[Bf-funboard] Selection keys and UV maps

[Ruth Ivimey-Cook]

Hi folks,

I'm a newbie Blender user -- been using it privately for 18 months or so 
-- and am posting here as I'm not sure how else to ask for changes. I 
hope I've found the right place. I'm using Blender currently for static 
model creation, using the Windows 7 64 bit version.

1. The first is the "b"  box select action. I note from recent archives 
that others have posted about being consistent, well, I am always 
finding that I have to restart a box-select because I've forgotten to 
deselect the previous thing: indeed, sometimes my model has evidence I 
didn't deselect in time. Could the box select be changed such that 
unmodified, the items selected replace the current selection, and, for 
example, Shift-B is needed to extend the existing selection?


2. The models I am making right now are almost exclusively of things 
with flat and mostly rectangular faces. When trying to make UV maps of 
these, the existing tools far too often either distort the aspect ratio 
of the original face, or utterly distort it out of recognition. As 
normally the texture is coming from real life (eg a wall), neither 
action is acceptable as the resultant distortion or scaling will be 
quite obvious, so I have to go round individually tweaking things: 
extremely laborious.

- I would like a UV mapping "mode" which above all else faithfully 
preserves the shape of every face (perhaps unless the operator 
explicitly moves UV vertices or edges). I realize this may mean it's 
impossible to map, so how about the following:

- Modifying the view of the UV map window to actually be 3D? If a face 
can't map to the UV plane, it's extended out in the "W" direction and 
the operator can see it using the standard 3d movement tools used in the 
3D window.

- Moreover, any edges that have either end with W<>0 are drawn in a 
different colour to make it clear they are not mapped in the requested 
manner.

- As now, seams can be cut along edges so as to reduce the impossible 
mappings and this will interactively collapse model towards the UV 
plane. Also, edges can be "merged" such that they form a "non-seam" even 
if they didn't start off that way [am I right in thinking this is now 
possible in 2.64?]

- Finally, as far as the rest of the stystem is concerned, the UV map is 
the UVW map projected back onto the UV plane - so for example a face 
mapped normal to UV will disappear.

While in some ways this puts the onus back on the user to sort out the 
seams etc, it seems to me this would make it a lot easier to identify 
the problem areas.


3. The final UV issue I have: why can I only see the UV map for one 
object mapped onto a given texture image at a time? I can accept that I 
can only edit one object's UV map, but could I not see the mapping of 
any other object's faces onto that texture, so it's possible to align 
and optimise them properly?


Best regards
Ruth

-- 
Software Manager&  Engineer
Tel: 01223 414180
Blog: http://www.ivimey.org/blog
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/ruthivimeycook/