Unfold UV not working properly

[Anonymous]

I'm about ready to scream haha.  I tried Reinstalling the program, I tried making sure it wasn't just the file i was working from, but unfold UV doesn't work for me.  It pretty much just destroys my UVs by crumpling them up randomly.  

For Instance, I have a video game character.  Right now I am trying to unwrap the head:

As you can see, the mesh topology is completely fine, and I have the head cut in a very typical way:  A seam down the back of the head that stops at the top.  The inner eye sockets, ears, and inner mouth are completely cut away from this.  This is how I ALWAYS unwrap in Maya, I start with a planar projection, Get my cuts in, and then I do an Unfold UV.  

But recently this started happening:

As you can see, It looks like maya made no real attempt at all to keep distortion down, or stop overlapping the same uv island.  This problem just started for me too.  If I open up older files of characters I have already finished and go to their completed UVs (ones that I got properly laid out using this method) and try pressing unfold on them,  They completely screw up just like this.  

I'm getting frustrated, I'm on a time constraint with these characters and I don't want to have to start doing my UVs in Blender.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

It seems a very unexpected issue. Maybe it is a long shot and you may have tried it. But when I usually have this issues I export the geometry as OBJ to reset all of its information. And then importing the clean OBJ back to maya. Also you may want to try to delete maya preference files so you start with a fresh Maya with no errors or options that may be alternating the functioning of Unfold 3D plugin. And at last try to deactivate and activate back the Unfold3D plug in from the plug-in manager. 

Hope some of this helps, cheers!

[Anonymous]

Thank you! turns out the unfold UV plug in wasn't even enabled, despite the fact that it still showed up in the menu.

[Anonymous]

"It seems a very unexpected issue".

Lol.. i hope you kidding. It happens to me A LOT. Even with simpler meshes. No kidding. The sad fact is, that as a lot of things with maya 2017, the uveditor is broken as hell. Before update 3 it was working more or less nicely,  after update 3, its a total mess. I already needed to migrate to another app to just make the uvs. -_- (yes, pathetic, i know, but i was tired of so many issues with the uv editor).

[jonas.holmedal]

100% agree!

Update 3 has destroyed the uv editor, I get these kind and new kinds of bugs on basically cubes...
It's broken, i hate update 3 with all of my soul

[Anonymous]

Yet still so many people using maya 2017, even if it is a total mess. I migrated to Blender already. My license can screw itself for all i care lol. The uv editor in Blender is just perfect. Sure, it doesnt have so many fancy tools or useless fancy UI, but is basicall 500% better than the one that comes with maya lol. I mean, Blender in my opinion is about 500% times better than Maya right now. I still cant understand how a 3d app so ooooooo expensive (Blender is free and it is still better than Maya go figure :s) can be so broken and glitched. Maybe because people keep buying it? probably. We all know humans are stupid and weird creatures. Some more than others..

[soongstephanie]

THANK YOU FOR THIS! I've been going mad unfolding my UVS multiple times and it getting all messed up. Thanks so much for figuring this out and posting your solution! Much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone ! 

I had trouble too with the unfold, exporting and import the object work, but is not a solution. I openned the unfold's option and changed Unfold3D to Legacy ! Now it's working. Hope It's helping you. 

[vikrant.gour]

Sometimes freezing transformation helps too. Check this video out - Maya Unfold tool Warped Uvs (Fix) - YouTube

[hcm250331]

I've got the same issue, unfortunately nothing of the solution here had worked. I solved it by change "weight solver towards" in unfold option to 1.00 (Local to Global) and it unfolded correctly. hope this would help someone!