UV Texture Editor overview

The UV Texture Editor lets you view and interactively edit the UV texture coordinates for polygon, NURBS, and subdivision surfaces within a 2D view.

You can select, move, scale, and generally modify the UV topology for a surface very much like you work with other modeling tools within Maya. You can also view the image associated with the assigned texture map as a backdrop within the UV Texture Editor and modify the UV layout to match as required.

Maya lets you easily compare what you view in the 3D scene view and in the UV Texture Editor’s 2D texture coordinate view by displaying the perspective view and the UV Texture Editor simultaneously. For example, you can select a UV within the 3D scene view and simultaneously see the same selected UV coordinate in the 2D view of the UV Texture Editor and vice versa. This is useful when you’re editing UVs and need to understand how an item in the 2D view relates to the 3D model in the scene view. For this reason, many Maya users find it invaluable to have the Maya perspective view and the UV Texture Editor displayed side-by-side when performing UV texture and layout work. You select this layout from the layout shortcuts section of the Toolbox.

The UV Texture Editor contains tools that allow you to modify the UV texture coordinates. For example, you can perform such actions as rotating and flipping UVs as well as cutting and sewing UVs in order to achieve the UV layout you require. You can also output a bitmap image of the final UV layout so it can be used as a background for texture creation work.

There are separate menus for polygons and subdivision surfaces UV tasks. Many of the items within the UV Texture Editor are also accessible from the UV Texture Editor’s toolbar as icons. As well, some of the items that are contained within the UV Texture Editor are also available in the Edit UVs menu from the Polygons menu set.

Viewing items in the UV Texture Editor

When viewing UV texture coordinates in the UV Texture Editor you:

use the standard camera move keys ( + and + ) to track and dolly within the 2D texture view.
press f in the UV Texture Editor to frame any selected items in the 2D view.

Marking menus in the UV Texture Editor

UV specific marking menus are available when you work in the UV Texture Editor. This saves you time and streamlines your UV editing workflow. When you + in the UV Texture Editor the marking menu shows different items depending on what components are currently selected:

When UV texture coordinates are currently selected the marking menu shows possible UV modification operations (for example, Relax, Unfold, Smudge Tool, and Lattice Tool are available). While the marking menu is displayed, simply drag your mouse to highlight the desired item in the menu; the item is selected as if it were selected from the related UV Texture Editor location in the menu or toolbar.
When a polygon edge is currently selected the marking menu shows possible UV edge modification operations for the selected component (for example, Cut UV Edges, Sew UV Edges, Move and Sew UV Edges, and others).

When a polygon face is currently selected the marking menu shows possible UV modification operations for the selected UV type (for example, Normalize,Unitize, Layout, and others).