How to automatically truncate the length of a line in vim-latex?

Question

Is there a way of automatically beginning a new line after reaching a particular length of a line in order to make navigation through a document easier in vim-latex?

Example (text from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe):

Instead of having this:

\documentclass[letter,12pt]{article}
\usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
\usepackage{sidecap}

\begin{document}
\begin{SCfigure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.55\textwidth]{Giraffa_camelopardalis_angolensis}
\caption{The giraffe (\emph{Giraffa camelopardalis}) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species. Males can be 4.8 to 5.5~metres tall and weigh up to 1,360~kilograms. The record-sized bull was 5.87~m tall and weighed approximately 2,000~kg. Females are generally slightly shorter and weigh less than the males do.}
\end{SCfigure}
\end{document}

Getting this while typing:

\documentclass[letter,12pt]{article}
\usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
\usepackage{sidecap}

\begin{document}
\begin{SCfigure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.55\textwidth]{Giraffa_camelopardalis_angolensis}
\caption{The giraffe (\emph{Giraffa camelopardalis}) is an African even-toed
ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species. Males can be
4.8 to 5.5~metres tall and weigh up to 1,360~kilograms. The record-sized bull
was 5.87~m tall and weighed approximately 2,000~kg. Females are generally
slightly shorter and weigh less than the males do.}
\end{SCfigure}
\end{document}

Answer 1

If you want long lines to be wrapped while typing, use:

:set textwidth=72

or any other value.

In the .vimrc file:

autocmd FileType tex    set textwidth=72