[Bf-funboard] UV unwrapping: (manual or automated) packing of several objects

[Melchior FRANZ]

Hi,

since a few years I'm working on a 3D model of a helicopter for
the (Free) FlightGear simulator (http://www.flightgear.org/). The
model is still basically untextured, because Blender just isn't
fit for the job! I'm following the improvements in the UV area
since a while, and it's getting better and better, but it's still
not really usable for my purpose.

The problem: the helicopter consists of 266 objects at the moment
(with more to come), and I need to pack UV-mappings of multiple
objects on one texture. This is not only to avoid 266 texture
files for aesthetic reasons, but because this would make livery
(paint scheme) switching a huge PITA. Blender doesn't seem to
support this trivial task, which I find quite astonishing given
the number of sophisticated features and the overall quality.

I know, there's the "Unwarp (Smart projection)" option (formerly
known as archimap.py), but it's written for architecture (= pile
of boxes ;-) and not really suited for something more complex.
I'd be fine with doing the unwrapping by hand, using the best
method on a per-object basis. "Classical" (LCSM) for the fuselage,
"from window" for the tail boom, etc.

But how would I then get all those manually created UV mappings
on a single texture? I only see the mapping of one single object
at a time -- it's, thus, impossible to move them closely together.
The built-in box-packer doesn't help either.

So, what I'd like to suggest are two features:

(1) make the box-packer pack already manually done UV mappings
    of all selected objects on one texture

(2) support manual packing (or adjustment of automatic packing)
    by drawing the UV mappings of all selected objects at the same
    time: the active one like it's done now (black with movable
    vertex points), but all other selected ones in a different,
    not too obtrusive color (light grey or something, ideally
    configurable). A special bonus would be if one could also
    select objects by clicking on an "inactive" mapping.

m.