Help with transferring UVs

[t_smith5]

Hi

I'm having problems with transferring UVs to similar meshes. There are some simple pieces where I want to overlay the UVs. I've retopologised a high poly mesh in 3DCoat, and then cloned/copied the mesh to another similar piece. They've snapped to them no problem. However, when I export them into Max or Maya, UV unwrap one, and then copy the unwrap to the next piece, the cuts are a mess in the Viewport. The UV island itself looks fine though.

Here's an example of what I mean... The first image shows the first original mesh and the unwrap. The second is the UV copied to it and the messy cuts.

Is this just a glitch that's nothing to worry about...? When I try the checker texture, it looks messy and distorted. 😕 I've tried copying and pasting the UVs with Ctrl + C/V, saving the UVs out and loading them onto the other mesh, and copying/pasting the UVW Unwrap modifier. I seem to get the same result regardless what I try. I don't get it, as I make sure the poly/vert count is the same, some of the other meshes I've snapped them to, I've had to clean up a bit, and I've tried just leaving them, but I get the same result regardless.

Is there any sure-fire way of getting this to work...? I really want to get a number of smaller meshes overlayed to save on UV space. And I'm trying to match a professional's UV layout where they have these similar pieces overlayed. I have been speaking to them via ArtStation about their workflow, but sadly, for this situation, I can't get ahold of them. 😞

[domo.spaji]

No, it's not a glitch 😁

You would need meshes with same vertex order (you can select some vertices on same places on meshes and see they don't have same number (can see it in edit/able poly when select single verts)).

Why don't you just copy unwraped mesh and transform it on position (and rotation) of second one?

If you're trying to match "professional" or simpler workflow make copies of mesh/es before you make them "high_poly" and use that.

[t_smith5]

That would be the ideal scenario - duplicating the unwrapped mesh and aligning it to the next (high poly). Sadly, more often than not, I’m finding the first piece doesn’t align correctly. I made another thread about it some weeks ago, about having problems aligning a duplicated low poly tube to each of the high poly ones. They would never snap align correctly. And I’m pretty sure some/all were the same high poly mesh and weren’t rescaled. They were just rotated at different angles.

As to your last suggestion - do you mean to make a low poly first, in say, ZBrush, then duplicate it and make it high poly...? Then that way it’s the same shape and is perfectly aligned...? Seems like a good strategy to try.