About

The Mel Script Mega Pack is a collection of scripts and tools for Autodesk Maya.
I created the Mega Pack to make Maya faster and easier to use, and it's fun to automate tasks that would otherwise be time consuming and tedious inside of Maya. All the tools are written in MEL script which means they work on newly released versions of Maya without needing to be updated.

If you're new to the Mega Pack take a look at the Quick Start Guide to get an overview of what each script does.

Follow me for updates on new tools, features, and bug fixes.
Youtube www.youtube.com/malcolm341
Gumroad www.gumroad.com/malcolm341
Artstation www.artstation.com/malcolm341
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/malcolm-andrieshyn-10135959/recent-activity/all

End User License Agreement

By downloading any of the Malcolm341 script packs you agree to the End User License Agreement below

If you are employed by a studio and working on site or remote please adhere to the Studio/Commercial License Agreement:

Studio/Commercial License - 1 Seat Required Per User
Use the scripts on as many commercial projects as you like, but do not share the scripts between users, each person needs to buy a license for the scripts they use and that license should not be transferred to another person unless the current license holder is no longer employed by that studio.

If you are a student, academic institution, hobbyist, or freelancer meaning you are working a temporary contract less than one year please adhere to the Freelance/Academic License Agreement:

Freelance/Academic License - 1 Seat Required Per User
Use the scripts on as many freelance projects as you like, but do not share the scripts between users, each person needs to buy a license for the scripts they use and that license should not be transferred to another person.

Redistributing, selling, or sharing any part of the Malcolm341 script packs is not permitted.
Copyright © 2017 Malcolm Andrieshyn

Installation

Compatability:
-Works on the newest version of Maya and old versions of Maya back to 2019
-Works on Maya 2018 update 6
-Works on Maya 2017 update 5
-Works on Maya Student
-Works on PC and Mac
-Checker Map Toolbox doesn't work on Maya LT
-Change Default Material Toolbox doesn't work on Maya LT

How to Install the Scripts:
Close Maya.

Download the .zip file you purchased to your desktop.

Open the .zip file and copy the shelf file contained in it to your desktop.

Open Maya.

Click the gear icon in the top left corner of Maya and choose load shelf.

Browse to the shelf file you just copied to your desktop and load it.

You should now see a new shelf in Maya with the same name as the file on your desktop, it contains the scripts you purchased.

If you don't see any shelf names click the gear icon and turn on shelf tabs.

If you want to copy my scripts to a different shelf, hold Ctrl + Shift and Middle Mouse Drag any of my shelf buttons to any other shelf. Make sure to keep holding Ctrl + Shift when you release the middle mouse button or the scripts will be moved rather than copied.

How to Update the Scripts to the Latest Version:
If you previously purchased a script pack you can update to the latest version at any time for free. Updates include bug fixes, new features, and even new scripts if you purchased the Mega Pack, Modeling Pack, or UV Pack.

Delete the existing shelf you want to update in Maya first.

Close Maya.

Download the .zip file you purchased to your desktop. Use the original e-mail link you received, or look for the file in your Gumroad or Artstation Library and download it from there.

Open the .zip and copy the shelf file contained in it to your desktop.

Open Maya.

Click the gear icon in the top left corner of Maya and choose load shelf.

Browse to the shelf file you just copied to your desktop and load it.

You should now see a new shelf in Maya with the same name as the file on your desktop, it contains the latest versions of the scripts you purchased.

If you don't see any shelf names click the gear icon and turn on shelf tabs.

Be aware that any scripts that you've moved or copied to other shelves are not updated. Unfortunately you'll have to delete those buttons manually and copy my scripts back to your shelves again each time you want to update. Alternatively, if you only have a couple buttons you want to update you can right click and choose edit on any of the buttons on my shelf and copy paste the updated code directly into your shelf buttons.

Xray Selected Objects

If nothing's selected Xray mode will toggle all objects in the scene on/off. This can be useful for resetting the scene back to normal without needing to select individual objects.


