Preserving Uv's in XSI

Adam Curtis · Aug 2009

Does anyone know if there is a way in XSI that will let you move edges around the surface of the mesh whilst preserving and not messing up the uv's? I know theres a similar function in max

Thanks in advance.

jocose · Aug 2009

There was a feature in XSI5 called "texture swimming" it sounds exactly like what you want. They had a video up of how to use it but after Autodesk bought Softimage they took the video down

I also can't find any information in the help, I would assume the feature is still in there but it apears to have either changed names or is now undocumented. I would try asking on an XSI frum like XSI Base. Somone on there might remember how it works.

Please post back here if you figure it out. I'm interested in how it works as well.

Ark · Aug 2009

Oooh..... other XSI users, thought i was alone here.

Select your mesh and add a projection.

Then select your mesh goto the Render tab > Modify > Projection > Swim.

You can now edit your model while keeping the uv's.

NOTE: you need to keep your texture projections for this to work.

jocose · Aug 2009

Cool, thanks Ark ^_^

Adam Curtis · Aug 2009

The xsi help is funny, tells you exactly what it does but nothing about actually how to do it

Ye, unfortunately like you said the texture projections need to be kept - I had them all frozen down.

I found a script that actually copies your uv's and recreates the projection allowing you to apply it after it's been frozen. I'll be testing that on monday

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ark · Aug 2009

There's a few tricks around:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=336096
There's a script at the bottom of the page.

Or

"Duplicate the original object. Delete the UVs on the original object. Gator the original object to the duplicate and transfer the UVs. Gator is placed in the modeling portion of the stack by default, but you can move it up into the animation stack. Now if you do any mesh editing in modeling mode, the UVs/texture will swim thru your topology freely. "

Quoted from Lard on xsibase.