User Guide: Edit

From UVLayout Docs

Revision as of 07:01, 9 April 2010 by Headus (Talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
Cover Page
About UVLayout
Load/Save
Display
Hotkeys
Edit
Optimize
Pack
Snap/Stack/Sort
Move/Scale/Rotate
Render
Pattern
Groups
Layers
Reshape
Segment
Quick Start
Interface Plugins
Download PDF
Open up the Edit panel to find a number of general editing tools and settings.
Symmetry Find Off/On  [Professional Version Only]  
If parts of your mesh have mirrored topology, you can use the Symmetry tool to speed up cut'n'weld operations. Click on the Find button, then LMB click on any edge that sits on the mirror line (i.e. the line that divides the two symmetrical halves), then tap the space bar to continue; if all goes well, the left half of the mesh will be shaded darker than the right, indicating that symmetry editing is now active; non-symmetrical polys are shaded yellow. Cut, weld, detach, attached, drop and undrop actions from then on will be mirrored across to the other half. When packing, symmetrical shells will be arranged to the left and right sides of tiles and boxes. Click on the Off button if you want to turn the mirroring off.
If parts of your mesh are symmetrical but detached (e.g. a pair of shoes), first LMB click on any edge in one shell, then MMB click on the mirrored edge in the other shell, then tap the space bar to continue.
Copy UVs Stack/U/V  [Professional Version Only]  
To copy UVs between parts of your mesh, first click the Copy UVs button, then LMB select an edge in the source shell (i.e. the shell you want to copy UVs from); you can select this edge in either the UV or 3D views. This "source" edge will be highlighted in red.
Next LMB select edges, in the same relative position, for the target shells; by selecting multiple edges, you can copy to more than one shell at a time. If you accidentally select the wrong edge, LMB click on it again to unselect it. All "target" edges are highlighted in blue.
To quickly select edges on all matching shells, tap the = hotkey. Use the - hotkey to select edges on similar shells, that is, those with the same topology but not exactly the same size or shape. When using the quick select mode, unaffected shells are temporarily hidden so you can easily see those that have been matched. At this point you can change the selected edges if you like, or use the H hotkey menu to hide matched shells that you don't want to copy to. Note: The quick select mode only works when in the 3D view, and on separated objects.
Tap the space bar when you have selected all the edges, and the UVs will be copied across if the selected shells match. To match, shells must have the same topology (i.e. the same number and arrangement of polygons).
Before copying, select Stack if the you want the target shells stacked on top of the source shell, or U or V if you want them arranged alongside. Stacked shells are locked, but they can be unlocked with the L hotkey menu after copying.
Untag Edges 0/1/10 
Select the look-ahead range for cut'n'weld tagging of edge loops. Click on the Untag Edges button to untag all red or yellow highlighted edges.
Auto Fit/Off 
When Auto Fit is on, all current UVs are re-normalized (scaled to fit in the 0 to 1 range) every time a UV shell is moved or modified. When Off, they aren't, so you can move shells beyond this range and out onto other tiles. Use the + and _ keys to scale the UV unit box up and down.
O/C/N  [Professional Version Only]  
When O is selected the original (pre-v1.9) flattening algorithm is used for all flattening calculations. When C is selected, a more recent method is used. When N is selected, the newest method is used; it handles long thin polys better. The older methods are made available in case the newer methods fail for some reason.
4/5/6 Local Scale / Pin 
When Local Scale is selected, the 4/5 hotkeys paint a local scaling into the polys under the brush; this has the effect of moving the UVs in that area in or out during any further flattening, while preserving the shape of the polys as much as possible.
When Pin is selected, the 4/5 hotkeys simply move the UVs in or out directly, disregarding any shape constraints and most likely reducing the quality of the UVs in that area. The UVs are pinned so that any subsequent flattening of that shell doesn't affect the new UV positions. Also when in this Pin mode, the 6 hotkey can be used to smooth UVs.
Smooth Boundary 
When smoothing UVs using the 6 hotkey, this option determines whether shell boundaries are modified.
No MMB 
Normally to move UV points around, you hold down Ctrl or Shift and click'n'drag the MMB. If you are doing lots of manual tweaking of UVs, the MMB click'n'drag can be a strain on your mouse hand, so you have the option in that situation to go into No MMB mode; tick this option, and you can move UVs simply with the Ctrl or Shift keys. If you have Hold selected, you have to hold down the Ctrl or Shift keys while moving the UVs. Select Tap, and you tap the keys to start moving the UV points, and tap again to release the points.
Shift-B 
This sets how much a shell is scaled up by when using the Shift-B hotkey.
R Key 
This sets what action the R hotkey performs; Rect for the newer rectangles and pipes tool, or Relax for the old UV relaxing tool, which was long ago replaced with the 4/5 hotkeys.