YouTube Video

Wireframe Selected Objects

If nothing's selected wireframe mode will toggle all objects in the scene on/off. This can be useful for resetting the scene back to normal without needing to select individual objects.

Increase Shelf Height Toolbox

Increases or decreases shelf height.

Custom shelf height is retained after Maya restart unlike other tools I've seen online.

show shelf tabs
Toggles shelf tabs on/off.

fit height to icons
Fits the vertical height of the shelf to the number of rows of icons in it.

reset height
Resets shelf height to default.

Increase Height
32 10 1
Increases shelf height by 32, 10, or 1.

Decrease Height
32 10 1
Decreases shelf height by 32, 10, or 1.

YouTube Video from 2022

Extra HUD Toolbox

HUD elements are stacked vertically based on which ones you turn on first. Quadrant position of the HUD elements in the viewport is locked.

reset
Resets the toolbox back to default settings. If Maya crashes and some of the checkboxes become inverted, use the reset button to fix this issue.

 ✔  working units
Turn on if you want to see the current working units Maya is set to. For example, meters, centimeters, feet, etc.

 ✔  grid size
Turn on if you want to see the current grid size, number of grid lines, and number of grid divisions.

 ✔  scene time warp
Turn on if you want to see if the enable scene time warp feature is on or off for the current scene.

 ✔  up axis
Turn on if you want to see the current up axis Maya is set to. For example, y or z.

 ✔  selected items
Turn on if you want to see the number of currently selected items, anything you select will be automatically counted and the number displayed.

 ✔  assigned materials
Turn on if you want to see the names of the materials that are assigned to the currently selected objects or faces. The material names displayed will update as your selection changes.

 ✔  UV set
Turn on if you want to see what UV set is currently active for the selected mesh.

 ✔  preserve UVs
Turn on if you want to see if the preserve UVs feature is on or off.

 ✔  project
Turn on if you want to see the current project path Maya is set to.

 ✔  last save
Turn on if you want to see how long it's been since you last saved the scene. The timer will reset if you save, save as, or increment save.

 ✔  last auto save
Turn on if you want to see how long it's been since Maya last auto saved the scene. If auto save is disabled in preferences the timer will display auto save disabled. If you're using a Maya version older than Maya 2019 this feature won't work and the timer will display requires Maya 2019 or later.

 ✔  tool axis
Turn on if you want to see the axis orientation mode for the current tool. For example move tool world, object, component, etc.

 ✔  cam distance
Turn on if you want to see the distance the camera is from the currently selected object.

 ✔  cam selection
Turn on if you want to see if camera based selection is active. For example, on or off.

YouTube Video

Select Every Other Edge Vert Face Toolbox

For the pat loop and pat ring tools the position of the selected components along the ring will control where the pattern starts.


-N-gons are not supported and will be ignored during pattern selection
-Triangles are not supported, if you have any triangles selected while using the tool the selection will come out wrong
-Non-symmetrical patterns are not supported, so 4/on 3/off style patterns are not possible in this tool

invert dot/pat
Inverts the last pattern that was selected by the tool.

dot loop
Selects every other component on the current loop. The current loop is defined by selecting two adjacent components of the same type and running the tool.


pat loop
Selects a user defined pattern of loops on the current mesh. The loop pattern is defined by selecting two or more adjacent components of the same type and running the tool. For example, selecting 4 adjacent faces will produce a 4/on 4/off pattern. Non-symmetrical patterns are not supported, so 4/on 3/off is not possible in this tool.


to loop
Converts the current selection to a component loop of that type, this can be helpful to convert Non-symmetrical or partial selection patterns into component loops.

to ring
Converts the current selection to a component ring of that type, this can be helpful to convert Non-symmetrical or partial selection patterns into component rings.

dot ring
Selects every other component on the current ring. The current ring is defined by selecting two adjacent components of the same type and running the tool.


pat ring
Selects a user defined pattern of rings on the current mesh. The ring pattern is defined by selecting two or more adjacent components of the same type and running the tool. For example, selecting 4 adjacent faces will produce a 4/on 4/off pattern. Non-symmetrical patterns are not supported, so 4/on 3/off is not possible in this tool.


