UVPackmaster Setup In Blender

UVPackmaster 3 is supported on Windows 64-bit, Linux 64-bit and Mac 64-bit (Intel and Apple M1).

IMPORTANT: after you install UVPackmaster 3 in Blender, make sure you look for the packer UI in the N-panel of the UV editor - it is NOT located in the 3D viewport:

Keep in mind that there is no strict correspondence between the UVPackmaster version and the Blender version - all UVPackmaster 3 releases will work properly with all Blender 2.8x, 2.9x, 3.x versions.

In order to setup UVPackmaster in Blender follow the steps for your OS included below.

Windows

Follow the steps:

If you are upgrading from an older UVPackmaster version, go to Blender preferences and uninstall the previous version of the UVPackmaster add-on. After uninstalling, it is strongly recommended to restart Blender once, otherwise an error may occur when installing a new add-on version.
Download the latest version of the UVPackmaster add-on for Blender from the Downloads page (the add-on file name starts with uvpackmaster3-addon) and has zip extension.
Install the add-on using the standard procedure for Blender add-ons.
Purchase a license for the UVPackmaster 3 engine at Gumroad or Blender Market (visit the Get UVPackmaster page for details). Note that the engine is required to use the add-on packing features in Blender. After purchasing, download the UVPackmaster engine installer from the marketplace. The name of the installer follows a pattern: uvpm-engine-pro-{VERSION}-windows-x64.exe. Make sure you use the correct engine version – there must be a match between the add-on version and the engine version.
After downloading, install the engine in the system (by running the installer exe file as you usually install applications in Windows). During installation select the path where you want to install the engine. If you already have any other UVPackmaster engine installation present in your system (e.g. an older version), the installer will automatically remove it before installing the new engine.
Install Visual Studio Redistributable from Microsoft, if you don’t have it installed already. It is required for the engine to run.
Run Blender (or restart if you had it opened). Go to the N panel of the UV editor – you will find the UVPackmaster3 tab there. At the top of the tab you should see a label reporting that the UVPackmaster engine was automatically detected by the add-on. You can immediately start using UVPackmaster features in Blender.

Linux

Follow the steps:

If you are upgrading from an older UVPackmaster version, go to Blender preferences and uninstall the previous version of the UVPackmaster add-on. After uninstalling, it is strongly recommended to restart Blender once, otherwise an error may occur when installing a new add-on version.
Download the latest version of the UVPackmaster add-on for Blender from the Downloads page (the add-on file name starts with uvpackmaster3-addon) and has zip extension.
Install the add-on using the standard procedure for Blender add-ons.
Purchase a license for the UVPackmaster 3 engine at Gumroad or Blender Market (visit the Get UVPackmaster page for details). Note that the engine is required to use the add-on packing features in Blender. After purchasing, download the UVPackmaster installer script from the marketplace. The name of the script follows a pattern: uvpm-engine-pro-{VERSION}-linux-x86_64.run. Make sure you use the correct engine version – there must be a match between the add-on version and the engine version. Also make sure your browser won’t open the engine installer script on its own when you click at it in the marketplace library. Do not save the script opened in such a way. Instead, press the right mouse button on the engine script in the marketplace library and choose Save the link as.
After downloading, run the installer script. The default extract location used by the script is /opt/uvpackmaster/engine3, but you can change it if you like. Changing the path is not recommended though, because the UVPackmaster addon will be able to automatically detect the engine, if it is extracted into the default path - no additional setup steps will be required.
The engine installer script will display the EULA - you need to accept it in order to continue installation. On some Linux distributions there is a bug causing the license agreement question not to be printed after the end of the EULA is reached. If you don’t see the question at the end of the EULA, simply press the Q button - after the button is pressed the question should be displayed normally.
Run Blender (or restart if you had it opened). Go to the N panel of the UV editor – you will find the UVPackmaster3 tab there. If you extracted the engine into the default path, at the top of the tab you should see a label reporting that the UVPackmaster engine was automatically detected by the add-on. You can immediately start using UVPackmaster features in Blender - the setup is done. If you changed the engine path, then proceed to the additional steps below.
In Blender go to: Edit Menu → Preferences → Add-ons → find the UVPackmaster3 addon on the list of all addons. Expand the UVPackmaster3 addon entry - you will see a UI with the addon global preferences. In the UI press the Set Engine Path button - a file browser window will appear. In the file browser navigate to the location where you extracted the engine and localize a file named release-{VERSION}.uvpmi – select the file in the browser. Caution: do not go into any subfolder of the extracted engine folder – you have to select the uvpmi file which is located in the main folder of the engine. After the uvpmi file is selected in the browser, you should notice a status message saying that the engine was initialized.
Save the Blender preferences to make the engine path permanent: click on the 3-bar icon in the bottom-left corner of the Blender preferences window and press Save Preferences. You can start using UVPackmaster features in Blender - the setup is done.

Mac

Follow the steps:

If you are upgrading from an older UVPackmaster version, go to Blender preferences and uninstall the previous version of the UVPackmaster add-on. After uninstalling, it is strongly recommended to restart Blender once, otherwise an error may occur when installing a new add-on version.
Download the latest version of the UVPackmaster add-on for Blender from the Downloads page (the add-on file name starts with uvpackmaster3-addon) and has zip extension.
Install the add-on using the standard procedure for Blender add-ons.
Purchase a license for the UVPackmaster 3 engine at Gumroad or Blender Market (visit the Get UVPackmaster page for details). Note that the engine is required to use the add-on packing features in Blender. After purchasing, download the UVPackmaster engine installer from the marketplace. The name of the installer follows a pattern: uvpm-engine-pro-{VERSION}-macos-x86_64.pkg - it will work on both architectures: Intel x86_64 and Apple M1. Make sure you use the correct engine version – there must be a match between the add-on version and the engine version.
The installer is not signed, so in order to run it you need to right click on the installer file in Finder and choose Open from the menu. Confirm that you want to run the installer in a dialog that will appear. Follow the installer steps in order to install the engine in the system.
Run Blender (or restart if you had it opened). Go to the N panel of the UV editor – you will find the UVPackmaster3 tab there. At the top of the tab you should see a label reporting that the UVPackmaster engine was automatically detected by the add-on. You can immediately start using UVPackmaster features in Blender.

All systems: install the engine alongside with the add-on

Problem: I want to keep my UVPackmaster add-on as well as the engine in the same location in order to make a package which can be easily moved between computers. How can I do it?

Follow the steps:

Install the UVPackmaster add-on in Blender using the standard procedure for Blender add-ons.
Install the engine on your system using the instructions for your OS included on this page above. Navigate to the location where the engine was installed - you will find the directory named engine3 there.
Navigate to the location where the add-on was installed. The installation path depends on your Blender configuration, it will probably end with a directory hierarchy such as: …//scripts/addons/uvpackmaster3 (you will find the add-on Python files in that directory).
Move/copy the engine3 directory from the engine installation location to the uvpackmaster3 directory (where the add-on was installed).
The final directory hierarchy should be: …//scripts/addons/uvpackmaster3/engine3

Now when you run Blender, the add-on should always automatically detect the engine located in the engine3 directory (no matter where the add-on is placed). Note that the engine and add-on versions have to match for the engine to be properly detected. Also keep in mind that the resulting package will only work on the same OS type which was used to prepare it.

Support

If you run into any trouble when following the procedure, contact us at support@uvpackmaster.com (make sure you attach the product purchase receipt in the message).