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Selecting a full UDIM Tile


Helge Maus
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Hi,

I have imported a Model with some UDIMs (UV sets as tiles) into 3D Coat. Works fine, when clicking with the fill tool on the mesh.

But, is there a way to select directly by clicking on the mesh the right uv set (on which uv set (udim) this mesh part lives)?
At the moment I go through my texture sets by solo them to find out. Not the most efficient workflow.

Thanks,

Helge

 

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Thanks for your answer.

No, this doesn't solve my problem. Let's say I have around 22 UDIMs (UV-Sets). Now I want only to work on the hand.
For that, I can solo the visibility of the uv set. But I don't know on which set it is, right. Filling the hand with a SmartMaterial with the fill tool is easily  possible in the viewport, but to isolate it not.
So, what I am looking for is like a Select tool or function, clicking on a part of the mesh and knowing (selecting) the right texture set.

I hope, you can understand the problem.

Kind regards,

Helge

 

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No, because UV Tiles are really often set for the need of texel density for different areas of a model.
So, one big mesh chunk (Surface Object) is splitted into different UDIMs. For example, a head (one mesh, one paint object) has important areas for a close-up, so one UDIM (texture set) for the face, the rest is on another UDIM (texture set).

When you now paint an important tile (face), you want to deactivate the visibility of all other tiles by click to give your graphics card enough memory to hold these textures of this tile and gives you more performance. In the painting process, you do that over and over again.

Does this explanation make sense?

I know, 3DC is not meant (yet) for painting UDIMs, but maybe switching uvsets and visibilities is not a problem. That's the background of my question.

Thanks for your patience

 

 

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Sidenote: 3DC full support UDIM workflows, you can work with texture maps as though they were a single tile.

Is tru that 3DC has no true internal UDIM tiling creation like Maya or similar applications. You can import UDIM as tiles " Import Tiles as uv sets"  3DC will create a UV set for each tile. When exporting choose, " Export UV sets as Tiles" and they will be put back in a tiling order.

So back to your feature request. If we could implement a new panel with list of udims to view them and turn on/off individually. Would that help your current workflow ?

Because is how Surface Materials works currently. Every udim is listed as Surface Materials.

 

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Hi,
I know the UDIM workflow in 3D Coat - I use it really often in training. I think, that 3D-Coat is the right tool for many artists for that, too.

It's about an important workflow feature and I was not aware, that there isn't an easy way to select and isolate udims at the moment.
So, I try to explain it more, because I think, it should be a very valuable addition, and now, that today Substance announced better UDIM support I would be happy if 3DC is not left behind.

For bigger files, I work in Mari, so I searched for a youtube video where the feature, which I try to mimic is shown:

 

Minute: 15:59

Do you see, how you can isolate a UDIM (texture set) by using a click on the mesh without searching cryptic lists of texture sets in a panel?

Hope that helps, otherwise, I would be happy to screen share with you to demonstrate the problem and workflow.

THanks

Helge

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Hi,
Thanks first for your idea.
No, unfortunately not. It works on mesh parts as it seems. And it doesn't change the UV tile.

But it was a great hint. 
What about a solo mode for the HIDE tool. It only has Hide / unhide.
This is maybe a good feature request.

 

Back to the problem, I have added a screenshot with an example. (Model credits to Pluralsight).


The UV Tiles (UDIMs) are listed in the Surface Materials list. There is also a solo option, which I use at the moment to find out, which tile is which mesh part and then I solo the meshpart. You see in the amout of tiles, it takes a while :-)
You see, that you can't really tell, which part of the model is what. Btw you can't change the names, because for UDIMs they should be fix.
 

What I think would be good to solve:

1. Find out which Mesh part is what. I suggest clicking on a mesh part (like in the video earlier) and the Surface Materials is solo.
The Hide Tool would be a good start if it can be switched to "solo" and "uv tile/udim"

Also, in the status bar we see the face number. What about showing things like "Surface Material"? So the name would be an indicator where this face lives.


2. On the right, you see the Texture Editor. There you can switch between the texture tiles, but these two panels have no connection to each other.
For example, if I know the number of the Meshpart (by try and error) and then solo it in the Panel Surface Materials, I can not click it there to also switch the Texture View to 2D Paint also. You have to select the right UV set in both windows.

 

Hm, seems to be a feature request for a smoother UDIM workflow.

Kind regards,

Helge

UDIMS in 3DC.jpg

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Great feature requests. I think it would nice idea to have that solo option in hide tool and same time it would activate right uv tile. I will make sure that Andrew gets this request. I have been doing some UDIMS improments for applink and this topic is very close to my heart :)

Edited by haikalle
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Hi @Helge Maus

Would you like to do some testing? Here is 3dcoat64GL.exe just replace this file with same name in 3d-coat folder.

Now there is new option under hide tool. It should isolate udim you want and also update texture editor.

With Ctrl + X you are able to unhide all again.

3DCoatGL64.rar

Edited by haikalle
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@Helge Maus I dont know nothing about how to make mac build :D  I need to test some more and iron some issues away from my code and then make commit request. Will let you know when available in official build.

Edited by haikalle
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@haikalle

Wow, that's really useful. Great improvement. 
I would love to have that in the official build.

If you are interested to improve it a bit more, here are some ideas:

Does the function Menu Hide -> Invert Hidden Faces work with that functionality?  At the moment you solo one udim, great!
If I would like to have 2-3 neighboring UDIMs soloed, how can we do that? For Meshes, I normally hide first the Meshes which I like and then invert the visibility. What do you think?

Could you add the texture set name, over which you hover, in the status bar?
Normally you see there the Face number. This could be helpful if you want to understand the structure of the texture sets in the model and see, which texture sets (more than one) you want to solo.
For example, all texture sets which belong to the right foot. I then would see the numbers and switch their visibility in the Surface Materials list

I don't know, if you are paid for this work by Pilgrimway, so THANK YOU!

Please let me know, if I can help somehow.

Helge

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@Helge Maus Now I committed this into 3d-coat trunk. Next build will include these changes.:)

I changed that with SHIFT pressed with hide tool (Solomode ON) you can solo more udims. Please test and give feedback if there is something that would be good to improve.

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