YouTube Video

Select Half your Mesh from Edge Loop

If the wrong half of the mesh is selected after running the tool, immediately run the tool again to select the other half.

The edge loop needs to be continuous without any gaps in it for the tool to work. For meshes that have interior negative space similar to a pipe primitive, you'll have to select two sets of edge loops so the tool knows how to divide the mesh into two halves.


YouTube Video

Show Geometry Border Edges

This is helpful for identifying unweled verts and open edges as you model, and is easier to see than the Maya viewport setting for border edges.


  (right click the shelf button to access this tool)

Merges vertices with a radius of 0.01 and selects geometry border edges. In object mode this is useful for welding duplicate verts and checking for open edges at the same time.

YouTube Video

Select Faces by Material id

This is helpful if you have more than one mesh in the scene that shares material ids, or if you don't want to open the Hypershade.

For the tool to work you need to select a single face with the material id you want and then run the tool.


YouTube Video

Graph Materials from Selected Faces

Graphs materials in the Hypershade from selected faces only, unlike Maya's built in graph command which graphs all materials assigned to the mesh.

If the hypershade isn't open running this tool will open it, but you'll need to run the tool a second time to graph the materials.


YouTube Video from 2020

Move Pivot to Selection Center

If you select objects instead of components the pivot of the first selected object will move to the center of the selection. If you want to move multiple pivots on multiple meshes at the same time use the right click features described below.


  (right click the shelf button to access this tool)

Moves the pivots of multiple meshes at the same time to the center of selected components on each mesh. Select the same component type on each mesh and run the tool. Each mesh will have its pivot moved to the center of selected components on itself.


YouTube Video

Rebuild Rotation Axis from Component

Select a single component and run the tool to rebuild the translate and rotate values to align with the world correctly.

For best results select a single planar face, the tool will also work with multiple components selected, but will produce an averaged alignment of the selected components which may or may not be useful.


YouTube Video

Rotate Mesh to Face Y Axis

This is helpful for un-rotating a model so you can work on it aligned with the world axis.

Select a single component and run the tool to rotate the object so that component faces Y up. For best results select a single planar face.


YouTube Video

Snap Objects to Surface Normal

similar to the snap together tool, but works on multiple objects at the same time and is much faster to use.

Select the objects you want to snap first, then shift select the surface to snap to last. The object's local Y up axis and pivot point are used to align the objects.


YouTube Video from 2020

Duplicate Object to Components

Select a bunch of components first, then shift select the object you want to duplicate to the components. The object's local Y up axis and pivot point are used to align the objects.

If you want the duplicated objects to be instances just make the object an instance first. The tool will automatically detect if the object in question is an instance or not.


YouTube Video from 2021

Reference Planes Toolbox

Reference planes are created in the scene and are not attached to a camera. Each reference plane is made out of polygon faces unlike Maya image planes.

reset
Resets the toolbox back to default settings.

clean unused nodes
Deletes all unused nodes in the Hypershade. This is helpful to keep the scene clean if you delete any of the reference planes the tool created.

 ✔  X       ✔  Y       ✔  Z
Turn on to create reference planes on the X, Y, or Z axis. Turning on X, Z, and 2 sided geometry is a good way to create modeling reference to rotoscope around.

 ✔  2 sided geometry
Turn on to create reference planes with front and back polygon faces.

 ✔  offset ref planes
Turn on to offset each reference plane so they aren't created on top of each other.

Width
The horizontal width the reference planes will be created at in world space. Height will automatically be determined based on the width height ratio of the image file.

create ref planes
Opens a browse window where you can select one or more images that will be converted into reference planes using the options you've set in the toolbox.

YouTube Video

Vert Snapping Toolbox

This is helpful if you’re working with two separate meshes that need to be snapped together.

This tool can run slow if the currently loaded mesh to snap to has a high number of verts. If snapping is taking too long, try duplicating just the part of the mesh you need to snap to as a new object and load that as the target mesh.

 ✔  preserve UVs
Turn on if you'd like to preserve UVs during the snapping process.

