[Plugin] UVTools 0.2 Pro (Beta) (Updated for SU6)

[Whaat]

I have decided to release the next version of UVTools as a public beta. I'm not certain at this point whether this plugin will end up commercial or not but in either case, I am very anxious to release it so here it is!

New in UVTools 0.2

- UV Import/Export bridge to external UV mapping software.

Confirmed Compatible External UV Mapping Software
Blender (free)
Ultimate Unwrap 3D
UVMapper Classic (free)
UVMapper Pro
Roadkill (free)
Argile
Lithunwrap (free)
3DS Max
UVLayout

I need your help to test to see what other external software is compatible. I suspect that almost any app that can import and export OBJ files should be compatible. If you find a compatible app that is not listed here, please let me know so I can add it to this list. Some suggestions for testing are:

- Maya
- Modo
- Cheetah 3D

I have NOT yet tested this plugin on a Mac but I suspect that it will work fine. Some of the apps listed above have Mac versions available including Blender, UVMapper classic, and Argile.

How to use the External UV Bridge

The basic workflow is the same no matter what external application is used.
1) Paint a textured material directly on any any number of faces in your SketchUp model. Do not paint on groups or components. You must paint on the faces.
2) Select the faces that you want to UV map. Currently, you can only map one material at a time so be sure to only select faces that have the same material applied.
3) Go to the menu item Plugins->UVTools->Export UVs to OBJ.
4) A message should show if the export was successful. Pay attention to the location that the OBJ was saved. The location cannot be changed.
5) Load/Import this OBJ file into your external UV mapping application.
6) Edit the UVs with your application as desired.
7) Save/Export the model as an OBJ file using the same filename and location that you exported from SketchUp.
8) Go to the menu item Plugins->UVTools-Import UVs from OBJ.
9) You should receive a message that the import was successful.

The workflow probably sounds complicated by I assure you that it runs pretty smoothly. Below is a video of the workflow using Ultimate Unwrap 3D as the external mapping tool.



Most external applications will give you an options dialog box when you import or export an OBJ file. Do NOT change any options! The default settings should work fine in most external apps.

I have not yet modified any of the existing UV mapping methods from version 0.1. You can still apply cylindrical or spherical mapping as before by using the right-click context menu. The axis for mapping will always be the z-axis. To change the tiling, just adjust the width and height of the texture using the SketchUp material editor (after applying the UV projection).

Please post feedback and bugs. Enjoy!
Whaat

EDIT: Updated version to work with SU6

[majid]

, even the first version was incredibble,thank you mate and would you plz add more options ,like cubic, and maybe more options for sylanderical mapping too?...it is really great , man!!!

[NewOne]

Well... seems to be amazing. I just tried UVMapper Classic and LithUnwrap, but I think for now I will stick to It's to hard for me to figure out how to use that uv mapping software. I always thought is more simpler and intuitive

[Whaat]

Well... seems to be amazing. I just tried UVMapper Classic and LithUnwrap, but I think for now I will stick to It's to hard for me to figure out how to use that uv mapping software. I always thought is more simpler and intuitive

UV mapping programs are generally not very intuitive from my experience. However, there are tons of UV mapping tutorials on the internet and many of them are applicable to different software. It then becomes a matter of figuring out the UI for your particular program.

[DIEGO-RODRIGUEZ]

thank you very much for sharing.
excellent plugins


--------------------------------------
a question, naive.
can make plugins to map from sketchup?
it work as well as UVtools.rb

[Khai]

if it works with UVmapper Classic, it should work with Pro.. I'll test that for you later on. (I've been using Pro for years)

[remus]

Any tips on opening the .obj in blender 2.5? ive tried just straight file->import but i cant see anything afterwards...

[Khai]

Works fine with UVmapper Pro

[Khai]

oh MAN
I love this already!!!!!!!!!

[pilou]

Seems a new true gem
@Remus: you have Blender 2.5?

[Whaat]

Any tips on opening the .obj in blender 2.5? ive tried just straight file->import but i cant see anything afterwards...

I haven't used version 2.5 yet. With my older version, I had to go the menu item 'File->Import->Wavefront OBJ' and then browse for the file.

Depending on the scale and location of the object, it might not be immediately visible in the Blender 3D view. Is there a command in Blender to 'Fit the view to the scene'?

[pilou]

Blender Shortcuts
Seems it's Home

[Khai]

testing it now.. but it looks like as a sideline, you've created a good OBJ exporter.....

ok. you've created as a sideline, a almost perfect OBJ exporter for Sketchup. (just the naming / save location)

hot damn. UVmapping and OBJ exporting.... you should see the grin on my face!

[remus]

Pilou, you can get the latest builds (pre beta at the moment) from here: http://www.graphicall.org/builds/

Whaat, i'll give 2.49 a try this evening and let you know how it goes.

[Khai]

ok been playing with this today and I consider it a must have already...

[jeff hammond]

khai - you have to sell it man!
let's see some pictures of what you've come up with

[Khai]

lol sorry

the bugbears I've had is UVmapping and OBJ export..and this solves both in one shot.. I'm kinda excited lol

[Whaat]

khai - you have to sell it man!
let's see some pictures of what you've come up with

Yeah...let's see some pictures of what you guys can do with this!

[Stinkie]

Thanks, Dale. Will try this with Modo.

[EarthMover]

Dale, tested with 3ds Max and it worked flawlessly on this teardrop shape using the Unwrap UVW modifier. Thanks for the plugin. It will fix a lot of headaches!!

