Opening the Texture Editor for the First Time

 
 
 

The first time you open the texture editor with a complex object selected, you may be overwhelmed. The texture editor displays a two-dimensional representation of the selected objects' geometry superimposed on a texture that image. The more complex an object, the more complex its appearance in the texture editor.

  1. Select the object(s) whose UV coordinates you wish to display in the texture editor.

  2. Choose Texture Editor from any viewport's Views menu, or choose View Rendering/Texturing Texture Editor from the main menu to open the texture editor.

    • If you selected a single object with multiple texture projections, only its current UV coordinate set is displayed. You'll have to toggle the display of other coordinate sets, as described in Choosing UV Coordinates to Display.

    • If you selected multiple objects, each object's default UV coordinate set is displayed. All visible UV coordinate sets are editable. See Editing Multiple UV Sets for details.

    A

    Texture editor menu bar contains all of the texture editor commands, including those accessible from the command bar.

    B

    Texture editor command bars provide quick access to commonly used texture editor commands.

    C

    UV position boxes allow you to move selected sample points to precise U and V locations.

    D

    Texture image is the image clip currently applied to the object.

    E

    Selected object's UV coordinates are displayed as a flattened version of the object's 3D structure. You adjust the UV coordinates by selection and moving sample points.

    F

    Texture editor workspace is where you manipulate the UV texture coordinates.

    G

    Status bar displays the UV coordinates, pixel coordinates, and RGBA values of the current mouse pointer position.

  3. If necessary, frame the entire texture in the texture editor by selecting View Frame Image (or by pressing Shift + I).

  4. If desired, change the texture image that's displayed, as described in the following section.

Choosing a Texture Image to Display

The texture editor's Clips menu allows you to choose the image clip that is displayed in the texture editor workspace, as well as on the object in the 3D views in Textured and Textured Decal display modes while the texture editor is open. It contains an alphabetical list of all of the image clips used by the selected object(s). Choosing different clips allows you to see how the same set of UV coordinates maps different textures onto an object.

NoteDisplaying an image clip in the texture editor workspace does not apply the image to the selected object.

The Clips menu gives you the following options:

  • The All Clips submenu lists of all the image clips in the scene alphabetically. Choose one of these clips to display it in the texture editor workspace as well as in the 3D views.

  • Auto displays the image clip associated with the UV coordinates currently selected for editing. If this is on when you select a different object in the scene and update the texture editor, the texture editor automatically displays the appropriate clip. Explicitly selecting a different clip toggles the Auto option off, but you can choose Auto again to toggle it back on.

  • The alphabetical list of clips includes all clips applied to the objects whose UVs are currently displayed in the texture editor. Choose one of these clips to display it in the texture editor workspace as well as in the 3D views.

  • None displays the UV coordinates in the texture editor workspace with no texture image at all.

  • Checkerboard displays a checkerboard image in the texture editor workspace as well as in the 3D views. This is useful for seeing how the texture image gets stretched over different areas of an object. See Displaying the Checkerboard.

  • Import Clip opens a browser from which you can choose an image to import as a new clip/source pair. For more information about image clips and sources, see Managing Image Sources & Clips.

Dimming the Texture Image

If you're having trouble seeing a projection's UV coordinates in the texture editor workspace, you can dim the texture image to make the coordinates more visible.

  • Click the Dim Image button to darken the texture image and make the lines connecting the UV coordinates more visible.

    or

  • Choose View Dim Image from the texture editor menu.

Displaying the Checkerboard

You can display a checkerboard image in the texture editor workspace, as well as on objects in the 3D views in Textured and Textured Decal display modes while the texture editor is open. This is useful for seeing how the texture image gets stretched over different areas of an object. An even distribution of regularly sized squares indicates minimal stretching, which is usually preferable, although you may want a higher density of squares in areas of high detail such as the face of a character.

To display the checkerboard

  • In the texture editor, choose Clips Checkerboard.

To set the number of squares in the checkerboard

  1. In the texture editor, choose File Preferences. The Texture Editor Preferences opens.

  2. On the Image tab, set the desired Checkerboard Size.

Choosing UV Coordinates to Display

In the texture editor, each selected object's texture projections are listed in the UVs menu. You can use the menu to choose which set(s) of UV coordinates is displayed at any given time.

If a set of UV coordinates is displayed, it can be edited. See Editing Multiple UV Sets.

Each selected object's texture projections are listed in a section of the UVs menu. You can choose any combination of these projections to display their UV coordinates in the texture editor workspace. Shift+click to toggle individual projections on or off.

To toggle the display of UV coordinate sets

  • From the texture editor's UVs menu, Shift+click each of the UV coordinate sets that you want to display or hide.

    Shift+clicking a hidden UV coordinate set displays it, while Shift+ clicking a displayed UV coordinate set hides it.

Texture Editor Toolbars and Preferences

Showing and Hiding Texture Editor Toolbars

The texture editor command bar is made up of several different toolbars, each of which contains a different set of commands. Depending on how frequently you use these commands, you may wish to hide some of the toolbars. The state of each toolbar is persisted between sessions, so any toolbars that you hide remain hidden until show them again, even if you restart Softimage.