 ✔  snap radius
Turn on if you'd like to set a maximum snap radius, the number input controls how far to search for another vert to snap to. Turn off if you'd like to use an infiniate snap radius.

load
Loads the mesh you want to snap your selection to. The currently loaded mesh name is displayed in the text field.

snap verts
Snaps selected verts to the closest verts found on the currently loaded mesh using the snap radius. In object mode all verts will be snapped to the closest verts found on the currently loaded mesh.

YouTube Video

Weld Selected to Closest

Verts are welded to the closest vert near them unlike the Maya default weld which averages both vert positions to the center before welding.

If you select a component type other than vertex your selection will be converted to verts before the script runs. Selecting edge loops or faces can save time instead of selecting individual verts.

A good way to make sure the verts weld where you want them to is middle mouse drag the components in the general direction of where you want them to end up and then run the script. You can press the g key to repeat last command for subsequent welds and save a lot of time.


YouTube Video

Weld Selected to Target

Select some components and run the script, then click on another vertex to target weld to it.

This tool is easier and faster to use than the Maya default target weld because you don’t have to drag select the target.

If you select a component type other than vertex your selection will be converted to vertices when you run the script. Selecting edge loops or faces can save time instead of selecting individual verts.

After running the script once, you can press the g key to repeat last command for subsequent welds and save a lot of time.


YouTube Video

Create Primitive at Selection Toolbox

Select one or more components on a mesh and click any of the primitive buttons to create that primitive type.

For best results select a single face and then choose a primitive type. If multiple components are selected the average normal of the components will be used to align the primitive which may or may not be useful.

If you set any of the transform tools to object orientation you can transform the object on the current alignment.

If an object is selected the primitive will be created at the object's pivot point and will be aligned to the object's rotation. If the object's rotation is frozen the primitive will align with the world.

If nothing's selected the primitive will be created at the world origin.

If you press the t key directly after creating a primitive it will bring up the attributes box where you can modify the subdivisions and other properties.


Scale
Sets the scale the primitives will be created at.

Pivot at
 ✔  base
Turn on if you want the primitive's pivot point to be at the base of the mesh.

 ✔  corner
Turn on if you want the primitive's pivot point to be at the corner of the mesh.

cube
Creates a cube.

plane
Creates a plane.

sphere
Creates a sphere.

cylinder
Creates a cylinder.

pipe
Creates a pipe.

helix
Creates a helix.

platonic
Creates a platonic multi-purpose primitive.

torus
Creates a torus.

cone
Creates a cone.

locator
Creates a locator.

group
Creates a group.

YouTube Video from 2021

Axis Aligned Lattice Deformer

Select a single face and run the tool to create a lattice deformer for the whole object aligned to the face you selected. Works even if the transform is frozen.

To increase lattice divisions select the ffd1Lattice object in the outliner and adjust the devisions in the channel box or the attribute editor.

To create the lattice applied to selected vertices, first select some vertices, then hold right click and choose multi and shift select exactly one face so you have both verts and a single face selected at the same time. The one face is used to align the axis and the lattice will be applied to the selected vertices.

To create the lattice applied to selected edges, first select some edges, then hold right click and choose multi and shift select exactly one face so you have both edges and a single face selected at the same time. The one face is used to align the axis and the lattice will be applied to the selected edges.

To create the lattice applied to selected faces, first select some faces, then hold right click and choose multi and shift select exactly one edge so you have both faces and a single edge selected at the same time. The one edge is used to align the axis and the lattice will be applied to the selected faces.


YouTube Video from 2021

Mirror and Instance Toolbox

This toolbox gives you access to the older style Maya mirroring method and the newer mirror cut method while generally being faster to use and less complicated than the Maya built in mirror tool. This toolbox also comes with a bunch of useful modeling tools related to mirroring.

reset
Resets the toolbox back to default settings.

mirror object X flip
Mirrors or flips selected meshes on the X axis, meshes are mirrored or flipped from their current pivot points.

mirror object Y flip
Mirrors or flips selected meshes on the Y axis, meshes are mirrored or flipped from their current pivot points.

mirror object Z flip
Mirrors or flips selected meshes on the Z axis, meshes are mirrored or flipped from their current pivot points.

history
Duplicates selected objects with history and no mirroring, this can be useful for duplicating primitives so you can adjust the number of segments without having to create a new primitive. Only works on objects that currently have history.

instance
Duplicates selected objects as instances without mirroring.

