UV Editor Crash / Freeze

[Anonymous]

Hello:

I was working on a model tonight, and randomly in the UV editor when I tried to move  a piece it froze.  Now, whenever I try to move any piece in the UV Editor, it freezes for around 10 seconds before moving it.  I tried searching for solutions, but I could not find any.  I had a friend who is quite an expert at Max look over it, and despite the STL check, he saw no issues.

If it would help, I can send the model file.

Cheers

[Brock_Lafond]

Attach the file in a .zip archive.

If I have time today I'll check it out.

[Anonymous]

I've sent you a dropbox link, should be a faster d/l.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23389642/Caiman.max

Regards,

[ekahennequet]

Hi. Your file cannot be found in the link. If you could attach it (must be zipped) to your post, it'll be better.

[Anonymous]

Hello all:

Sorry about the link, I accidentally deleted it.

I've attached a RAR of the max file to this post.

[Steve_Curley]

File down-converted to Max 2014.

[ekahennequet · Accepted solution]

I got different results when I opened the file. I crashed once when I went straight to the UV editor to move the UV vertices. Second time, instead of going straight to Unwrap, I collapsed the stack. In Editable Poly, I deleted some unused vertices with "Remove Isolated Vertex." You had some rogue, floating vertices that must have been created by accident. I then applied a new Unwrap UVW modifier and looked at your UVs. You have some bunched up UV vertices that converge to a point. An area of one of your rope/pipe-like objects had UV vertices bunched up. They were sitting on top of other detached UV polys that were also bunched up. I've isolated those by both moving, relaxing, and re-flattening. This is not a permanent fix, but you will need to re-work/re-scale them if you want to use them as it. "Forum_Caiman_2014_Problem_UVs_Isolated_Rescaled.max"  I've Otherwise, you can follow my suggestions and try to fix the areas I've pointed out. (See attached pics and scene files)

Note: I've turned on Backface Cull in Object Properties and have Wireframe on because I couldnt tell what was what. I realize you're working on an interior of a car/ship.

P.s. Thank you, Steve, for the file conversion. 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hello:

Thank you very much for looking into the problem.

Do you think in the future to prevent UV headaches I should keep electronic cabling simpler and lower poly?

And for record, incase you are curious, this is the interior to a military vehicle (MPAP) Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected troop carrier known as the Caiman

Regards,

[ekahennequet]

That depends on how you're using the model. Your model is not high-res, but if you're never going to have a close-up of the cables, then you may not need more polys. In that case, you can still optimize certain areas.

For easier UV mapping purposes, there are few ways to make the task easier for cable-like objects. For your Caiman cable object, for example, you can start out with Loft or Sweep modifier, or Cylinder with Path Deform. All of these methods give you the option of generating UV coordinates during creation. Even if you apply UV Unwrap, the tweaks on those UVs will be minimal. Another method is if you've already modeled your cable and it is no longer procedural, then make sure to leave it whole. Don't delete  random polys of the hidden areas the way you have now. If you're going to delete them, delete an entire row of polys. There's a tool in Unwrap called "Unfold from Loop." I love this tool because what used to be a pain to unwrap is so much easier now as long as I have a mesh that has clean rows and columns of polys in quads, even if the mesh is not straight and in a coil.

Threads where I mention Unfold from Loop:

UVW Very long, Intricate object as a Rope

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-3ds-max-design-general/uvw-very-long-intricate-object-as-a-rop...

 Straighten Selection stretches UVs

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/shading-lighting-and-rendering/straighten-selection-stretches-uvs/m-p/...

Also, you don't need to have all of your mesh elements in a single object. You can collapse the stack, detach various parts, then apply Unwrap to all selected. This will give you instanced Unwrap UVW modifier to each element. You can then work on them individually. When you're done with UV mapping all of the components, you can collapse the stack again and reattach them later. It'll make it so much easier to deal with models with too many components.

If you have identical components like those seats you have, just model once and UV map it once. If you copy these seat objects and attach them as a single object after UV mapping, you will end up with UVs that are overlapping and sitting on top of each other, but you can easily move and re-arrange the UV elements by selecting them via Viewport. You can leave them overlapping to save texture space if your project doesn't require unique UV space.

Another route to take is to model using subdivision method. With this method, you model in low-resolution, but the model must be prepped in ways that can support subdivision of the models that retain its overall shape when subdivided into high-res. You model with Turbosmooth/Meshsmooth applied and toggle on and off during modeling. But you can UV map it in low-res, then apply Turbosmooth or Meshmooth for controlling the number of subdivisions rather than modeling in full-res to begin with. This makes UV mapping easier in Unwrap.

I posted a link to "Hard Surface Essentials" in this thread. Very good primer if you like modeling machinery or vehicle type objects:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/modeling/topology-problem/m-p/5336023

Hope this helps. Good luck.