Unwrap UVW - save one uvw file instead of one per group?

[Anonymous]

I have a model imported from sketchup

its broken my 3d model into several groups

I need to Unwrap UVW , flatten into a single texture maps and save a single uvw file

What max is doing is saving a different uvw file for each group

How do I prevent this?

Secondly how to I take 2 groups, groupA, groupB and consolidate them into a single groupC ?

[Anonymous]

apologies, what I meant to say is, the sketchup model imported into Max has broken the model down into several component parts

when I unwrap uvw, it tries to save a uvw file for each component part

I want a single uvw for the whole model

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Morning!

So I'd say the best way to fix this is combine them first and then fixing the UVs is easy (which is what it sounds like you want to do).  If that's the case, here's a step-by-step:

1. Right click on one of your meshes (whichever one you want to be the main mesh...if it doesn't matter then it doesn't matter) and select "Covert To" near the bottom-right and then pick the "Convert to Editable Poly" option.
2. You might want to check if all of your material IDs are set right--if you want them all to be in one UV space and only using one material, then go into Polygon editing mode, Ctrl+A for select all, and then in the "Polygon: Material IDs" section just right-click on the "Set ID" spinner (shortcut for setting it to 1...you could always just enter 1 and hit enter there).
   1. Having separate mat IDs can separate their UV spaces, depending on what you're using the meshes for/exporting them to.  
3. Turn off edit poly mode
4. Add a "Unwrap UVW" modifier to the mesh.  If your UVs are not all in the box, then their using different UV cells (UV 1, 2, etc.).  That's great for mirroring polys for game engine use, but if you just need them all in one UV space you can just pack them in there and you're set.

Alternatively, you can also just pick all the meshes, apply an Unwrap UVW modifier and they'll share that same modifier (if you needed them separate still).

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

thank you, that's perfect