Main rollup

Option Description
Multi Object Mode Determines the modifier behavior when it is applied to many objects at the same time:
  • Process Together – UV maps of all objects will be packed together in a single packing run to the same UV space
  • Process Separately – UV map of every object will be packed to its own space, in a separate packing run. In this mode the plugin will perform as many packing runs as the number of selected objects.
Display Orig. UVs Show a window with a render of the original UVs.
Display Packed UVs Show a window with a render of the packed UVs, if available.
Pack UVs Run a packing operation.
Render Result Show a window with a render of the resulting UV map after every packing run. The plugin operation is suspended as long as the window is opened – the user must close the window in order to continue.
Save Preset Save all packer options to a file.
Open Preset Load all packer options from a file.
Reset To Defaults Reset all packer options to default settings.

Packing Devices rollup

Option Description
Use All Devices If this option is enabled, the add-on will use all packing devices simultaneously whenever possible.

Basic Options rollup

Option Description
Map Channel Choose the UV channel which will be processed by the plugin.
Thread Count Choose the maximal number of CPU cores which will be used by the plugin. By default this parameter is set to the number of cores in the system.
Margin Margin to apply during packing.
Precision Number describing how exact the algorithm will be when searching for island placement. Too low value may cause islands to overlap.
Rotation Enable Allow the packer to rotate islands in order to achieve better result.
Pre-Rotation Disable Disable the initial rotation of islands before generating other orientations. The pre-rotation operation usually optimizes packing, use this option only if you have a good reason.
Rotation Step Rotation step (in degrees) to use when generating island orientations which will be considered during packing.
Set Set predefined value of the rotation step (in degrees).

Advanced Options rollup

Option Description
Selection Mode Determines how the plugin processes UV selection:
  • All UVs – the plugin always packs all UVs (UV selection is ignored)
  • Selected UVs – only the selected UVs are processed by the packer, non-selected UVs are ignored
  • Pack To Others – selected UVs are packed so they do not overlap with non-selected UVs. Using this mode the user can add new islands to existing packing.
Packing Mode Select how the packer should process the UV map:
  • Single Tile – standard packing to a single tile
  • Tiles – pack islands to tiles
  • Groups Together (Experimental) – group islands using the Grouping Method parameter in the Grouping Options rollup. Pack all groups into a single tile, islands belonging to the same group will be neighbors after packing. For some UV layouts it is required to use the Heuristic Search option in order to obtain a decent result in this mode
  • Groups To Tiles – group islands using the Grouping Method parameter in the Grouping Options rollup. Pack every group into a separate tile.
Tile Count Specify the number of tiles which will be used during packing. If set to 0, then the number of tiles is unlimited.
Tiles In Row When packing to tiles, this parameter determines the number of UDIM tiles in a single tile row.
Fixed Scale Do not scale islands during packing. Packer will return an error if UV islands can’t fit into the packing box.
Normalize Islands Automatically scale selected islands before packing so that the average texel density is the same for every island.
Lock Overlapping Treat overlapping islands as a single island:
  • Disabled – overlapping islands won’t be locked
  • Any Part – two islands will be locked together if only they overlap by any part
  • Exact – two islands will be locked together only if they have the same bouding boxes in the UV space and have identical area.
Pixel Margin Margin in pixels the packed UV islands should have. If this parameter is set to a value greater than 0, then the usual ‘Margin’ option will be ignored and the packer will determine the correct pixel margin.
Pixel Padding Distance in pixels between UV islands and the packing box border. This option is disabled and ignored if set to 0 – in such case the distance will be determined by the island margin.
Method Select a method the packer will use to determine proper pixel margin:
  • Adjustment Time (Recommended) – determine proper pixel margin by running an algorithm for a time specified by the Adjustemt Time parameter. This method gives exact results in a short time in most cases
  • Iterative – This method is guaranteed to always give exact pixel margin, but it requres a number of iterations to be performed and ususally gives slightly worse coverage than the Adjustment Time method. Use the Iterative method only if you cannot get good margin results with the Adjustemt Time method, despite setting longer adjustemnt times. Because the Iterative method gives sightly worse coverage, it is recommended to always combine this option with the Heuristic Search functionality.
Adjustment Time (s) The time in seconds packer will spend on determing the proper pixel margin before actual packing begins. This parameter is only used if the ‘Pixel Margin’ parameter is greater than 0.

Grouping Options rollup

Option Description
Grouping Method Grouping method to use:
  • Material
  • Object
  • Mesh Part
  • Similarity
Grouping Compactness A value from 0 to 1 specifying how much the packer should prefer solutions providing more compact grouping, when packing groups together. A lower value means the packer will strive less to achieve compact grouping, at the same time it will prioritize achieving better coverage of the overall packing. With a greater value of the parameter, groups will be packed more compactly, but the coverage of the entire solution might be worse. WARNING: use this parameter with care – a small increase of its value might considerably change the result you will get.
Similarity Threshold A greater value of this parameter means islands will be more likely recognized as a similar in shape. A lower value means more accurate distinction.

Heuristic rollup

Option Description
Enable Heuristic Perform multiple packing iterations in order to find the optimal result.
Search Time (s) Specify a time in seconds for the heuristic search. After timeout is reached the packer will stop and the best result will be applied to the UV map. If the time is set to 0 the packer will perfrom the search continuously, until the user manually applies the result by pressing ESC.
Max Wait Time (s) Maximal time the packer will wait for a better result. If the heuristic algorithm is not able to find a tighter packing during that time, the operation will be automatically finished and the best result found so far will be applied to the UV map. If set to 0, then the functionality will be disabled.
Advanced Heuristic Use an advanced method during a heuristic search. With this option enabled add-on will examine a broader set of solutions when searching for the optimal one. This method is most useful when packing a limited number of islands, preferably with a greater number of orientations considered – in such case it allows to find a better solution than if using the simple method. Enabling this option is not recommended when packing a UV map containing a greater number of islands.

Texture Dimensions rollup

Option Description
Lock Dimensions Lock the Texture Height value so it is always equal to the Texture Width value.
Texture Width Set the width of a texture the UV map should packed for.
Texture Height Set the height of a texture the UV map should packed for.
Adjust UV Map To Texture Adjust islands proportions to a non-square UV map before packing. Press the help button to learn more.

Packing Box rollup

Option Description
Tile (X, Y) X and Y coordinates of a tile to be set.
Set Tile Set packing box to a UDIM tile as defined by the ‘Tile (X, Y)’ parameter.
Corner 1/2 X and Y coordinates of the packing box corners.