(Workaround) [Blender] Unwrap, Unfold and Straighten (like Maya) ?

bitinn

If there is one thing I miss after switching from Maya to Blender: I can't easily unwrap non-rectangle uv shell into it's native shape, it's always a bit off.

For example, say I have a simple drawer:



I try to mark seam around the front panel and unwrap:



This is what I get:



It's similar result for the back of drawer:



AFAIK, these quads/triangles should be co-planar, so can I improve my unwrap result by:

- using a different layout?
- setting a different seam?

AFAIK, "relaxing" or "unfold" this kind of shells back to a rounded-rectangle one is very time consuming in Blender.

There are a few tools for cases where:

- If the shell only contain quads: UV Squares and TexTools' rectify.
- If the shell is rectangular shape: Straighten uv edges manually.

But for my case, a rounded rectangle, I have no clue how to unfold the shell properly and quickly, any suggestions?

ant1fact

Use project from view

EDIT: Bit more explanation - set your view to look straight at your UV shell in ortographic mode, you can do this with the numpad keys, or, if the shell is facing in some random direction, then select that big face in the middle and press shift+numpad7 to align your view to the face normal. Then of course select the faces you want to unwrap, press U -> Project from view or Project from view (Bounds) The bounds one will fill the 0-1 space with your shell

bitinn

ant1fact said:

Use project from view

What can I say, it really works well for this case.

(Just going to leave this open for a bit, see if there are other good suggestions)

ant1fact

Good stuff