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This section of the main UVLayout window contains all the buttons used to load and save files.
Load
The main way to load files into UVLayout is to drag'n'drop them onto the headus UVLayout desktop icon. Files in UVLayout's own UVL format can also be double clicked to open them up. And finally, if UVLayout is already running, you can use the Load button to load a new file.
When loading OBJ or PLY files, there's a few options to choose between:
- SUBD / Poly
- If the mesh being loaded is the control cage for a subdivision surface, then make sure that SUBD is selected. The subdivided surface will then be used in the flattening calculations, rather than the control cage itself, producing more accurate results. If the mesh isn't a subdivision surface, then select Poly.
- Edit / New
- If your mesh already has UVs and you want to reflatten them to reduce distortion, select Edit. Otherwise, select New to delete any existing UVs and start with a clean slate.
- Weld UVs
- If the loaded mesh has seams (green edges) between adjacent polys, reload with this option ticked. It'll weld all co-incident UVs together, but could break the OBJ Update tool and point correspondences between morph targets.
- Clean
- If the loaded mesh has non-manifold edges (i.e. an edge is shared by more than two faces) then ticking this option will fix the problem geometry as its loaded, but may break the OBJ Update tool and point correspondences between morph targets.
- Detach Flipped UVs
- Tick this option if you want flipped polys in UV space to be detached into separate shells.
Save
When saving your work, you have a choice between three file formats; UVL, PLY or OBJ:
- UVL
- UVLayout's own format that saves the current edit state, including which faces have been detached, dropped or flattened, and which edges have been 'C' tagged. You should use the UVL format if you're part way through flattening a mesh, and want to restart at a latter time.
- UVL is the default format, so for example, if you type "fish" into the Path field, the ".uvl" extension gets added automatically and the scene is saved into "fish.uvl".
- OBJ
- Use the OBJ format to export or import UVs to and from other applications.
- To save out an OBJ file, add ".obj" to the typed in filename.
- PLY
- PLY format files are more compact than OBJ files, but few applications know about them. They're included here mainly as a link between UVLayout and CySlice.
- To save out a PLY file, add ".ply" to the typed in filename.
Update
The Update button pops up a file selection window where you can select a previously loaded OBJ file that you want to update with the current UVs. The original file isn't overwritten though; a new file called whatever-uvlayout.obj is created, which is a copy of the original file with all the material/grouping information preserved and only the UVs changed.
Tmp/E Buttons
The Tmp 1 to 5 buttons can be used to quickly save the current scene into temporary files, named tmp1.uvl to tmp5.uvl, that can be loaded later on if something goes wrong.
The buttons are color coded:
Red | - most recent save, can't be overwritten |
Orange | - other saves |
Greeny Orange | - oldest save |
Green | - not yet used |
The E button also saves the current scene, but into files named edit01.uvl, edit02.uvl etc, always creating the next unused filename in the sequence.
You can also enable a regular auto save using the Auto Save setting under the Preferences panel.
To include the name of the original mesh into the quick save files, trick the Full Name Quick Saves preference.
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