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Working with per-instance UV sets
UV sets
UVs menu reference
Edit NURBS UVs
Maya provides
limited support for editing the UV texture coordinates of NURBS
surfaces within the UV Texture Editor. Edit
NURBS UV mode is useful for games developers
who use NURBS surface types in games applications and require the
ability to modify an explicit UV set for subsequent export to a
games engine. This feature does not provide support for editing
NURBS UVs for use with texture mapping or image rendering features
within Maya.
Edit NURBS UV mode creates
an explicit and unique UV set for the NURBS surface. The user switches
between the implicit UVs for the NURBS surface and the explicitly
created UV set. It is then possible to edit the explicit NURBS UVs
on a limited basis.
It is recommended that you create and edit the
explicit NURBS UVs only when all editing and modification of the
NURBS surface model is complete. See the
Notes and
Edit NURBS UVs Limitations below.
For more information on the MELTM commands
and flags that provide this functionality, see the nurbsUVSet, nurbsEditUV commands
in the MEL guide.
To
edit UVs for a NURBS surface in the UV Texture Editor
- In
the scene view, select the NURBS surface that you want to create
and edit explicit UVs for texturing.
- Ensure
that the construction history for the NURBS surface is deleted by selecting
Edit > Delete All by Type > History.
Deleting construction history prior to making
any UV edits ensures that subsequent updates to the node dependency
graph do not remove the UV edits you make to the explicit NURBS
UV set. Do this only when you are sure you will no longer be required
to edit the model (Save a copy of the model that contains construction
history in case you need to revert back for any reason).
- Turn
off construction history while you work on the NURBS UVs using the Construction
History on/off icon on the Status Line.
- Open
the UV Texture Editor by selecting
Edit UVs > UV Texture Editor.
The NURBS UVs that are implicitly created with
the NURBS surface appear in the 2D view of the UV Texture Editor.
- In
the UV Texture Editor, + click
in the 2D view, and select Edit NURBS UV mode
from the marking menu that appears.
A UV set for the NURBS surface is explicitly
created and displayed in the 2D view of the UV
Texture Editor. The NURBS UV set created is based on the
topology of the NURBS surface.
- Change
the selection method to UVs by doing one of the following:
- + click
in the scene view and select Surface UV from
the marking menu.
- + click
in the 2D view of the UV Texture Editor,
and select UV from the marking menu.
- Select
the UVs you want to modify in either the scene view or in the 2D view
of the UV Texture Editor.
- Using
the transformation tools from the Toolbox (Move
Tool, Rotate Tool, or Scale
Tool), edit the position of the NURBS UVs in the UV
Texture Editor.
Notes
- Deleting
the construction history on the NURBS surface is a requirement prior
to creating and editing the explicit NURBS UVs. This ensures that updates
to the dependency graph do not overwrite UV edits.
- Modifying
the NURBS surface topology in any way (that is, inserting an isoparm
on the NURBS surface) after the explicit UV set has been modified will
overwrite the unique NURBS UV set. The explicit NURBS UV set will be
updated to take into account the changes to the topology, but any
UV modifications will be lost.
Edit NURBS UVs Limitations
- The
explicit UV set created with this feature is unique for each NURBS
surface. That is, unlike polygon and subdivision surface types,
it is not possible to create multiple NURBS UV sets for a given
NURBS surface.
- The
Maya renderers (software, hardware, mental ray for Maya, and so
on) do not support explicit NURBS UVs. They are only capable of
rendering the implicit UVs for NURBS.
- Construction
history is not supported. That is, a user should plan their texturing
workflow to occur after all edits and modifications to the model are
complete. Changing the topology of the model after the NURBS UV set
has been edited will overwrite the UV edits whenever the node dependency
graph updates.
- UV
modification is limited to UV selection and transformation only
(that is, move, rotate, and scale). It is not possible to select
and modify the explicit NURBS UVs by patch or isoparm. The polygon
and subdivision surface UV modification features do not work with
the explicit NURBS UVs.
- UV
sharing is not supported. With explicit NURBS UVs a UV texture coordinate
exists for each patch corner on the surface. A bounding box selection
can be used to move interior NURBS UVs simultaneously.