Layout UV shells

 
 
 

The Layout feature automatically repositions UV shells so they don’t overlap in UV texture space and maximizes the spacing and fit between them. This is useful for ensuring that the UV shells occupy their own separate UV texture space. For example, if you are applying Fur to a surface, the UV texture coordinates on a given shell must not overlap.

In general, you should keep UV shells separated for convenience and clarity. It is not absolutely necessary to keep UV shells separate. For example, you may want the UV shells to overlap so different faces use the same region of a texture.

You can also use the Layout feature to:

To lay out UVs for multiple objects simultaneously

  1. Select the objects or faces whose UVs you want to lay out.
  2. Select Edit UVs > UV Texture Editor to display the UV Texture Editor.
  3. In the UV Texture Editor, select Polygons > Layout > .

    The Layout UVs Options window appears.

  4. In the Layout UVs Options window set the following options depending on your required outcomes:
    • Set Layout objects to Per Object (overlapping) (default) when you require multiple object’s UVs to overlap within the UV texture space.
    • Set Layout objects to Single or Multiple Objects (non-overlapping) when you require the UVs to be separated. This is useful when you need each UV set to be separate and distinct from each other.
    • Set Prescale to Object to maximize the spacing and fit between the UV shells.
    • Set the Shell Stacking option to adjust the spacing between UV shells by specifying how the bounding shape for the UV shells will be described. In general, the UV layout will have more space when the Bounding Box option is set, and less space when the Shape option is set. When the Scale Mode is set to Uniform the shells are scaled to make optimal use of the UV texture space.
  5. Click Apply to perform the layout operation or Layout UVs if you want to perform the operation and close the Layout UVs Options window.

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