 ✔  instance
Turn on to create mirrored meshes as instances instead of duplicates.

 ✔  flip UV
Turn on to mirror UVs for the resulting mirrored mesh.

 ✔  merge
Turn on if you'd like the mirrored mesh to be combined and verts merged using the current value from the merge input field.

 ✔  findGB
Turn on to select geometry border edges after meshes have been merged. This is very helpful to show if overlapping verts have actually been merged and if unwelded edges still remain.

 ✔  cut+       ✔  cut-
Turn on cut+ or cut- if you'd like the resulting mirrored mesh to be a live mirror cut node. cut+ should be used when the resulting mirrored mesh is going to be created in a positive world space direction from the object's current pivot point.

 ✔  use WP
Turn on if you'd like the mesh to be mirrored from the world pivot instead of the mesh pivot. This can save time if you always work at the center of the grid and don't want to set a custom pivot point before mirroring.

de-instance
Converts selected instances into regular objects, de-instances them.

findGB
Selects geometry border edges. This is helpful for identifying unweled verts and open edges as you model, and is easier to see than the Maya viewport setting for border edges.

combine
Comebines selected meshes without creating extra nodes in the outliner. The last selected mesh's name, pivot, and transform will be used to create the new combined object.

extract
Extracts selected faces without creating extra nodes in the outliner. In object mode extract will separate each mesh element into a new object.

combine/merge
Combines selected meshes and merges overlapping verts using the current value from the merge input field, combine/merge also works on instances.

If you have exactly two verts selected combine/merge will merge them to center no matter how far apart they are.

If you have more than two verts selected combine/merge will merge them using the current value from the merge input field.

If you have a single object selected in object mode combine/merge will merge all verts on that object using the current value from the merge input field.

YouTube Video from 2020

YouTube Video from 2021

Mirror Cut Video at Time Stamp 14:04

Clean Combine

The last selected object's name, pivot, and transform will be used to create the new combined object.

Scene hierarchy is preserved after combining.


YouTube Video

Clean Extract

The pivot point for the newly extracted object is centered and the mesh is named extracted_01.

Scene hierarchy is preserved after extracting.

The pivot point for each newly separated object is centered and the meshes are named separated_01, _02, _03, etc.

Scene hierarchy is preserved after separating.

YouTube Video

Clean Duplicate

The pivot point for the newly extracted object is centered and the mesh is named duplicated_01

Scene hierarchy is preserved after duplicating.

Marmoset Export Toolbox

This toolbox gives you access to name matching, material ids, normal editing, and export settings all in one place which can save a lot of time and simplify the export process.

To get started create a group named high and a group named low. Put your high poly and low poly meshes into the corresponding groups.

Select the high group, not the meshes inside it, and click the export high button. Name the file and choose where to export it to. Do the same for the low group so you have a high and a low .fbx file on your hard drive.

The default settings for the tool are usually what you want for most high to low bakes, but you can configure different export options using the checkboxes if you want.

Smooth mesh preview will be exported correctly if active for meshes that get exported using the export high button. Smooth mesh preview is disabled for meshes exported using the export low button.

In Toolbag or Substance import the high and low .fbx files you just created and bake them.

reset
Resets the toolbox back to default settings.

easy normals
Softens all normals and then hardens UV border edges based on the tolerence angle you set in the easy normals input field. Lowering the tolerance will create more hard UV border edges and raising the tolerence will create more soft UV border edges. A good number to start with is 45.1, from there you can raise or lower the tolerence incrementally and run the tool again until you get the desired result.

Easy normals can be helpful for automatically assigning hard edges for baking without hardening edges that should be left as soft, for example two halves of a sphere or a cylinder.

