Hidden UV Clusters in Maya?

Slugs

Coming from max to maya I find the mechanics of the UV editor to be a little confusing, when I have a multi-object model why do my unselected clusters hide in the layout box?

If I want to manually re-arrange the clusters so all the islands of a certain object are kept together it becomes difficult because everything becomes hidden and I don't know whether or not i'm planting them on top of another object.

Some insight would be lovely

http://i.imgur.com/IgHuRMq.gifv

Clark Coots

Because Maya UV editor only shows your selected objects UVs. If it didn't every object in your scene would always show in the UV editor. It's not like Max where its a modifier on certain objects and only then can you open and see the UVs in the editor. You can have the UV editor in Maya opened at all times and just select objects and do their UVs.

If you're trying to do multiple layouts for several objects you can group those objects to create an easy selection.

Slugs

So then how would you go about organizing the clusters with the rest of the object? There has to be a way to do this effectively.

Clark Coots

Not sure I understand your question. Do you want them all to be in 0-1 UV space? Select all objects and you can use the Layout function to get you part of the way there, or manually pack them yourself.

If you want say the Sword and Shield to be on one texture, select those, lay them out in 0-1. Then the rest of the character, select it and pack it to 0-1. Is that your goal or am I misunderstanding?

Bartalon

You should be able to just select all your mesh objects and enter UV mode for all of them (F12 shortcut). They should all stay "on" in the UV editor this way.

Slugs

I guess I meant something a little more like this:
http://imgur.com/rwoif48

Rather than this:
http://imgur.com/R69mfky

Its true I can have all islands viewable in UV mode but then I lose the ability to manipulate or transform by object select without making everything else disappear.

GlowingPotato

is this what you are looking for?

http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/maya2014/en_us/index.html?url=files/Editing_UVs_Display_a_subset_of_UVs.htm,topicNumber=d30e221648


don't think so.

and this ?http://simplymaya.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35311

Clark Coots

Ah I see. Ya that's interesting, the way I've worked in Maya selecting UVs has mainly been in the UVeditor and not selecting shells via the 3d viewport. The 2nd link GlowingPotato linked looks like what you're after, although a faster way would be:

Select all objects - F12 (rather than suggested method in link of object by object Right Click "UV") - click on a UV point for part of the shell in the 3D viewport - in UV editor Ctrl + Right Click "To Shell" - move your shell. Repeat clicking on UV point for part of shell in 3D viewport for next shell you want to move.

Slugs

That works brilliantly, thanks folks.