One of the issues is that once a UV is imported, it does not "stick" to the geometry it was assigned to. For example if I did not like this brick and wanted to replace it with another material, the UV's become scrambled again. Also when I try to undo after importing the UV's, I get a SU crash.

[Whaat]

Dale, tested with 3ds Max and it worked flawlessly on this teardrop shape using the Unwrap UVW modifier. Thanks for the plugin. It will fix a lot of headaches!!

Great! Another app to add to the list! Thanks for testing

One of the issues is that once a UV is imported, it does not "stick" to the geometry it was assigned to. For example if I did not like this brick and wanted to replace it with another material, the UV's become scrambled again. Also when I try to undo after importing the UV's, I get a SU crash.

Yeah, I hate that SketchUp does not keep UVs when switching materials. I'll look into that crash, too. Thanks!

[NewOne]

Dale, tested with 3ds Max and it worked flawlessly on this teardrop shape using the Unwrap UVW modifier. Thanks for the plugin. It will fix a lot of headaches!!

Great! Another app to add to the list! Thanks for testing

One of the issues is that once a UV is imported, it does not "stick" to the geometry it was assigned to. For example if I did not like this brick and wanted to replace it with another material, the UV's become scrambled again. Also when I try to undo after importing the UV's, I get a SU crash.

Yeah, I hate that SketchUp does not keep UVs when switching materials. I'll look into that crash, too. Thanks!

Can you write the UV data in an attribute? And using it from there... It would increase the size of the file, I think... for each face to write separate UV. But it can be a way.

[Whaat]

Can you write the UV data in an attribute? And using it from there... It would increase the size of the file, I think... for each face to write separate UV. But it can be a way.

Yes, you can. I use that method in SkIndigo but I have not yet added the feature to UVTools.

[NewOne]

Can you write the UV data in an attribute? And using it from there... It would increase the size of the file, I think... for each face to write separate UV. But it can be a way.

Yes, you can. I use that method in SkIndigo but I have not yet added the feature to UVTools.

When using Oscar's UV mapping and tried to render with Maxwellrender I noticed that it exported a bitmap for each face and made a copy of used material for each exported bitmap. So, I had situations when I had 1000 materials just for one object
This is strange... I was eexpecting that the bitmap to be folded around object.

[jeff hammond]

I have NOT yet tested this plugin on a Mac but I suspect that it will work fine.

nah, it doesn't even appear in the context menu.. (well, the spherical & cylindrical still do but that's it)


edit-
haha.. hold on a minute.. i guess i'm in the wrong place because it is in the plugins menu..

[cut me some slack though..it's friday night and i'm messing around with wine & UV mapping)

[Khai]

should one drink and draw?

[jeff hammond]

ha.. sure - just don't look at the drawings in the morning and everything will be okay.

the plugin works on mac just fine (tested using argile)
i don't think that's the right app for me but that's beside the point..

[princedragoncok]

Thankyou Whaat for this fantastic plugin. I tried it with UVLayout. It failed to work with Sketchup 6 and had me feeling gutted that I had spent a few hours learning uvlayout for no reason. Then tried it with Sketchup 7 and it worked thankfully!

One of the issues is that once a UV is imported, it does not "stick" to the geometry it was assigned to. For example if I did not like this brick and wanted to replace it with another material, the UV's become scrambled again. Also when I try to undo after importing the UV's, I get a SU crash.

Yes, the uv's will become scrambled momentarily when you change to a completely different material, but go back to the uvtools in the plugins menu and re-import your external uv settings onto the newly scrambled material and it will revert back to the pervious mapping settings you had but with the new material.

So here is a quick example of the plugin in action:

In su7 before:

With the plugin applied using uvlayout:

I have run into perhaps a bug though.. while I set up the uv mapping correctly in uvlayout - I got an error message when importing into sketchup. It told me import successful but 1 face failed.. This is the result:

Before:

After (notice the scrambling along the center)

I have one more question which isn't related to the plugin but something I have experienced myself (with my basic uvmapping skills) and is something I also noticed in Whaat's videos. When I split open my mesh to flatten it, when it reassembles the joining seam never lines up correctly... any simple suggestions to combat this?? i'm thinking there must be some sort of weld function i'm missing inside the uvprogram. Here's an illustration anyway:

[Whaat]

Thankyou Whaat for this fantastic plugin. I tried it with UVLayout. It failed to work with Sketchup 6 and had me feeling gutted that I had spent a few hours learning uvlayout for no reason. Then tried it with Sketchup 7 and it worked thankfully!

Are you sure it only works in SU7? If so, that's very strange.

I have run into perhaps a bug though.. while I set up the uv mapping correctly in uvlayout - I got an error message when importing into sketchup. It told me import successful but 1 face failed.. This is the result:

It looks like from your image that more than one face failed. This 'bug' seems to be caused from SketchUp not 'liking' the UVs that are generated from the external application. I'm not sure how fixable it is...

I have one more question which isn't related to the plugin but something I have experienced myself (with my basic uvmapping skills) and is something I also noticed in Whaat's videos. When I split open my mesh to flatten it, when it reassembles the joining seam never lines up correctly... any simple suggestions to combat this?? i'm thinking there must be some sort of weld function i'm missing inside the uvprogram. Here's an illustration anyway:

Seams are (by definition) discontinuities in the UV coordinates. I think the only way to avoid seams is to use spherical and cylindrical mapping. I don't have a ton of experience with UV software. There might be a weld-type function somewhere that will align the UVs along both edges of a seam.

[vidy]

yes whaat, it failed in sketch up 6.. could it be fixed?