topic Re: Automatic UV mapping Wrong Orientation in Maya Modeling Forum

Automatic UV mapping Wrong Orientation

sztigran — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:54:19 GMT

Hi,

Is there any way to fix Maya's Automatic UV mapping's wrong orientation of cubic projection (6 planes). It layouts parts (UV shells) of the object in random orientation, some sides are upside down and I have to manually rotate them in 90 degrees. Can't find any option to turn off the automatic rotation of the generated UV shells, which takes place for better layout, I guess, but it is really frustrating, because yet it is called automatic, but I still have to manually rotate some parts so they point in the right direction.

The mesh is clean, history is deleted, all transformations are set to zero, scale (1,1,1).

Thank you!

Re: Automatic UV mapping Wrong Orientation

hamsterHamster — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 17:44:47 GMT

I guess, it is how the polyAutoProjection node was made.

As you see, there is no consequence in plane orientation, and you'd probably are expected to rotate the patches yourself, as there are too many layouting pattern options to address every with a single switch.

Here, you probably could decrease the number of planes to 3, and rotate entire placement gizmo e.g. RX:90. Tried on my not so complex model and it kind of worked.

Re: Automatic UV mapping Wrong Orientation

sztigran — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 19:19:12 GMT

Thank you! It indeed may help in some cases, but it is a real shame that maya doesn't have an option for turning off the random rotation of uv shells at automatic unwrapping, like it has for layout'ing. I'm really surprised, that nobody cares so far. Sure thing, most of the time we cut UV's manually, but auto unwrap gives nice projections we can use as a starting point and cut or sew it any further, and one by one rotating the pieces really gets annoying in complex meshes. Hope some day the developers will fix this.

Re: Automatic UV mapping Wrong Orientation

hamsterHamster — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 20:02:29 GMT

It actually isn't that random, it is just +X rotated 180° to get the -X projection, except the rotation axis vary. And, it is user who decides "which way is UP", especially when one uses a number of projections other than 6. So, I guess, it never has been considered an issue.

If some specific arrangement suits your needs (like, 3 planes, rotX 90), you can copy commands from the script editor and copy to the shelf as a button.

In any case, you can distill your idea and post it in Maya Ideas board. If it gathers enough likes, then your improvement idea might be implemented. Until then, it is not being considered anything special.