UV seam - edge selection, how, max

SHEPEIRO · Sep 2009

frustratingly cant figure this one out, i just need to select all the border edges of all the uv islands. i need it so that i can use it to create a high poly smoothed mesh and im going to use the mapping as hard edges...

thanks in advance, your so great

Neox · Sep 2009

you want just the open edges? select one edge of the open edges and rightlick select all open edges or something like that

SyncViewS · Sep 2009

Hi Shepeiro, if you are on 3dsMax 9, you can get this feature in Unwrap Tools 1.50, originally Chuggnut Unwrap Tools.

renderhjs · Sep 2009

select all tVerts
contract selection in UVeditor ( minus button)
invert selection
convert vertToEdge selection

of course it can also be scritped

SHEPEIRO · Sep 2009

awsome renderhjs, nice and simple, stupid that max lacks some of these basics

edit - doesnt work cant shrink selection if all verts in shell are selected

SHEPEIRO · Sep 2009

max is being stupid (its never me)

i was sure if you have an edge selection in a uvw editor modifier that when you collapsed the stack it saved the selection, but its not doing it for me today.

System · Sep 2009

SHEPEIRO you could paint selections in vertex mode if the verts aren't really close together and then select and convert the verts to edges.

Edit: Your last comment - It does remember the last selections. So yeh, that's one way.

Neox, that was a joke right?

renderhjs · Sep 2009

sorry about that,
I was not behind a computer - I had a similar trick used in some related issue with my texTools somewhere. But it seems that it does not contract the selection towards the outer edges the way you would usually expect it.

Anyway since I like you I wrote a script for you- its not fast but it should do the job for you:

function select_uv_openEdges =(
    --2009, renderhjs.net
    clearListener();
    if (selection.count > 0)then(--at least an object selected
        local obj = selection[1]; 
        local uv = modPanel.getCurrentObject();

        if (classof(uv) == Unwrap_UVW)then(

            uv.unwrap2.setTVSubObjectMode 1;--for collecting the elements as bitVerts arrays
            --get Islands as arrays
            local numVertexSelected = #{1..(uv.unwrap.NumberVertices())};    
            local vertElemArray = #();
            for v in numVertexSelected do (
                vertElemArray[ v ] = 0;
            )
            local elementsCount = 0;
            local elemVerts = #{};
            local elem = #();
            with redraw off;
            for v in numVertexSelected do (
                if vertElemArray[ v ] == 0 then (
                    uv.selectVertices #{ v }
                    uv.unwrap2.selectElement();
                    elemVerts = uv.unwrap.getselectedvertices() as array;
                    if elemVerts.count > 2 then (-- Ignore elements with less than 3 UV vertices.
                        elementsCount += 1;
                        elem[elementsCount] = uv.unwrap.getselectedvertices();--elemVerts;
                        for i in elemVerts do (
                            vertElemArray[ i ] = elementsCount; -- Mark these vertices with their element number in vertElemArray.
                        )
                    )
                )
            )
            format "num shells. % x n" elementsCount
            ------------
            local openEdgesBitArray = #{};
            for vts in elem do(
                uv.unwrap.selectVertices vts;
                uv.verttoedgeselect();
                
                local shell_edges = uv.unwrap2.getSelectedEdges();
                local min_edges = shell_edges.numberset;
                
                local edges = #{};
                for edg in shell_edges do(
                    uv.unwrap2.selectEdges #{edg};
                    uv.unwrap2.openEdgeSelect();
                    local sel = uv.unwrap2.getSelectedEdges();
                    if (sel.numberset > 1 and sel.numberset < min_edges )then(
                        min_edges = sel.numberset;
                        edges = sel;
                    )
                )
                openEdgesBitArray+=edges;
                format "shell most min. open edges : % n" edges.numberset
            )
            uv.unwrap2.selectEdges openEdgesBitArray;
            uv.unwrap2.setTVSubObjectMode 2;
        )
    )
)
select_uv_openEdges();

Artic · Feb 2014

Somebody found a script that works fine with the Donut shapes?

Octo · Feb 2014

It's a mystery to me why the UV editor can't use the same format as editable poly.
1 for vertices
2 for edges
3 for borders
4 for polys
5 for elements/uv islands

And any shortcuts you have set up in editable poly that can be used in the UV editor should match, like target weld, collapse, select loops etc.
That includes converting between selections by ctrl clicking.

cptSwing · Feb 2014

Octo wrote: »

That includes converting between selections by ctrl clicking.

PolyUnwrapper will actually do that for you (and has open edge detection)

Mark Dygert · Feb 2014

Octo wrote: »

It's a mystery to me why the UV editor can't use the same format as editable poly.
1 for vertices
2 for edges
3 for borders
4 for polys
5 for elements/uv islands

And any shortcuts you have set up in editable poly that can be used in the UV editor should match, like target weld, collapse, select loops etc.
That includes converting between selections by ctrl clicking.

Exactly, I don't understand why max doesn't do this normally or why when they did some work on the UV editor in 2011 they didn't take a second to straighten it out then.

There it sits, unfinished and unproductive.
/slow clap.

sprunghunt · Feb 2014

Mark Dygert wrote: »

Exactly, I don't understand why max doesn't do this normally or why when they did some work on the UV editor in 2011 they didn't take a second to straighten it out then.

There it sits, unfinished and unproductive.
/slow clap.

You're talking about an application that has several default shortcuts for 'Ctrl-S' - only one of which is 'save file'. The keyboard shortcuts in max, and the interface to reassign them, are one of it's worst features.

If you select one border edge and start hitting "grow selection" in the UV editor it will grow the selection along the edge until you have the whole shell border selected. But this isn't anything like 'select shell border' in maya.

Eric Chadwick · Feb 2014

Another vote for PolyUnwrapper, lots of good stuff in there. Also TexTools!

UV seam - edge selection, how, max

Replies