In the example image notice the texture seam that runs vertically up the cylinder is not hardered, but other UV border edges are. Running the tool at default settings and then using the cut hard button can be a good way to prep your model for baking in two clicks. Remember that you also need to separate UV shells anywhere you have assigned a hard edge before baking.


soft
Softens normals on selected components.

hard
Hardens normals on selected components.

hard border
Hardens normals on all UV border edges of the currently selected mesh.

cut hard
Cuts UVs on all hard edges of the currently selected mesh.

cut
Cuts UVs on selected components.

sew
Moves and sews UVs on selected edges.

make shell
Creates a new UV shell from selected faces.

vis edges
Toggles polygon edge display on/off in the viewport.

TB name match
Renames meshes and inserts the word _high or _low if the mesh is inside a group named high or low.

This is helpful for renaming multiple meshes in one click if you're going to use the name matching feature of Marmoset Toolbag or another baking program.

Create a group named high and a group named low. Put your high and low meshes into the corresponding groups. Type a base name into the input field directly above the TB name match button. Select the meshes in the groups, but not the groups themselves and click the TB name match button. Make sure to select meshes in the numeric order you want them named so the number increment works correctly.

Meshes will be renamed
name_high_01, name_high_02, name_high_03, etc.
name_low_01, name_low_02, name_low_03, etc.


MAT id
Applies a randomly coloured material to each geometry shell/element on the currently selected mesh.

Works on combined meshes with multiple geometry shells, or multiple meshes with a single geometry shell, or a combination of both. If faces are selected instead of meshes, a single randomly coloured material will be applied to the selected faces.


C     |     P     |     R
C copies the current material id from a single selected face to the clipboard.

P pastes the material id from the clipboard to selected faces or objects.

R pastes the material from the clipboard to a single selected face and all faces that share that same material id on the current mesh.


 ✔  export animation
Turn on if you want to export animation with the .fbx file that gets created when using the export high or export low buttons.

 ✔  export tangents
Turn on if want to export tangents with the .fbx file that gets created when using the export low button.

If you want tangents included in the .fbx file that gets created when using the export high button you must turn on export tangents, turn on export high UVs, and turn off triangulate high. Tangents will not appear in the high .fbx file unless these exact checkboxes are set, this is due to a design flaw in Maya.

 ✔  export high UVs
Turn on if you want to export UVs with the .fbx file that gets created when using the export high button. Exporting UVs for the high poly will slow down the export process dramatically, so only turn this on if you need it for something specific.

 ✔  triangulate high
Turn on if you want to triangulate the .fbx file that gets created when using the export high button.

 ✔  triangulate low
Turn on if you want to triangulate the .fbx file that gets created when using the export low button. This is highly recommended if you're baking high to low normal maps to avoid triangle flip errors between the game engine and the baking software.

 ✔  soft + hard border
Turn on if you want to soften all normals and harden all UV border edges each time the export low button is pressed.

export high
Exports the contents of a selected group as .fbx using the various checkbox settings. Multiple meshes in the group is okay, smooth mesh preview will be exported correctly if active.

export low
Exports the contents of a selected group as .fbx using the various checkboxes from above. Multiple meshes in the group is okay, smooth mesh preview will be disabled if active.

YouTube Video

UV Edges Toolbox

This toolbox gives you access to all the normal editing tools you need in one place and can automatically set your normals correctly for baking in one click using easy normals.

reset
Resets the toolbox back to default settings.

easy normals
Softens all normals and then hardens UV border edges based on the tolerence angle you set in the easy normals input field. Lowering the tolerance will create more hard UV border edges and raising the tolerence will create more soft UV border edges. A good number to start with is 45.1, from there you can raise or lower the tolerence incrementally and run the tool again until you get the desired result.

Easy normals can be helpful for automatically assigning hard edges for baking without hardening edges that should be left as soft, for example two halves of a sphere or a cylinder.

