Copying and Pasting Texture UV Coordinates

In the Texture Editor, you can copy and paste selections of sample points from one texture projection to another or within one texture projection. Though the process is the same for both polygon and NURBS models, the outcomes are quite different.

Note

You cannot copy and paste sample points between separate instances of Softimage.
Copying and pasting sample points selected as polygons between objects is unsupported, meaning that it might work but you can get unexpected results in some cases, particularly if there have been changes which cause edge indices to be re-ordered. In these cases, you can try using GATOR to transfer UVs (see Attribute Transfer).

Copying and Pasting UVs on a Single Projection (Polygon Mesh)

When you're copying and pasting points within a single texture projection on a polygon mesh, the sample points of the first polygon in the target selection are matched one-for-one with the sample points of the source polygon.

From the Texture Editor workspace, select a polygon. If you select more than one polygon, only the sample points of the first selected polygon is copied.
Press Ctrl+C to copy the points or choose Edit Copy UVs from the command bar.
Make a second selection of sample points. These points are scaled and translated to fit into the bounding area of the polygon that you just copied.
Press Ctrl+V to paste the points or choose Edit Paste UVs from the command bar.

Copying and Pasting UVs on a Single Projection (NURBS Surface)

When you're working with a NURBS surface, copying and pasting points within a single texture projection scales and translates the target selection of sample points to fit the bounding area of the source selection.

From the Texture Editor workspace, select a group of sample points.
Press Ctrl+C to copy the points or choose Edit Copy UVs from the command bar.
Make a second selection of sample points. These points are scaled and translated to fit into the bounding area of the points that you just copied.
Press Ctrl+V to paste the points or choose Edit Paste UVs from the command bar.

Copying and Pasting UVs Between Projections

Copying and pasting between different texture projections copies each point, one-for-one, from the source projection to the target projection.

From the Texture Editor workspace, select some sample points as desired.

You can copy UV coordinates only from a single set, not from multiple projections.
Press Ctrl+C to copy the points or choose Edit Copy UVs from the command bar.

When copying:
- If individual samples are selected, then their UV coordinates are copied.
- Otherwise if no samples are selected, then the entire UV set is copied.
Do one of the following:
- Display one or more target texture projections from the UVs menu. (Press Shift when clicking a projection to display multiple projections.)
  
  or
- If multiple projections are already displayed and you don't want to paste to all of them, select one or more samples in each of the desired target projections.
Press Ctrl+V to paste the points or choose Edit Paste UVs from the command bar.

When pasting:
- If samples are selected and they are in the same UV set, a special heuristic is used that respects the order of UVs in the polygons.
- If samples are selected in one or more other UV sets when pasting, the copied UV values are pasted to those sets based on UV indices (not the actual samples selected).
- If no samples are selected, the copied UV values are pasted by index to all displayed UV sets.
The Paste UVs command makes its best guess as to which method to use. If it does not give desirable results, you can choose the specific method:
- Edit Paste Special Using Source UVs Indices works better between symmetric copies of meshes.
- Edit Paste Special Using Target UVs Indices works better in cases where the UVs may have been re-indexed, e.g., if one mesh has been exported and re-imported.

For more information about working with multiple sets of UV coordinates in general, see Editing Multiple UV Sets.