I need to maintain both uv sets, what you're describing is the copy current uv set to existing uv set. I need to maintain both sets of uv's but move them into one. I could extract the affected faces but this is on a rigged model so that's not an option in this case.
Make a cube and map all the faces but one to uv set one, then create an empty second uv set and map only the face missing from uv set one. How do you put the two together, ie merge them to map one. The way to do this is extracted the affected faces from the model transfer those uv's to uv set one and then combine the two models. This works fine but doesn't work unless you want to kill the history of the model since you need to do an extract and combine.
Make a cube and map all the faces but one to uv set one, then create an empty second uv set and map only the face missing from uv set one. How do you put the two together, ie merge them to map one. The way to do this is extracted the affected faces from the model transfer those uv's to uv set one and then combine the two models. This works fine but doesn't work unless you want to kill the history of the model since you need to do an extract and combine.
Try what I suggested initially. In your example, you would select the one face that is on uv set 2 and copy it to uv set 1.
So as a test, I made a cube and deleted all the default UVs. I mapped 5 faces onto map1, the default UV set. I create a new UV set and then map the last face into this new UV set. I select the UVs of the lone face in the new UV set and then copy it to map1. I switch back to Map1 and it now has all the faces mapped as expected.
Maybe make sure you're selecting the actual UVs you want to copy over and not have the entire mesh selected in object mode.
By copy are you using copy uv's or copy uv's to uv set. If the latter then yeah it will work with a simple example like that, as far as I know the copy uv's only works on one face. I just tested what you described again it doesn't work in maya 2011, copying one uv set into another stomps the existing uv set. There is no merge uv sets in maya as far as I know, unless you combine the geometry.
I just did a test. I re-mapped one half of my model to a new uv set so I have the original uv set that has all the model's uvs, and a new uv set that just has half. I selected all of the UVs in the second set and did a copy UVs to UV set, and it copied just the selected UVs. So, I ended up with one half having its original UVs, and the second half having new UVs that were copied. This is in Maya 2011 on a 2k tris character.
As JMYoung did, I was using Copy UVs to UV Set, and also tested in Maya 2011 64-bit. Is this still not doing what you needed?
Anyway, I'm not sure what combining meshes or extracting faces has to do with fixing UV sets, but if that is getting you the results you're looking for then you could copy the skin weights from the original skinned mesh to an edited duplicate with the good UVs. Even with different vert orders, copying skin weights is a whole lot more dependable these days than it used to be, and I think the dark days of being locked down to a rigged mesh should be largely behind us.
Nice dude thanks a lot for that video, that is exactly what I want! The fatal flaw in my workflow was not selecting the actual uv's first hence the map1 uv's were getting stomped. Thanks everyone for figuring this out quite helpful.
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Create UVs - Copy UVs to UV set - Select the uv set you want to merge with.
If the uv set you're merging to already has UVs for the faces you selected, it will overwrite them.
I hope that made sense
edit: I guess i don't understand what you're trying to do exactly. Sorry I couldn't help
what are you trying to do...
Try what I suggested initially. In your example, you would select the one face that is on uv set 2 and copy it to uv set 1.
Edit: Then you can just delete the 2nd set.
So as a test, I made a cube and deleted all the default UVs. I mapped 5 faces onto map1, the default UV set. I create a new UV set and then map the last face into this new UV set. I select the UVs of the lone face in the new UV set and then copy it to map1. I switch back to Map1 and it now has all the faces mapped as expected.
Maybe make sure you're selecting the actual UVs you want to copy over and not have the entire mesh selected in object mode.
Anyway, I'm not sure what combining meshes or extracting faces has to do with fixing UV sets, but if that is getting you the results you're looking for then you could copy the skin weights from the original skinned mesh to an edited duplicate with the good UVs. Even with different vert orders, copying skin weights is a whole lot more dependable these days than it used to be, and I think the dark days of being locked down to a rigged mesh should be largely behind us.
http://www.kerbywithane.com/Cameron/videos/copyuvs.swf
Edit: Sorry about the horrible quality. Also, watch out for the video looping, it's easy to miss.
but i have it now.
-look in the "UV set Editor"
normaly there is an "map1" set, and + other names of sets.
but some of my objects have no map1-set, but other names.
i coppy all objects to an new set, named like you want. delate alle other sets.
"then rename the 1. set from all the objects without "map1" set's, into map1."
thats it.