In the example image notice the texture seam that runs vertically up the cylinder is not hardered, but other UV border edges are. Running the tool at default settings and then using the cut hard button can be a good way to prep your model for baking in two clicks. Remember that you also need to separate UV shells anywhere you have assigned a hard edge before baking.


soft
Softens normals on selected components.

hard
Hardens normals on selected components.

hard border
Hardens normals on all UV border edges of the currently selected mesh.

cut hard
Cuts UVs on all hard edges of the currently selected mesh.

cut
Cuts UVs on selected components.

sew
Moves and sews UVs on selected edges.

make shell
Creates a new UV shell from selected faces.

vis edges
Toggles polygon edge display on/off in the viewport.

YouTube Video from 2019

Normal Map Viewport Mode

Select some objects and run the tool to apply normal map viewport mode to those objects. Run the tool again to toggle normal map viewport mode off and apply the default material.

If new objects are created or imported into the scene after turning on normal map viewport mode, you must toggle the tool off and add the new objects to your selection and then toggle the tool on again to get everything to render correctly. Or if you prefer, you can apply the material from one of the objects that is currently rendering correctly to the objects that aren't.


-Doesn't work in Arnold.

Once normal map viewport mode is applied to an object it can be rendered in the top down camera directly in the viewport, hardware renderer, or the Maya software renderer.


The advantages of creating normal maps this way is you can make modeling changes and see the result in real time in the top down viewport as you work. As well, you can use a combination of sub-d, polygons, and NURBS and they will all render seamlessly together, you can also float objects on top of each other to give the illusion they're part of a seamless mesh.


YouTube Video

Checker Map Toolbox

This toolbox is helpful if you use a custom checker texture and don't want to waste time setting up and applying a checker material each time you need it.

Choose from four built in checker maps and one built in directional map, or use your own custom textures with the toolbox.


-Doesn't work in Maya LT

To start click the map1 button, if checker1.png is not found in the correct folder a procedural checker texture will be generated and applied. You can now click the find button to open the folder where checker1.png exists and overwrite it with your own texture. Make sure to name your texture checker1.png

If you'd like textures to automatically reload when updated, in Maya go to:
Windows> Settings/Preferences> Files/Projects> Image Files> Automatically reload updated image files.


 ✔  on top of UV editor
Turn on if you want the toolbox to stay on top of the UV editor when the UV editor is undocked. If you close the UV editor with this checkbox on, the toolbox will also close which is a limitation of how Maya works. If you're primarily working with a docked UV editor I recommend turning this checkbox off.

map1 + -
Toggles the checker map1 material override on/off.

The plus and minus buttons increase or decrease the checker map tiling. If checker map mode is turned off, plus and minus will increase or decrease the tiling of any textures applied to the selected objects.

If checker1.png isn't found in the correct folder a procedural checker texture will be generated and applied.

For PC users the checker folder is C:\m341_temp\checker1.png

For Mac users the checker folder is /Users/Shared/m341_temp/checker1.png

map2 rotate rotate
Toggles the checker map2 material override on/off.

The rotate buttons rotate the checker texture left or right by 45 degrees. If checker map mode is turned off the rotate buttons rotate any textures applied to the selected objects.

If checker2.png isn't found in the correct folder a procedural directional texture will be generated and applied.

For PC users the checker folder is C:\m341_temp\checker2.png

For Mac users the checker folder is /Users/Shared/m341_temp/checker2.png

base color mode
Toggles base colour mode on/off. Base colour is the actual colour of the texture without any lighting or shading.

Create Map1 Style
1 2 3 4
Procedurally generates four different built in checker map textures. Each map will overwrite checker1.png and become the main checker texture the tool uses, if you're using a custom checker texture it will be overwritten so make sure to back it up before using this feature.


find
Opens the folder where the checker textures are stored that the tool uses. Create your own checker textures here and name them checker1.png and checker2.png

For PC users the checker folder is C:\m341_temp

For Mac users the checker folder is /Users/Shared/m341_temp

YouTube Video from 2019

UV Grabber Toolbox

This tool works with UDIM tiles and you can set a range of which tiles you want to export.

If you want the UV snapshot to open in Photoshop automatically, click the ... button and browse to the Photoshop app on the hard drive and select it.

