[Bf-funboard] Selection keys and UV maps

[Campbell Barton]

Hi Ruth,

Committed the UV joining script to contrib, so its available with any
recent build when you enable `Testing` section of addons.

...or you could download direct from svn and run it.
https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-extensions/contrib/py/scripts/addons/mesh_copy_uvs_from_joined.py

The workflow is to copy all selected meshes, join (may want to move to
another layer to avoid confusion), edit UVs, then select all other
meshes making sure the joined mesh is active. - Others will get
updates UVs.

On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 1:02 PM, Ruth Ivimey-Cook <ruth at ivimey.org> wrote:
> Hi Campbell,
>
>> Normally when modeling buildings I split up geometry so windows
>> wouldnt be in some mesh as other parts of a building, also often you
>> can instance the window frames so you only need to UV map once.
> I hadn't thought of doing it this way. I guess you could have a simple
> "hole" in the building where the window was, and then the detail of the
> window surround, the glass and bars as a separate object. Is that what
> you mean?

Yes, for UV mapping buildings normally Id use separate objects for
roof, windows, drain pipes, steps - etc.

Note theres an option while editing UVs "View -> Local View", so you
only see UVs of active face's image,
handy to avoid mixed up UVs when you happen to have objects using
different images joined.

>> Alas - blenders manual isn't up to scratch - but I wouldn't worry
>> about finding this stuff tricky, it might be best if you just post the
>> model, and some UV's you would expect to be simple to map. - If an
>> experienced user can't redo this easily it points to the tools
>> lacking. -- This stuff is hard to explain as text I find.
> Where would be a good place to post something?
>
> I didn't say I expected the UV to be simple, but I would hope that it
> would be easier than I am currently finding it.
>
> I have wondered about going on a course of some sort that would help,
> and have looked around a bit. Have you any suggestions?

I'd have to see what you are attempting, maybe you are just trying to
do something really complicated or needs new tools to be done in a
convenient way.

>>> The change would be to make the UV window a UVW window, i.e. 3D, in
>>> exactly the same style as the current 3D window in wireframe or solid
>>> mode. The window would use the 3rd dimension to render the
>>> faces/vertices that currently aren't flat on UV.
>>>
>>> You can then see at a glance when you have an issue to resolve and take
>>> appropriate action.
>>>
>>> If you don't resolve things, the map exported and used outside the UV
>>> window is the face-on UV map, i.e. the same projection that you get if
>>> you look in the 3D window using the "Top Ortho" view.
>> Did you use this feature in some other application? - I only ever
>> seriously did UV mapping in blender.
> No.. it is just what I found myself wishing for when tyring to do things.
>
> Given the rest of what Blender does, it doesn't seem such a hard thing
> to me, :-) :-)  in that Blender already has code to display a 3D mesh,
> to modify said mesh, etc. The issue would be to make internally a new
> mesh derived from the main model and then export it as the UV.

Drawing some mesh in the UV view isnt so much hard (we draw meshes in
our video editor for eg), its more that you propose some tool which
has a totally new workflow, Its not clear to me the problems it solves
exactly.

>>>> Being able to edit multiple UV's at once would be really nice.
>>> Can it be put on the "todo" list at some point. I see many people on
>>> lists asking how to do it and being disappointed. It seems (unlike my
>>> earlier suggestion) that it ought to be relatively simple, if you go
>>> with the "you can only edit one object at once" rule.
>> To do this in a general way we need to be able to enter editmode for
>> multiple objects at once, this is a fairly big undertaking, so not
>> sure listing as a TODO really helps, its more a good feature to have
>> and devs are aware of it.
> I was hoping that while full multi-object edit mode would be nice, there
> was an intermediate option. When displaying the UV map in edit mode for
> one object, Blender would:
> - for the other objects that are mapped to this texture
>     - one by one, enter edit mode and cache the UV map (perhaps a
> transparent image would do?)
> - for the actually selected object display the cache for the other
> objects on the texture
>
> That would help a lot.

We could have some way to edit UV's for multiple objects without
multi-mesh-editmode.... but eeeeh, seems a bit hackish...
artists want this for many ares really - paint, sculpt etc... I'd
rather not add special case here.

>> Sergey Sharybin wrote a script to do this but its not released, such
>> tools are fairly trivial to write but needs to be made into an addon
>> or so - I'll check on this.
>
> Thanks
>
> Ruth

-- 
- Campbell