Move, rotate, and scale UVs

You can manually move, scale, or rotate UVs and UV shells in the UV Editor. For example, you may wish to move individual UVs or entire UV shells to improve their layout, or scale UV shells to ensure they make optimal use of the 0 to +1 texture space.

To... Do this:

Move, rotate, or scale UV positions freely.

  1. Select the UVs you want to reposition.
  2. Select the Move, Rotate, and Scale tools from the Toolbox.
  3. Use the manipulators to transform the UVs.
Note: Scaling UVs of multiple polygon objects together in the UV Editor may produce unexpected results. Work on the UVs of one object at a time.
Note: Point snapping and Grid snapping are compatible with the UV Editor.

Tweak UVs (transform UVs without selecting them)

  1. Select the Move, Rotate, and Scale tools from the Toolbox.
  2. Middle-drag over UVs.

Alternatively, you can drag UVs with the Tweak UV Tool.

Note: Tweaking a single UV using the Rotate or Scale tool won't have any effect.

Move a UV shell so that it does not overlap other shells.

  1. From the UV Editor menu, select Tools > Move UV Shell > . (Or click the Move UV Shell Tool icon on the toolbar of the UV Editor.
  2. Turn on Prevent overlap.
  3. Select the UV shell you want to move by either clicking the shell or dragging a bounding box around it in the UV Editor.
  4. Drag the manipulator to move the UV shell.
Change the pivot point
  1. Use one of the Transform Tools (Move, Rotate, Scale) to select the components you want to transform.
  2. In the UV Toolkit, open the Transform section.
  3. Use the Pivot grid to assign a quick pivot point, or click Edit Pivot to manually place the pivot manipulator. Click Edit Pivot again to return to normal transform mode.
    Note: You can use the Insert key to quickly toggle Edit Pivot mode on and off.

The pivot lasts as long as the selection does. If you change selections, the pivot of the new selection will default back to the center of the selection. For more information on pivots, see Change the pivot point.

Move, Rotate, or Scale UVs by fixed increments.
  1. Select the UVs you want to transform.
  2. In the UV Toolkit, open the Transform section.
  3. In the appropriate transform field, set the transform amount.
  4. If moving UVs, make sure the center button is set to REL (relative) mode. If scaling them, make sure the appropriate axes are enabled.
  5. Use the button(s) next to the transform field to transform the UVs.
Note: You can also move the UV shells pertaining to any selected UVs by pressing the arrow keys.
Move UVs to an absolute spot in UV space.
  1. Select the components you want to move.
  2. In the UV Toolkit, open the Transform section.
  3. In the Move transform field, enter an absolute position value.
  4. Click the REL (relative) button to change it to ABS (absolute) mode.
  5. Click the U, V, or UV button to snap the components to the specified position in the appropriate axis.
Note: If you have multiple components selected, the center of them will snap to that position.
Move UVs with brush-based falloff
  1. Select the components you want to move.
  2. In the UV Toolkit, open the Transform > Tools section.
  3. Click the Grab, Pinch, or Smear button.

    The mouse cursor changes to a brush.

  4. Drag the brush over UVs.

Each of these tools will affect the UVs within the brush differently. For more information see Modify UVs with brushes.

Straighten UVs by aligning them.
  1. Select the UVs you want to align.
  2. In the UV Toolkit, open the Align & Snap section.
  3. Click one of the Align buttons to align the UVs relative to the furthest one in the appropriate direction.

For other straightening methods, see Straighten UVs.

Flip UVs to flip the texture placement on the mesh.
  1. Select the faces you want to flip texture placement on.
  2. In the UV Toolkit, open the Transform section.
  3. Next to the Flip button, select a direction (U or V).
  4. Click Flip.
Scale UVs to fit within the 0 to +1 texture range.
  1. Select the faces whose UVs you want scaled within the 0 to 1 range.
  2. In the UV Toolkit, open the Align & Snap section.
  3. Next to the Normalize button, select the directions that you want to scale the UVs.
  4. Click Normalize.
Note: You can change this functionality to fit within any nearby UV tile by going to Modify > Normalize > and turning on Center on closest tile.

Move UVs to (0,0), (1,1), (1,0), or (0,1) in texture space.

  1. Select the faces whose UVs you want to have unitized.
  2. Select Modify > Unitize > . See Unitize UVs options.
  3. Adjust the settings as desired and click Apply and Close or Apply.
Parent topic: Editing UVs