Need help making a UV map - how to rotate and scale islands

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• Catherine3678ab Posts: 8,556

  August 26 edited August 26

  zjfoldes said:

  Hello, I am a new developer, just learning UV maps, and I cant figure this out and i feel stupid.

  I am trying to use the unfold tool to follow a tutorial. The tutorial just says to make the islands and then scale them to fit the page.

  I cant figure this out. I make the islands by applying seams then hitting the human figure head. then i click accept, but i cant select the island to do anything with it.

  i dont understand how to select an island. Can anyone help me?

   

  Sure. I don't pop in here very often these days so hopefully the nofication thing will work.

  Okay ... so you have the islands formed. All are lined up touching the bottom line of the Checker T. [my term which everybody is free to use of course, for that checker page that the uv maps are on] 

  First, SAVE the project file. 

  2nd, click in the UV map viewport to have that the active window. [need to be in 2 screens viewing mode, option somewhere on the lower left towards the midde, bar]

  UV maps are 2D. So the manipulator can be used same as one might in an image editor, moving the selected faces or dots, around. One needs to have the selection mode set to lines, dots, faces and/or the multi one {not the object option} - upper left corner on the bar there.

  To select an island, I would suggest using 'faces' and right-click/drag the selection red line around the mass. Then do what you want with it. Keep an eye on the mesh in the non-active window as ideally one wants the checkers to look like squares.

  One can also select mesh in the main window -- then scoot over to the UV window to actually move it around and/or assign it a surface area.

  In re-arranging the mesh, if using lines be VERY CAREFUL not to let the mouse [or pen] leave the boundaries of the UV viewport or lines will be dropped from the selection. If one does not need to check the obj for awhile and is working with lines and maybe this is a big project, then I would close the main viewing window so I don't accidentally drop lines. 

  After doing any amount of work that you don't want to redo, SAVE the project [save, save as, incre-save, whatever].

  Sometimes when using the dots, you may find them pulling apart the uv areas ... go to the Utilities option for merging dots that are close to each other and that problem should be solved.

  Initially it is best to have no material surfaces assigned esp if trying to weld together lines. If you try to weld together lines/dots of different material surface areas, that's pretty much a guaranteed crash of the program. Can't do that. Areas of a material region are their own islands too - one can select these areas by selecting the Shading Domain and then moving them as desired.

  n.b. one can slide things off of the Checker T in order to work on them BUT remember they must all be placed back on the Checker T for the final export. Areas that are off the page tend to refuse to hold an image in D/S.

  It is possible to make some good uvmaps in Hexagon, it is more common to make passable uvmaps in Hexagon ... and sometimes it is a good idea to try another program. Depends upon projects and patience and time.  

  Post edited by Catherine3678ab on August 26
• Catherine3678ab Posts: 8,556

  August 26 edited August 26

  Also, for the final export of the .obj file, be sure to have named all the Materials the same as their Shading Domains. And each material should be unique.

  If we don't follow this, Hexagon will make "corrections" which will then need fixing in D/S.

  Also Hexagon tends to hold onto the "default" material ... to get an .obj without that, after exporting out the .obj -- open another session of Hexagon and import it into there. Remove any materials not in use. Make sure all the names are what you want ... then export that out and 'done.' :-)

  In D/S then you can polish the surfaces to be whatever colour and/or image textures you want. {have the texture images already in your subfolder under Textures in the Runtime section} Save out as figure/prop file in D/S to some folder in the main content area for D/S [NOT under Runtime and NOT in the actual program folders]

  Post edited by Catherine3678ab on August 26
• Catherine3678ab Posts: 8,556

  August 26

  Hold down on the little coloured boxes and push/pull to resize. The centre box will resize the entire thing. Sometimes this feature jams, sliding the island off the page, then putting it back on gets it working again.

  Hold down on the semi-circle things to rotate the selected section.

  If you have a series of lines selected and push them down or over just to the point where the manipulator flips over, they should be straight.