control object to, try bumping it slightly up, i.e. 10.1 instead of exactly 10.