Separate and attach UV shells

Maya provides several features for separating, merging, and attaching UVs. These features can be particularly useful when working with UVs that were generated using the Automatic Mapping feature.

To...	Do this
Separate a UV shell along the selected edges.	Select Edit UVs > Cut UV Edges.
Attach UV shells along the selected edges.	Select Edit UVs > Sew UV Edges.
Attach UV shells along the selected edges and move the shells together.	Select Edit UVs > Move and Sew UV Edges > . Turn off Limit Shell Size and click Apply.
Merge the selected UVs.	Select Edit UVs > Merge UVs. Merge UVs only merges the UVs that share the same vertex. You can specify an option for the maximum distance Maya will move UVs to merge them.
Automatically attach and move small shells.	Select all the shells and choose Edit UVs > Move and Sew UV Edges > . Turn on Limit Shell Size and set the maximum size (in number of faces) for UV shells. Shells larger than this number will not move. Click Apply.

After performing a Move and Sew UV Edges operation, you can select the node (polyMapSewMove) and edit it in the Attribute Editor or Channel Box to adjust the Number Faces.

Notes

A single edge cannot be cut unless it touches a border.
Use the Select > Select Shell in the UV Texture Editor to select a UV piece after cutting.