Keeping overlapped UVs with Max's auto packing

tynew

Does anyone have any methods for retaining overlapped UV islands while using max's non-convex packing method? Or any packing method for the matter. The grouping button does not seem to work. Considering auto packing just throws every island around, it's not good for efficient UV space. 

Eric Chadwick

What version of Max? How exactly are you using Grouping? I've used it in 2018 and it works great. Might be broken in your release though? 

https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-9E98AEAC-F06F-4FAD-9091-DCD30AC9BB26

tynew

Thanks for the reply Eric. Quite strange, it's randomly working now though! May have been resolved by converting to emesh>epoly but I'm not certain. I'll repost here if anything crops up again with it. 

tynew

So it looks like I found the problem @Eric Chadwick
Having an instanced UV over multiple already uv mapped objects clears the groups. A little annoying when you want to bake by mesh name. My usual approach is to uv unwrap all the objects individually, then instance uvw mod all the objects and pack it together. This saves time instead of attaching it all, unwrapping it, then detaching it for match by mesh name baking. Unless I'm missing something or my workflow order is incorrect, do you have any ideas?

Eric Chadwick

So, were the groups created in the  individual Unwraps, then you selected multiple models and added a new Unwrap? I don't think Groups are inherited by subsequent modifiers; they only live inside the original. 

tynew

Yes, they were created in the individual Unwrap. Thanks for the info, I'll just have to work through the instanced modifier instead!   

Eric Chadwick

Yeah that makes sense. You could maybe do all the unwrapping thru one modifier.