8

Edit UVWs Dialog Menu Bar 887
Detach Edge Ver ts—
Tries to split off the current
selection into a new element. Any invalid vertices
or edges are removed from the selection set before
the detach.
Stitch Selected—For the current selection, finds all
the texture vertices that are assigned to the same
geometric vertex, brings them all to the same spot,
and welds them together. With this tool you can
automatically connect faces that are contiguous in
theobjectmeshbutnotintheeditor.
To use Stitch Selected, first select sub-objects
along an edge you want to connect (by default, this
causes the shared edges to highlight), and then
choose the command. In the
Stitch Tool dialog
(page 1–900)
, adjust t he settings, and then click
OK to accept or Cancel to abort.
Pack UVs—Distributes all texture-coordinate
clusters through the texture spa ce using one of two
methods and spacing you specify. This is useful
if you have several overlapping clusters and wish
to separate them.
Choosing Pack UVs opens the
Pack dialog (page
1–891)
.
Sket ch Vertices—Lets you draw outlines for vertex
selections with the mouse. This is useful for
matching coordinate cluster outlines to sections of
the texture map
en masse , without having to move
vertices one at a time.
Choosing Sketch Vert ices opens the
Sketch Tool
dialog (page 1–899)
.SketchVerticesisavailable
only in the Vertex sub-object mode.
Relax Dialog—Opens t he non-modal Relax Tool
dialog (page 1–894)
, which lets you change the
apparent surface tension in a selection of texture
vertices by moving vertices closer to, or away from,
their neighbors. Relaxing texture vertices can
make them more evenly spaced, resulting in easier
texture mapping. Available at all sub-object levels.
Note: This command, as well as a Relax command
that lets you apply the default settings to the
current selection without opening the dialog, are
available as assignable
keyboard shortcuts (page
3–954)
.
R ender UVW Templa te—Opens the Render
UVs dialog (page 1–896)
,whichletsyouexport
texture mapping data as an image file that you can
then import into 2D paint software.
Mapping menu
Lets you apply one of three different ty p es of
automat ic, procedural mapping methods to a
model. Each method provides settings so you can
adjustthemappingtothegeometryyou’reusing.
With each method, the mapping is applied to the
current face selection; if there is no face selection it
is applied to the entire mesh.
Here’s a quick over view of the three methods:
• Flatten mapping prevents overlap of mapping
clusters, but can stil l cause texture distortion.
• Normal mapping is the most straightfor ward
method,butcanresultinevengreatertexture
distortion than with Flatten mapping.
• Unfold mapping eliminates texture distortion,
but can result in overlapping coordinate
clusters.
Tip: In many cases, one of the automatic mapping
functions will prov ide useful results. But with
certain custom or complex objects, you might
get the best results with manual mapping; use a
variation of the
basic procedure (page 1–869) ,or
use a procedural method as a st art ing point for
custom m apping.
Flatten Mapping—Applies planar maps to groups
of contiguous faces that fall within a specified
angle t hreshold.
Choosing Flatten Mapping opens the
Flatten
Mapping dialog (page 1–889)
.