Subdiv Surfaces > Texture

The Layout UVs action automatically moves UVs so they don’t overlap in texture space.

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

Related topics

Edit subdivision surface UVs

Subdiv Surfaces > Texture > Layout UVs >

The default settings give the best results in most situations.

Separate: Select how you want to separate overlapping UV pieces.

Off

Does not separate overlapping pieces. Only the Scale option has an effect.

Folds: Separates only pieces where the surface normals of overlapping pieces point opposite directions. This method is faster, especially for larger models, however, you may be left with overlapping UVs.
All Intersecting: Separates all pieces where the UVs overlap.

Flip Reversed: Turn this option on to flip pieces that have normals pointing in opposite directions.

TipIf your model is symmetrical (for example, a character’s face), you can save texture space by turning this option off and superimposing the UV pieces so they occupy the same texture space.

Layout

Select where you want the UV pieces to lie in the texture space.

None: Does not lay out pieces after they have been cut. Some pieces may lie on top of others.
Along U: Positions the pieces along the U axis.
Into Square: Positions the pieces within the 0 to 1 texture space.

Scale

Select how you want the UV pieces scaled within the texture space.

None: Performs no scaling.
Uniform: Scales the pieces to fit the 0 to 1 texture space without changing the aspect ratio.
Stretch to Square: Stretches the pieces to fit the 0 to 1 texture space. The pieces may become distorted.

Spacing Presets: Maya puts a bounding box around each piece and lays out the pieces so that the bounding boxes are very close together. If the pieces end up positioned exactly next to each other, two UVs on different pieces can share the same pixel and when texture painting, overscanning can also cause the paint to spill onto the adjacent piece.

To avoid this situation, ensure that there is at least a pixel between the bounding boxes by selecting a spacing preset from this menu. Select a preset that corresponds to your texture map size. If you don’t know the size, select a smaller map, which will result in a larger spacing between adjacent pieces in UV space. (The smaller your map in pixels, the bigger the UV spacing must be between bounding boxes.)

Select Custom to set the size of the space as a percentage of the map size (in the Percentage Space box).
Percentage Space: If you select Custom beside Spacing Presets, enter the size of the space between bounding boxes as a percentage of the map size.