@Migsey_UK
It feels to me that it goes a bit against the non-destructive layering idea. For the moment I am also experimenting with saving the Uvs to an external file.
Until a fix is available, the other option for working non-destructively (which I am sure you are well aware of) is to make a copy of the model with the complete stack so that you can always return to that state of the model even if you have to work on a separate collapsed version to achieve a certain objective. One reason that this is seen as a clumsier workflow is that it takes multiple steps (Clone, rename backup, Hide Backup). So I wrote a script (attached) that automates this process which I use when I am forced to collapse the stack for whatever reason. The script does the following:
- Makes a copy of the selected object and names it as [selected Object’s Name]_Bak_Date_Time
- Places the Backup Object in a separate Layer Named "Backup"
- Hides the backup so that you can go on working on the selected Object
By making this a 1 click process and organizing your backups in a single layer with a timestamp for each backup, I find it makes me far less hesitant about collapsing the stack.
Also, a few other personal thoughts on the term "non-destructive" and the sometimes negative effect it has had on my workflow.
- If the only things on the stack are an Unwrap UVW modifier on top of an Editable Poly, then collapsing the Unwrap UVW modifier is not at all destructive; adding the Unwrap UVW modifier back at any later time returns you to the Unwrapping you last did before collapsing the modifier. So nothing has been destroyed.
- If you have a more complex stack below the Unwrap UVW modifier, then making a backup of the object with the complete stack intact will allow you to return to where you were. So again here, nothing has been destroyed.
- This one is admittedly a little philosophical and a bit off topic. Personally, I have sometimes hesitated too much in exploring alternative model designs because I worry about preserving an increasingly complex "nondestructive" stack, renaming the various edit poly modifiers so I can remember what each one does. Also, maintaining the stack has tended to defer artistic decision making (for me) for the sake of “flexibility” in the future. In actual practice, I find that if I make a copy of the object to preserve the full stack with my little script, I then proceed more boldly, making those artistic decisions and rarely go back to previous versions. Having the previous versions in the Backup layer with the naming convention described above makes it easy to delete them, which I invariably do.
I am not trying in any way to minimize the need for a non-destructive workflow for much of the modeling process, but wanted to offer the script as another way of helping to do that in cases where collapsing the stack is necessary or expedient.
Anyway, I hope this is helpful in some way.
