3ds Max - Placing UV shells on top of each other

wannabeartist

Hi,

Is there an easy way to place identical UV shells exactly on top of each other in Max? (to share the same texture)

I haven't found any other ways than quick planar mapping the shells that I want to stack, but it doesn't always work - any better ideas?

Sean VanGorder

If the objects are exactly the same, it might be easiest to just unwrap one and then instance it around the scene, since it will automatically share the same uv space then.

You could also try the copy > paste found in the UV editor. If the geometry of the pieces are exactly the same it usually works quite well, USUALLY. It's still a little iffy sometimes.

And then there is always the tedious way of using TexTools or the default Max tools to place them manually using align and snap features.

T.Bull

Perhaps try the Snap Tool?

wannabeartist

Thanks guys,

Darn, I was hoping for some magic "stack selected" button that I just haven't found
Instancing is a very good idea, must remember to use it.

Sean VanGorder

TexTools used to have a magic button like that if I'm not mistaken, but I think Renderhjs took it out of the the newer versions.

wannabeartist

I though it might have something like that, but could not find it (obviously). Well, I guess he had a good reason to remove that feature.

Mark Dygert

Yea when it worked it was awesome. Most of the time it just randomly rotated bits and pieces and wouldn't let you undo the action. Most times you would save, cross your fingers, run it then end up reloading the file.


Yep, snap works pretty well if they're all within the snapping distance. The flatten tools work pretty well when and if that fails to put everything in pixel perfect order. You can even do a simple script that runs a flatten horiz/vert at the same time, effectively snapping every vert in the selection to the same place. If you're on pre max2010 I proabably have some flatten horiz/vert scripts floating around you can use.

Eric Chadwick

Copy/paste in the Edit UVs window works great, if they are identical as you say.

Mark Dygert

Gotta be very very careful with the copy paste.

The vert index table has to be identical between the two pieces, as in the vertex numbers have to match perfectly otherwise it will reorder the faces to match, which will give you the same shape but its a nightmare jumble. It's very easy to screw up the vert table, it gets re-ordered every time you add or remove geometry.

Mr. Bean

What I like to do is collapse the stack and detach the part you want to clone. Then shift+move the detached part to the right place and reattach it to the original object. The result is an identical shell placed over the matching cluster.

EDIT: whoops, looks like Sean_EG already suggested that method as Eric pointed out.

wannabeartist

Gotta try that one too...

Eric Chadwick

Yeah, that's the best, most foolproof method. Which the first reply suggested.