Blender moving uv islands?

kanga

Blender 2.77
Windows 10 64bit

Hi, trying to move uv islands but polys connected properly in the mesh are being left behind, or are not included in the island selection. I installed the uv island tools addon but that hasn't helped. Sewing, welding, remove double, merge will not connect the uvs so they can be selected together. Any help appreciated.

Yadoob

Have you try to Stitch them together (V in Uv/Image editor)? A screenshot would be appreciated to see the issue

kanga

Hey Yadoob thanks.
Yup I stitched them did everything under the sun. Since then I exported the mesh to Max and looked at it in xview (mesh check) and it was a mess. Could be because it was my first retopo in Blender that I pushed buttons I should not have. Will repair and unwrap the mesh in Max and send it back to Blender and see what it looks like, then unwrap again to see if the problem is still there, then get back here with some screen shots. Right now though it seems weird that you first have to unwrap in Blender before the unwrap  options are visible. Resetting the uvs and then reunwraping seems to blow stuff up in the uv editor. I am wondering what you guys do to check your meshes in Blender. Remove double, and shift+cntrl+alt+m doesnt seem to do much.

Cheerio

JedTheKrampus

For the most part remove doubles should do the job. You could try some of the other operations in Mesh->Clean Up like Degenerate Dissolve and see if they help.

Zeist

In case you still want help

Some possible fixes
 - When using UV island selections an inverted face normal will cause that face to be unselected & break apart.
 - Make sure shared location is selected http://i.imgur.com/BUN6TM3.png - Shared vertex is just annoying & having it set to disabled when you select verts/edges/faces will break apart any unselected connecting vert's
 - Make sure this is disabled - http://i.imgur.com/z7TXjnB.png - similar to the sticky selection being set to disabled, moving individual faces will break apart from unselected/connected verts (Entire mesh will have be selected in viewport for you to see all the UV's when this is disabled) It has it's uses but for most part don't bother with it I guess.
 - Connected UV's will break apart if you have parts hidden and move only the visible

Should be one of the above, otherwise screenshots or if you want upload the blend file and we can check it.

Just some side things -
 - When you are removing doubles are you selecting the entire mesh/or UV's? or nothing at all? as only the selected verts will have the operation performed
 - Remove Doubles & Remove doubles UV are separate operations - remove double doesn't work on UV's (incase you're using the wrong one - just press space to bring up search, type it, etc)
 - Certain operations that you perform in the UV editor, their options don't appear in the bottom left side bar of that window (Hotkey 't' to open) in the UV editor but instead only on the 3d view (just in case you only have one open at a time instead of a split view between the two) - So if removing double UV's, may need to jack up the merge distance this is where it's located.
 - Pin & seams are your best friend when unwrapping.
 - Swap between conformal and angle based (sometimes disabling fill holes and/or correct aspect will solve a funny unwrap)

Dunno what you're talking about blowing up in the UV editor - you don't need to perform the operation on the entire mesh each time, on the off chance you're doing that. If you have a section you like maybe just pin it (p) for safety so you don't accidentally wreck it,

Integrity check in Blender I just do what you've said, select non manifolds, remove doubles, and make sure normal's are set right (ctrl-n) works for the most part, kind of need a specific scenario to solve in case there's something else causing issues

kanga

@Zeist, Ah I didnt get a notification so I missed your post. Thanks a million for the pointers. Yes I selected all verts in the 3d view before removing doubles, the non manifolds I didn't know about so thanks for that. It was one of the first models in Blender so there is a good chance I fubared the whole thing. Pressed for time atm. but am using Blender because it was requested for training purposes. So far modelling in it has impressed the pants off me so I will be doing all my up and coming models in it plus the uvs so I can get the hang of it. You provided a great test list. I will post a link to models if after your fixes I still have island problems.
Thanks man.