Is there a tool which will do a move and sew but instead of sewing the edges 50% into the middle it will only move the edges of the specified shell. Or if I could just lock the uv's so they don't move during the move and sew.
but move and sew works the way you just explained, it move lesser shell to bigger one 1-2 Move&Sew moved one shell to position of another, no middlemoves or something else 3-4 move&sew edges on same shell for sure move them to middle. This is actual for Maya 2012 and above, can't say anything for lower versions.
That works with move and sew too. I feel dumb asking, but you're sure you aren't hitting the "Sew" button, rather than "Move and Sew", because thats the only thing I can think of that would give issues like you describe.
hey, don't know if i understood you right, but take a closer look to Maya's UV Editor toolbar and you'll find there... "Move and sew" button. But seems i misunderstood something
In this particular case, if you move and sew this section into place, select the UVs in the centre and unfold, it will put them back into place. As for general sewing of uv shells without distortion, there was a script called ESALsmartMoveAndSewUVs.mel from jocose…