/ Recent content in UVPackmaster Documentation on UVPACKMASTER 3 Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us /48-other-topics/5-inconsistent-islands-error-handling/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /48-other-topics/5-inconsistent-islands-error-handling/ For some packer operations the user may specify parameters on a per-island basis (e.g. group number, per-island rotation step, lock group number etc.). The problem is that Blender does not internally maintain information about UV islands. That is why the user needs to specify aforementioned parameters on a per-UV face basis in the Blender UI. During the operation, the packer uses those per-face values to determine values assigned to UV islands. /40-miscellaneous-modes/10-aligning-tools/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /40-miscellaneous-modes/10-aligning-tools/ The video tutorial describing the Aligning Tools functionalities: The Aligning Tools mode provides all aligning and similarity related functionalities of the packer. In order to use the Aligning Tools mode select it from the Main Mode selection menu: The Aligning Tools mode provides two similarity-based operations: Select Similar – from all unselected islands, selects all islands which have similar shape to at least one island which is currently selected. Align Similar (Stack) – aligns the selected islands, so that islands which are similar are stacked on top of each other. /48-other-topics/10-heavy-uv-maps-handling/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /48-other-topics/10-heavy-uv-maps-handling/ Version 3.1.0 of the packer introduced significant performance improvements for handling UV maps with a huge number of faces (a few millions and more). Benchmarks show that the packer is now able to process a UV map containing 15 millions of faces in a few minutes. There are still a few considerations the user should have in mind, when packing such a UV map. Heuristic search considerations In order to achieve the most dense packing possible, one should enable the Heuristic Search functionality. /45-addon-usability-features/10-option-presets/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /45-addon-usability-features/10-option-presets/ In order to speed up your workflow, you can save all current packer properties to a preset file. This feature can be accessed using the Option Presets icon in the Main Mode subpanel: In addition to the option to Save and Open presets, there is also the Reset To Defaults option for all packer properties. After pressing the Save button, the file browser window will pop up, where you can choose the name and location for the preset. /30-packing-modes/10-single-tile/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /30-packing-modes/10-single-tile/ This mode provides the most basic type of a packing operation - it packs the selected islands into a single target box in the UV space. In order to use the Single Tile packing mode select it from the Main Mode selection menu: By default the mode packs islands to the unit UV square (box of coordinates [0-1][0-1]): The default box can be overwritten in the Custom Target Box subpanel: Supported packing functionalities The mode supports the following packing functionalities: /40-miscellaneous-modes/20-other-tools/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /40-miscellaneous-modes/20-other-tools/ The Other Tools mode gathers functionalities which are not related to any of the previous modes. In order to use the Other Tools mode select it from the Main Mode selection menu: Orient UVs to the 3D space The Orient UVs to the 3D space functionality rotates every selected UV island so that the resulting UV mapping for that island matches a selected 3D axis with a selected UV axis. You can think about such a match in the following way: with given two axes matched, the texture direction on a 3D geometry along the given 3D axis will be the same as the texture direction along the given UV axis in the UV space. /20-packing-functionalities/20-packing-to-others/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /20-packing-functionalities/20-packing-to-others/ Watch the following part of the tutorial for an introduction to the functionality: Every time a packing mode is selected in the Main Mode selection menu, the addon will display two buttons: Pack Pack To Others By pressing the Pack button, you instruct the packer to perform a standard packing operation: the selected UV islands are packed as determined by the logic of the currently selected packing mode. On the other hand, when you press the Pack To Others button, the logic of the operation will be different: the selected UV islands will be packed in such a way that they will not overlap the unselected UV islands. /45-addon-usability-features/20-quick-favorites-shortcuts/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /45-addon-usability-features/20-quick-favorites-shortcuts/ As with any Blender operator, you can add the UVPackmaster Pack operator to the Quick Favorites menu. You should keep in mind though that the packing mode selected at the time of adding will be permanently tied to the given entry in the Quick Favorites menu. The problem appears if you add the Pack operator to the Quick Favorites menu many times, each time with a different packing mode. In such a situation you will get a menu with indistinguishable entries: /30-packing-modes/20-tiles/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /30-packing-modes/20-tiles/ The Tiles packing mode packs the selected UV islands into a grid of tiles. In order to use the Tiles packing mode select it from the Main Mode selection menu: You configure the dimensions of the grid to be used in the operation in the Tile Layout subpanel: An exemplary UV map packed to a tile grid 5x2: The Tiles packing mode also supports the Custom Target Box functionality: A custom target box (if used) determines the shape of the first tile in the grid - all other tiles in the grid will follow the first one accordingly. /30-packing-modes/30-groups-to-tiles/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /30-packing-modes/30-groups-to-tiles/ The video tutorials describing the Groups To Tiles mode: The Groups To Tiles mode packs UV islands split by the user into a number of groups. The target UV area (where a given group is going to be packed) is configured independently for each group. In order to use the Groups To Tiles packing mode select it from the Main Mode selection menu: The Groups To Tiles mode is a group-based mode, that