UV Texture Editor: Polygons menu

Copy UVs

Copies the selected UVs for a selected face to the clipboard so they can be copied (pasted) to another face. See Mesh > Clipboard Actions > Copy Attributes.

Paste UVs

Pastes UVs that were previously copied to the selected face. See Mesh > Clipboard Actions > Paste Attributes.

Create Empty UV Set

Creates a new, empty UV set on the current object. You can then create the UVs in the set using one of the mapping/projection methods. See Create UVs > Create Empty UV Set.

Copy UVs to UV Set

Use the items in this submenu to create a UV set based on an existing UV layout or transfer a UV layout from one set to another. See Create UVs > Copy UVs to UV Set.

Set Current UV Set

Lets you select a specific UV set. See Create UVs > Set Current UV Set.

Rename Current UV Set

Lets you rename the currently selected UV set. See Create UVs > Rename Current UV Set.

Delete Current UV Set

Deletes the currently selected UV set. See Create UVs > Delete Current UV Set.

Normalize

Scales the UVs of the selected faces to within the 0 to 1 texture space. See Edit UVs > Normalize.

Unitize

Places the UVs of the selected faces on the boundary of the 0 to 1 texture space. See Edit UVs > Unitize.

Flip

Flips the positions of the selected UVs. See Edit UVs > Flip. This item is also found on the UV Texture Editor toolbar for quick access. See UV Texture Editor toolbar.

Rotate

Rotates the positions of the selected UVs by a specified number of degrees. See Edit UVs > Rotate. This item is also found on the UV Texture Editor toolbar for quick access. See UV Texture Editor toolbar.

Layout rectangle

Creates an evenly distributed UV rectangle from a selection of two vertices. The selected verties define the top left (0,1) and bottom right (1,0) corners of a rectangular patch of geometry. The UVs contained in the selection area are laid out evently starting at the top left corner and ending at the bottom right corner.

Cycle UVs

Rotates the U and V values of the selected polygon. This item is also found on the UV Texture Editor toolbar for quick access. See UV Texture Editor toolbar.

Best Plane Texturing Tool

Assigns UVs to the faces you select based on a plane computed from vertices you specify. See Create UVs > Best Plane Texturing Tool.

Grid

Moves every selected UV to its nearest grid intersection in texture space. See Edit UVs > Grid. This item is also found on the UV Texture Editor toolbar for quick access. See UV Texture Editor toolbar.

Align

Aligns the positions of the selected UVs. See Edit UVs > Align. This item is also found on the UV Texture Editor toolbar for quick access. See UV Texture Editor toolbar.

Warp Image

Modifies a texture image by comparing two UV sets on a single polygonal mesh and produces a new bitmap image. See Edit UVs > Warp Image.

Map UV Border

Moves UV borders to the edges of 0 to +1 texture space. See Edit UVs > Map UV Border.

Straighten UV Border

Untangles the border of a UV texture shell, such as an edge that loops around itself. See Edit UVs > Straighten UV Border.

Optimize

Spreads out all UVs to make them easier to work with. See Edit UVs > Optimize.

Unfold

Lets you unwrap the UV mesh for a polygonal object, and attempts to prevent you from creating overlapping UVs. See Edit UVs > Unfold.

Layout

Attempts to rearrange the UV shells into a cleaner layout, based on the settings in the Layout UVs option box. See Edit UVs > Layout. This item is also found on the UV Texture Editor toolbar for quick access. See UV Texture Editor toolbar.

Cut UV Edges

Separates UVs along the selected edges, creating borders. See Edit UVs > Cut UV Edges.

Split UVs

Separates UVs from each other along the edges connected to the selected UV points, creating borders. Shortcut for the texture editor’s Edit UVs > Split UVs. This item is also found on the UV Texture Editor toolbar for quick access. See UV Texture Editor toolbar.

Create UV Shell

Converts the currently selected components (vertices, UVs, edges, or faces) to a line of edges around the perimeter of your selection, and then makes a cut along the perimeter, creating a new UV shell. See Create UV shells.

Sew UV Edges

Attaches UVs along the selected borders, but does not move them together in the texture editor view. See Edit UVs > Sew UV Edges. This item is also found on the UV Texture Editor toolbar for quick access. See UV Texture Editor toolbar.

Move and Sew UV Edges

Attaches UVs along the selected borders, and moves them together in the texture editor view. See Edit UVs > Move and Sew UV Edges. This item is also found on the UV Texture Editor toolbar for quick access. See UV Texture Editor toolbar.

Merge UVs

Merges together separate UV shells. See Edit UVs > Merge UVs.

Delete UVs

Removes the selected UVs from the mesh. You will need to re-map or re-project the UVs in order to map textures onto the affected areas. See Edit UVs > Delete UVs.

UV Snapshot

Saves an image file of the current UV layout. You can then paint on this image in a painting program or use this image as a background reference layer for texture work in an image editor such as Adobe® Photoshop®. See Save an image of the UV layout. An option window appears with the following controls:

File Name

You can save the file anywhere inside or outside of your project. Maya automatically assigns the file extension based on the image format you select.

Size X, Size Y

Sets the dimensions of the exported image. Use the same dimensions you want for the file texture you are about to create. If you are not sure, use the default size; you can scale the exported image later in your paint program.

Keep Aspect Ratio

The aspect ratio is the ratio of Size X to Size Y. With it turned on, you can change one size slider and Maya automatically adjusts the other size value to keep the same ratio. If you need to change the aspect ratio, turn off this option temporarily and adjust one of the sizes.

Color Value

Sets the color of the UV patches in the exported image. The background of the snapshot is black; therefore, the Color Value should be white or another contrasting color. You can click the box to open the Color Chooser.

Anti-alias Lines

Controls whether lines in the output image have anti-aliasing.

Image Format

Use an image format that your paint program can read. If you require an alpha channel while painting, use TIFF or a similar format.

UV Range

Normal (0 to 1) specifies the range between 0 and 1. When this option is set (default), only the UVs appearing in the 0 to 1 area are included in the 2D image that gets output.

Entire Range specifies that a 2D image will be output that covers all displayed UVs regardless of their position within UV space. That is, if the UVs lie outside the 0 to 1 range, they will still be included in the UV snapshot image.

User Specified allows you to customize the UV range that will be output by specifying minimum and maximum values for U and V. This is useful when you need to output an image of a specific UV shell or a specific region within the UV Texture Editor.

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