Unfold Property Editor

Applies a set of texture UV coordinates to a polygon mesh object and unfolds the projection using the edges you specify as cut lines or seams. When unfolding, the cut lines are treated as if they are disconnected to create borders or separate islands in the texture projection. The result is like peeling an orange or a banana and laying the skin out flat.

To apply: Choose Get Property Texture Projection Unfold from any toolbar.

To redisplay: In an explorer, expand the object's node and click the icon of its Unfold property.

For a complete procedure, see Unfolding a Texture Projection [Texturing].

Unfold

Unfold Cut Line

Set from Current Edges	Replaces any previously defined cut lines with the currently selected edges. Use this if you want to start over with a completely different cut line.
Remove from Cut Line	Removes the selected edges from the list of edges to use as cut lines.
Add to Cut Line	Adds the selected edges to the list of edges to use as cut lines.
Select Cut Line	Selects the edges defined as cut lines and highlights them in the 3D views.

Create UV/Update UV

Unfold and Pack	Creates the initial unfolding and stores it in a texture UV property called Unfold. Once the initial unfolding has been created, this button changes to Update and Pack.
Update and Pack	Recalculates the unfold based on the current cut line and other settings, and re-packs the islands in the texture editor.
Update No Pack	Recalculates the unfold based on the current cut line and other settings, without altering the arrangement of the islands relative to each other in the texture editor.

Pack

All of the settings on the Packing tab control how the unfolded islands are arranged relative to each other in UV space.

Packing Options

Live Packing

Check this box to see the results in the texture editor as you make changes to the packing settings. Note that this can cause delays as the texture editor gets updated, particularly with settings that require lengthy calculations.

If you leave this option off, click Pack to update the texture editor manually.

Pack

Click to update the texture editor with your changes to the packing settings when Live Packing is off.

Island Order

Pieces

Controls the order in which the UV islands are arranged when packing.

Increasing in size finds a spot for the smallest island, and then moves on to find a spot for the next smallest, and so on.
Decreasing in size finds a spot for the largest island, then the next largest, and so on. This is the default setting because it generally finds an efficient packing.
Random order lays out the pieces in a random order. You can change the sequence using the Random seed parameter.

Random seed

Changes the order in which the UV islands are packed. This parameter has an effect only when Pieces is set to Random order. Different values may result in more or less efficient arrangements — try different values until you find one that works well for a particular unfolding.

Island Positioning

Spacing	Controls the distance between UV islands. A value of 0.0 leaves just a tiny space between the islands, while a value of 1.0 puts each island in its own row.
Positioning	Controls the increments used when trying to place UV islands. Very precise is the most likely to find optimal placements but takes the longest to calculate, while Coarse is the fastest to calculate but may not give the best arrangement. Precise and Standard fall in-between the two extremes.

Island Orientation

Rotation offset	Controls the starting orientation of the UV islands, before the packing algorithm tries placing the islands at rotational increments determined by the Rotation accuracy.
Rotation accuracy	Controls the rotational increments in degrees that the packing algorithm uses when trying to place the UV islands in an optimal arrangement. If this option is set to disabled, the packing algorithm does not try out different orientations but simply uses the Rotation offset.

Island Scaling

Scale reference

Controls how UV islands are scaled with respect to each other:

use boundary length preserves the ratios of the island boundary lengths.
use surface area preserves the ratios of the island areas.

Post Operations

Global rotation

Rotates the entire arrangement of all UV islands.

Global scaling

Controls how the islands fit into the UV space.

best fit tries to place the islands as efficiently as possible. This may result in some wasted space.
squarify stretches the result in either U or V so that the complete arrangement of UV islands occupies a squarish area. This may result in distortion (for example, circles become ellipses).

Box packing

Uses the bounding box of each UV island when packing, rather than the islands' actual outline. This speeds up the computation but typically results in more wasted space. It can be useful when packing an object with very many small islands.

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