Making mesh adjustments after unwrap in 3ds Max

danshewan

So, after several painstaking hours of unwrapping and laying out of UV shells, I noticed a couple of rogue edges and a couple of unwelded verts on my low-poly mesh. I'm wondering if there's a way to fix these without having to unwrap the entire mesh again?

I tried saving the UV layout as it was just prior to noticing the errors then loading it once the edges had been deleted / verts welded, but no dice.

I also can't seem to completely reset the UV layout after I fixed those small problems. I thought maybe resetting then loading the saved UV layout might work, but no luck there, either.

Any suggestions, other than to accept the wasted time as a learning experience? I'm using Max 2009, incidentally.

As always, thanks in advance.

r_fletch_r

You can remove edges with CTRL-BackSpace and the uvs should be fine. Welding can be a problem but if the verts are pretty close then it should be fine. if they cause distorion you can just edit it in the unwrap uvw modifier. a 1 vert tweak isnt too much of a headache

Try working with 'preserve UV's' on its just under the Constraints in editable poly. Generally max is quite robust at adding and removing geometry while preserving a layout. the problem are is uv borders.

You cant load a uvlayout back onto the mesh once the vertex/edge count has changed. the internal data gets changed and they dont match.

If you can post an example it would be easier to advise.

fearian

as long as you are collapsing the uvw unwrap modifier down to an editable poly you should be able to weld chamfer and cut without too much alarm.

danshewan

Thanks, guys - I hadn't noticed the preserve UV's checkbox and didn't think to collapse the stack. The changes I need to make are pretty insignificant, but they'd be enough to cause problems later if left alone.

I'm sure between these two suggestions, I'll be fine. If I run into any issues, I'll be sure to post screens of the problem.

Thanks again.

danshewan

So I ended up collapsing the Unwrap UVW modifier and making the fixes - strangely, checking preserve UV's then fixing the problems didn't work. Either way, all I have to do now is redefine a couple of seams and I'm done - thanks for saving me hours of work, Ian!

Just a quick question - is there a tool or script that allows you to convert an editable poly edge selection to a UV seam? I normally use point-to-point to define my seams, but although there's loop and ring selection buttons under the Unwrap UVW modifier, converting certain edges to seams would be much faster than using point-to-point.

Anyone know of a script that can do this? I had a quick look on ScriptSpot, but couldn't find anything.

Ott

The "Preserve UVs" check-box is right up there with the "Ignore Backfacing" option as well. Their only purpose is to mock you relentlessly.

Just under "Point to Point Seam" there is an option for "Edge Sel To Seams". Does that not do the job for you?

danshewan

Ott wrote: »

Just under "Point to Point Seam" there is an option for "Edge Sel To Seams". Does that not do the job for you?

You know when you stare at something for a long time, like a word, and after a while it doesn't even look like a real word anymore? Well, that phenomenon is the only plausible explanation that I would have consistently missed that option again and again without realizing it. That, or I'm just monumentally stupid.

Cheers, Don - I don't know what I'd do without polycount sometimes. Probably save myself some embarrassment, but hey, it builds character. :poly136:

Thanks again everyone.