headus 3D tools

[picnmix]

Hi,

Fantastic program - many thanks for your efforts. Basically I'd like to know if there's a way to keep stacked objects from coming apart when packing your uv's.

For example, if I have a series of wheels on an object and I know from the outset that I want them stacked so they share the same uv space - so I do this. I'm also editing another object, say, a car shell and I'm cutting and flattening and so forth. Now I'd like to repack the whole lot. Is there a way to have the pre-stacked wheels stay together when packing, as currently they separate.

If I haven't made a mistake then some method of retaining that stacked group during the packing process would be all lovely and rather useful.

The only way I can think of doing it currently is to take one element from the stack and pack that with the car shell - then re-stack. In my real example though I have a great number of stacked elements and that process can take a while when done repeatedly.

Regards,
Aaron

[headus]

"a way to keep stacked objects from coming apart when packing your uv's."

Yes, there is a way in the Pro version, but its not ideal and I hope to come up with something better in a future release.

Anyway, what you need to do is to put your stacked shells into a new box; just LMB drag around the shells after slacking - it'll turn them green - then click the "New Box" button in the Packing panel. Then, when you want to repack, aim the mouse pointer at nothing in particular and tap the ']' hotkey ... it repacks only the top level shells, and wont go into the boxes, messing up your stacking.

If you use the "Pack All" button, it will repack the boxes, which you don't want. If you want to repack an individual box at any point, aim the mouse pointer at that box and tap ']' hotkey.

In theory you are supposed to be able to put stacked shells into a box, then lock them (with the 'L' hotkey), then "Pack All" wont mess with them. I just tried this though and its broken ... nothing gets packed! I'll at least get this bug fixed for the next release.

Phil

[picnmix]

Ah great - that will do the trick.

Many thanks for the quick response.

Aaron