To show and hide texture editor toolbars

  1. Right-click an empty area of the texture editor command bar.

  2. From the right-click menu, choose a toolbar to show or hide.

    Visible toolbars are marked with a check mark while hidden ones are not.

Setting Texture Editor Preferences

You can change the behavior and appearance of the texture editor by changing a number of preferences located in the Texture Editor preferences property editor. Refer to Texture Editor Preferences for information about individual preferences.

To open the texture editor preferences property editor

  • Do one of the following:

    • Choose File Preferences from the texture editor menu.

      or

    • Open an explorer and choose Preferences from the scope menu. Then expand the Editors node and click the Texture Editor icon.

Useful Texture Editor Display Options

As you work with UV coordinates in the texture editor, you'll find several of the display options indispensable for the information they provide about coordinate selections. Some of these options are described in this section.

Highlighting Texture Coverage

When you open the texture editor, the object's UV mesh may be difficult to see in some areas. To see more clearly where the object's UV coordinates cover the texture image, you can highlight the covered areas of the texture image.

Note
  • If the Highlight Coverage option is active at the same time as either of the overlap highlighting options, the coverage highlight color is blended with the overlap highlight color.

  • Your graphics card must support stencil buffers for the coverage highlighting to be visible.

Highlighting texture coverage (B) allows you to see more clearly where an object's UV coordinates lie on the texture image. (A) shows the unhighlighted coverage for comparison.

To highlight areas of the texture covered by UV coordinates

  • Do one of the following:

    • Click the Highlight Coverage button in the texture editor command bar.

      or

    • From the texture editor menu, choose View Show Coverage.

      Tip

      You can modify the appearance of coverage highlighting by changing the Coverage preferences on the Highlighting tab of the Texture Editor Preferences property editor.

      For more information about setting texture editor preferences, see Setting Texture Editor Preferences.

Highlighting Overlapping UV Coordinates

To help you get a better idea of exactly how an object's UV coordinates are laid out on a texture image, you can highlight the areas of the image where the coordinates overlap. Two overlap highlighting modes are available:

  • Highlight Overlaps highlights areas of the image where the object's UV coordinates overlap. Generally, these tend to be problem areas where the UV coordinates need adjustment. Highlighting overlaps helps you identify these areas quickly.

  • Highlight Odd Overlaps highlights areas of the image that are covered an odd number of times by the object's UV coordinates. This can help you identify areas where symmetric texture mapping isn't quite perfect, because only the areas where the UV coordinates don't overlap are highlighted.

The overlap highlighting modes cannot be used together, though either one can be used in conjunction with coverage highlighting.

Note
  • If either highlight option is active at the same time as the Highlight Coverage option, the overlap highlight color is blended with the coverage highlight color.

  • Your graphics card must support stencil buffers for the overlap highlighting to be visible

To highlight areas of the texture covered by overlapping UV coordinates

  • Do one of the following:

    • Click the Highlight Overlaps button in the texture editor command bar.

      or

    • From the texture editor menu, choose View Show Overlaps.

To highlight areas of the texture that are covered an odd number of times

  • Do one of the following:

    • Click the Highlight Odd Overlaps button in the texture editor command bar.

      or

    • From the texture editor menu, choose View Show Odd Overlaps.

      Tip

      You can modify the appearance of overlap highlighting by changing the Overlaps preferences on the Highlighting tab of the Texture Editor Preferences property editor.

      For more information about setting texture editor preferences, see Setting Texture Editor Preferences.

Highlighting Connectivity

Working a polygon object in the texture editor often means breaking up its UV mesh into different UV coordinate islands that you'll reassemble later. Each island's boundaries correspond to other islands' boundaries wherever their component polygons share an edge on the object. You can turn connectivity tabs on in the texture editor to highlight these corresponding boundaries.

Connectivity tabs highlight corresponding pairs of UV island boundaries in different colors, allowing you to easily pair up the boundaries that you want to reassemble. This is especially helpful when you're reassembling the islands using the Island Heal tool (see Healing Polygon Islands).

Tip

If you prefer that all connectivity tabs be the same color, change the Color preference in the Connectivity options on the Highlighting tab of the Texture Editor Preference property editor.

For information about setting texture editor preferences, see Setting Texture Editor Preferences.

By default, connectivity tabs are displayed only for selected sample points (and those on their corresponding boundaries). However, you can also display them on the entire UV set to see all of the corresponding boundaries at once.

   

This image shows a model of a head unfolded using a cubic texture projection. With connectivity tabs displayed, you can see where the selected UV island's boundary corresponds to other islands' boundaries. Each matching pair is highlighted in a different color.

Alternatively, you can set the highlighting preferences (in the Texture Editor Preferences property editor) to display the connectivity tabs at all times, allowing you to see how all of the island boundaries correspond to one another.

To display connectivity tabs

  • Do one of the following:

    • Click the Show Connectivity button in the texture editor command bar.

      or

    • From the texture editor menu, choose View Show Connectivity.

Tip

You can modify the appearance and behavior of connectivity highlighting by changing the Connectivity Tabs preferences on the Highlighting tab of the Texture Editor Preferences property editor.

For more information about setting texture editor preferences, see Setting Texture Editor Preferences.