Seams and Pinning in the UV editing layout

This is an ongoing project to produce UVs that can be used for laser
cutting wood panels in order to build a 3D sculpture in the real world.

Multiple objects are incorporated in the sculpture and
I want all the UVs to be exported to the same PDF.

That means all objects need to be merged into one mesh and unwrapped together.
For this tutorial I'm only working with the two main objects prepared previously.

First thing to do is set up the Seams.

The green lines here are not Splines but Seams and when unwrapping you can think of them as cut lines.
The edges that aren't green are like fold lines where the polygons/UVs will stay connected.

seams.gif
 
If an object has no UVs defined you may see something like this.
Or it may look different depending on the object.

If you're going to unwrap everything at once you can ignore the undefined UVs.
But because there are a lot of parts, I find it's better to do it in sections, pinning and snapping each as I go.

So I select all UVs and scale them down and shove them off to the side to get them out of the way.

No uvs.jpg
 
In the UV editing window you have a different set of
contextual menu's than in the 3D preview window.

Right clicking while over the window gets you there.

dualmenu.gif
 
Actually it´s just one step down the hierarchy in the 3D view: under "Selection" and under "UV" you´ll find the same tool set. Just saying.
 
Last edited:
I've tried to use menu commands instead of keyboard
commands for at least the first time I do something.

-Note: Hold shift and option when snapping points.

Here I unwrap one of the objects, section by section,
pinning snapping and unwrapping a second time.

You can see that you can work outside the border of the
white square, but only what's inside will be exported to the PDF.

 
Last edited:
Once all sections are unwrapped you can arrange them however you want.
Just make sure if you're going to scale, you scale everything at once.

Combo Unwrap.jpg
 
Back
Top