is why the an additional Island Grouping panel will appear in the addon UI after the mode is selected: /20-packing-functionalities/30-pixel-margin/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /20-packing-functionalities/30-pixel-margin/ Watch the following part of the tutorial for an introduction to the functionality: The Pixel Margin functionality allows the margin of the resulting UV map to be determined in pixels of the active texture. In order to use this option, enable the check box located in the Pixel Margin subpanel header: With the Pixel Margin functionality enabled, the Margin option from the Packing Options subpanel will be ignored and the packer will determine the correct pixel margin set by the user in the Pixel Margin parameter. /30-packing-modes/40-groups-together/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /30-packing-modes/40-groups-together/ The Groups Together mode packs UV islands split by the user into a number of groups. All islands are packed into a single box in the UV space, so that islands belonging to the same group are neighbors in the resulting layout. In order to use the Groups Together packing mode select it from the Main Mode selection menu: The Groups Together mode is a group-based mode, that is why the Island Grouping panel will appear in the addon UI after the mode is selected: /20-packing-functionalities/40-heuristic-search/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /20-packing-functionalities/40-heuristic-search/ The video tutorial describing the Heuristic Search functionality: The default packer algorithm provides a decent packing for every UV map, but in most cases it won’t be the most dense one. If you want to obtain a very dense packing, you should enable the Heuristic Search functionality. In order to do that, enable the checkbox located in the header of the Heuristic Search subpanel: When the Heuristic Search functionality is enabled, the packer will perform many packing iterations (slightly randomizing the process every time), saving the best result it could find. /30-packing-modes/50-groups-independently/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /30-packing-modes/50-groups-independently/ The Groups Independently mode packs UV islands split by the user into a number of groups. All groups are packed into the same UV space (a tile or optionally a grid of tiles). Groups are packed independently - when packing a single group, the packer ignores all islands belonging to other groups. As a result islands belonging to different groups will likely overlap each other after packing is done. In order to use the Groups Independently packing mode select it from the Main Mode selection menu: /20-packing-functionalities/50-lock-overlapping/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /20-packing-functionalities/50-lock-overlapping/ Using the Lock Overlapping functionality the user can make the packer not split certain islands during packing. When the functionality is enabled, every group of islands which are overlapping each other will be logically processed by the packer as a single island - their relative positions will be maintained during packing. In order to use the Lock Overlapping functionality, enable the checkbox located in the Lock Overlapping subpanel header: There are currently two modes in which the functionality can run: /20-packing-functionalities/55-stack-groups/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /20-packing-functionalities/55-stack-groups/ Using the Stack Groups functionality the user can make the packer automatically align (stack) particular islands on top of each other before packing and then pack stacked islands together. Stacked islands will not be split during packing. In order to use the Stack Groups functionality, enable the checkbox located in the Stack Groups subpanel header: Stack groups are numbered (every group is identifiable by a number). In order to make the packer always stack given islands before packing, select these islands and assign the same stack group number to all of them. /20-packing-functionalities/60-non-square-packing/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /20-packing-functionalities/60-non-square-packing/ In order to pack islands to a non-square texture, you need to enable the checkbox in the Non-Square Packing subpanel header: Next perform the following steps: unwrap your islands in the usual manner so that they are not deformed when displayed with no texture open is the UV editor, open or create a non-square texture in the UV editor. You will notice that the islands will be deformed now, in the next step, adjust the islands to the texture, i. /20-packing-functionalities/70-custom-target-box/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /20-packing-functionalities/70-custom-target-box/ Using the Custom Target Box functionality, you can pack islands to an arbitrary box in the UV space. In order to use the functionality enable the checkbox in the Custom Target Box subpanel header: You can specify the box coordinates manually in the subpanel, you can also press the Edit Target Box button in order to enter the Box Edit mode. In the Box Edit mode the add-on renders the box in the UV space so you can modify it with visual feedback. /20-packing-functionalities/80-island-rotation-step/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /20-packing-functionalities/80-island-rotation-step/ The Island Rotation Step functionality allows the rotation step to be defined individually for every island. In order to use it, enable the checkbox in the Island Rotation Step subpanel header: By default all islands will have a special G rotation step value assigned to them – it means that they will use the global Rotation Step setting from the Packing Options panel. Assigning the rotation step value 0 to particular islands will prevent them from being rotated during packing at all. /20-packing-functionalities/90-island-scale-limit/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /20-packing-functionalities/90-island-scale-limit/ The Island Scale Limit functionality allows the user to define a maximum scale which can be applied during packing individually for every island. In order to use it, enable the checkbox in the Island Scale Limit subpanel header: By default all islands will have a special scale limit value N assigned to them – this value means that the given island has no scale limit assigned and will be packed normally. /version.txt Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 /version.txt 3.1.5