BlenderNation

Advertisement

You're blocking ads, which pay for BlenderNation. Read about other ways to support us.

Addon: Multi Object UV Editing

39
By on Add-ons

This addon by Andreas Esau allows you to UV map multiple separate objects at once, packing the resulting UV in one texture.

I am currently working on a character in blender and needed to combine multiple objects into one uv layout. Well blender has its problems with handling multiple objects uvs at once. I have written a small addon for that exact purpose and tried to integrate it seamlessly into blenders workflow. Another small step to improve the workflow in blender. Now you just select all the mesh objects you want to edit the uvs and press the new appearing operator in the object tools. Press it, edit everything as you wish and tab out into object mode again. Thats it. The addon handles everything in the background for you and copies uvs to the objects.

I know there is the texture atlas addon, which has may also have extended functionality. But I tried to go for a different approach here. I wanted to make this as best integrated in blenders workflow as possible. The texture atlas addon needs some setup beforehand and this makes it a bit more complicated.

Link

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

39 Comments

  3. xy.exe on

    Thanks! I needed this for a vehicle recently. It was frustrating to copy and join objects all the time just to preserve naming.

    Reply
    • Ndee on

      Hi Norbert,
      please make sure you unpack the downloaded zip file. Github packages the complete project into a subfolder which blenders addon installer cannot handle. So install the py file directly.

      Reply
    • ndee on

      Norbert,
      sorry.. this was my fault.. I had a wrong version formatting in the latest version of the script which resultet in installation problems. That is fixed now. But still.. make sure you install the py file directly :-)

      Greetings,
      Andreas

      Reply
    • ndee on

      Hmm.. strange should work. I didn't have problems with it. Please make sure you use the latest github version. If you still have issues write an issue on github. If possible provide a testfile so I can take a look at it.

      Reply
    • poison on

      Same here. System console says when starting to create uvs: convertViewVec: called in an invalid context. After returning to object mode, I get a few warnings either like: Warning: Object: Cube.001, Mesh: 'Cube' has 24 loops (for 6 faces), expected 0

      Reply
      • poison on

        Uninstalled blender, downloaded a fresh copy, downloaded the script again, installed the unzipped py. Created a simple uv for default cube, duplicated the cube, selected them both, pressed the button (convertViewVec error in console window), here I was able to edit both uvs together, but hitting tab makes them return to their original state (+warnings for 24 unexpected loops on both objects).

        Reply
        • ndee on

          Ok.. merged a pull request by jonim8tor. I think that issue should be fixed. Please try the a new version from github.

          Reply
      • poison on

        No more convertviewvec error but same warnings and still no effect after returning to object mode... Latest downloadable version was 0.91 on github... (Don't take these reports an offence, I really would like to see it working!!!)

        Reply
      • ndee on

        Ok.. I got the problem located. It has to do with which select mode you have activated. So if you make vertex select mode it should work fine. with face select mode it doesn't.
        I am on it. Found some other issues too. I will make a new push later.
        Thanks for reporting.

        Poison, I don't take it as offense.. I would like to have version 1.0 stable :D

        Reply
  8. yayagg on

    深圳装修公司16厂房装修经验质量绝对有保证,价格绝对实在!深圳装饰公司是深圳唯一一家只做深圳厂房装修，深圳办公室装修的公司,深圳装饰公司预算=决算,工程不转包是深圳装修公司对客户不变承诺!.

    Reply
  9. Norbert on

    I was awkward because I spent it badly. The copied link to a download manager came to an html code instead of the python,
    Everything works.
    One excuse is the need to work with edit mode, instead it could be a start stop button to avoid having to take care not to step out of edit mode to random, and so the process can bake badly to see ....

    Reply
    • ndee on

      Norbert,
      I made a new commit. A few further fixed that could crash the addon. The operator now can also be accesses via the specials menu(w).
      I also thought about making entering and leaving the editing mode via a button. But I have to admit I am not sure about it yet.

      Reply
  11. Carlo on

    Hi, I tried your addon but blender crashed. I tried the following:
    1. create 2 cubes, click Multi Object UV Editing, blender crashed
    2. create 1 cube, uv unwarp, copy cube, use the addon on the two cubes. It works, blender doesn't crash.

    It looks like the addon only works when the objects are already unwrapped or an uv map has been added?
    Does anybody has the same issues?

    Reply
    • ndee on

      Igor,
      well.. it deletes the vertex groups for the merged object, because custom vertex groups are needed in that process. But once you leave edit mode all vertex groups are restored.
      Do you need the vertex groups while editing the uvs?

      Reply
      • Igor on

        I do not need so while editing the uvs but the vertex groups are broken after restoring them. The vertex groups lose their order and weight.

        Reply
        • ndee on

          Hi Igor,
          thanks for reporting this. I was not aware of that issue. It worked once, but back then the copy method I used to create the multiobject was different.
          It is fixed now and the latest version is pushed to github. Please test it!

          Reply
          • Igor on

            Hi Andreas,
            your addon works fine! I tested it on the massive complex objects and there are no any problems. You are the cool guy! Thanks a lot!

  13. Jobi on

    Hi Andreas,

    Iam trying to use your add on with Blender 2.8 (mac) but it wont show up
    it shows up in the "filter add ons" but thats it.
    Since your YT video is showing an older version I cant figure out what the
    workflow is in 2.8 !

    Can you show what should pop-up ?

    Thanks

    Reply

Leave A Reply

To add a profile picture to your message, register your email address with Gravatar.com. To protect your email address, create an account on BlenderNation and log in when posting a message.

Advertisement

×