headus 3D tools

[mcnscott]

newbie modeler here, I'm reading the book 3ds max modeling for games by Andrew Gahan. On the portion where on modeling characters he is importing each asset of the character into uvlayout one object file at a time. When he is done he has an image off all the pieces. My question is how do you import one object file, and when that one has been flattened, import another file and keep them all on the same layout cell as shown in his image below? I understand I can import the entire model and cut it apart in uvlayout. However, he says to import each piece separately, but he never explained how to do it.

[headus]

Its entirely your choice if you load the whole object, or just do a piece at a time. The advantage of the second approach is that UVLayout will run faster, but of course the disadvantage is that you have to keep loading and saving files; use of one of the interface plugins (see [url==http://www.headus.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=13]Plugins[/url]) can help with this though. You could also do something in between; e.g. split the model into quarters and load each of those into UVLayout at a time.

Anyway, if you have loaded individual pieces into UVLayout, the UVS will overlap back in the full model. One solution to this would be to then load the entire mesh back into UVLayout (with Edit selected in the Load options) for final packing. Andrew may also have packed those shells back in the modeling application.

Phil