Erik Lehmann’s UV Toolkit Gets New Features and Enhancements Streamlining UV workflows in Maya.

UV Toolkit is a tool that automates and simplifies aspects of the recurring UV unfold and layout process in Maya, but Senior Build TD at DNEG, Erik Lehmann. Recently, Lehmann has spent some time with a relatively large update to his Maya UV tool (and his other tools too), with a more streamlined interface and new unfold and layout features.

UI changes see new tabs for Unfold and Layout, housing those tools and cleaning up the interface. Other tabs in the UI have been renamed and moved, for a better workflow.

The toolkit’s Unfold features include auto-cut edges, unfold and pack, (based on the Unfold3D tech), Gridify that lets you auto unfold cylindrical shapes found on the selected cutting edge. U/V that enables you to unfold vertically or horizontally, and a projection setting for UVs.

UV Toolkit updates:

• UV Utilities tab
• UV Distribute tab

• streamlined interface
• changed tab naming for better readability
• added MMB (middle mouse button) operations
• added option menus (RMB / right mouse button)
• added shortcut for UV Editor and UV Set Editor

• Unfold: Auto cut edges, unfold (based on U3D) and pack
• Gridify: auto unfold cylindrical shapes based on the selected cutting edge(s) (former unfold cable)
• U / V: unfold horizontal, vertical or freely
• Projection: from camera or X / Y / Z axis

• Layout: auto layout all shells with uniform scale / Option to do it for each selected object individually
• Grid Arrange: arrange all layouts in a grid (object based) / Option to sort by polygon count and set layout size
• Stack: stack all layouts on top of each other (maintains layout size) / Option to set size and stack uniformly
• Spread: spread your UV layouts based on an input value (object based) (former UV Distribute)
• Rotate: rotate your UV selection clock- or counterclockwise / Option to rotate multiple shells from their individual center point

• added possibility to increase scale

• added local transfer option
• added option to transfer the current or all UV Sets
• added transfer from multiple sources