For PC users the folder is usually C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop

If you don't want the UVs to automatically open in the assigned image editor turn off the send to editor checkbox. Turning this checkbox off can be helpful for capturing a lot of UDIM tiles because the images generate faster if they don't need to be sent to the image editor.


 ✔  send to editor
Turn on if you want to automatically send the UV snapshot to an image editor such as Photoshop.

editor location ...
The location of the image editor you want the UV snapshot to be sent to if the send to editor checkbox is turned on.

Click the ... button to browse to Photoshop or another program that can open images. By default images open in fcheck which is Maya's built in image viewer.

size X  ▼
Sets the resolution of the UV snapshot on the X axis.

size Y  ▼
Sets the resolution of the UV snapshot on the Y axis.

tiles U  V
Sets how many UDIM tiles to capture in the UV snapshots. Each tile is captured as a separate image.

refresh
Refreshes the UV set list for the currently selected mesh. If a UV set is added, deleted, or you select a different mesh you need to click the refresh button to update the list so the tool works correctly.

If multiple UV sets exist you can use the dropdown menu to the right of the refresh button to choose which UV set you want to capture.

snapshot
Captures a UV snapshot of selected objects or faces and saves it to the hard drive.

  (right click the shelf button to access this tool)

Captures a UV snapshot in one click without needing to open the toolbox. Choose from four presets: 8192, 4096, 2048, 1024.

find
Opens the folder where the UV snapshot is saved.

For PC users the folder is C:\m341_temp

For Mac users the folder is /Users/Shared/m341_temp

YouTube Video

UDIM Packing Toolbox

This toolbox is significantly easier to use than Maya’s Layout UV window for packing UDIM tiles and comes with a bunch of custom tools to make working with UDIMs faster.

The recommended workflow is to click the pack all 0-1 button to start, then select the largest shells you want to fit into a single tile and click the pack selected get TD button.

Pack selected get TD will calculate the texel density for you from the selected shells and paste that to all the other shells. This gives you your biggest shells in the 1001 UDIM tile and the same texel density across all your other shells that are then moved off to the left side for organization purposes. From there you can use the different tools in the toolbox to pack the remaining shells into other UDIM tiles.

You may want to turn on the % used checkbox and do a couple test packs using the pack selected get TD button to figure out which are the biggest shells that fit nicely into a single tile efficiently, if you're planning to have more than one shell in the 1001 UDIM tile.

reset
Resets the toolbox back to default settings.

 ✔  on top of UV editor
Turn on if you want the toolbox to stay on top of the UV editor when the UV editor is undocked. If you close the UV editor with this checkbox on, the toolbox will also close which is a limitation of how Maya works. If you're primarily working with a docked UV editor I recommend turning this checkbox off.

 ✔  image dimming
Toggles UV editor image dimming on/off. After the checkbox is turned on the desired brightness level can be adjusted in the UV editor using the standard controls.

The image dimming checkbox loads your last dimming settings the next time you open the toolbox. This is helpful because image dimming always resets to off when you close Maya.

checker map + -
Toggles the checker map on/off, press the plus or minus buttons to increase or decrease the checker map size.

UV shaded UV border
Toggles shaded UVs and UV border edges on/off in the UV editor.

show mesh edges
Toggles polygon edge display on/off in the viewport.

UV Editor HUD
tile lines tile labels
Toggles UV tile lines and UV tile labels on/off in the UV editor.

% used # shells
Toggles % used UV space and number of shells on/off in the UV editor HUD.

Transform Shells
rotate rotate
Rotates selected shells 90 degrees left or right. To save time only one component needs to be selected on the shell to spin the whole shell.

up left down right
Moves selected shells by one tile in the choosen direction. To save time only one component needs to be selected on the shell to move the whole shell.

stack flipU flipV
Stacks selected UV shells on top of each other. To save time only one component needs to be selected on each shell to stack them.

Flips selected components along U or V. Unlike Maya's standard flip tool, UVs are not cut in the flipping process and modified pivots are supported.

Orient Shells To
X Y Z
Orients selected UV shells to world space X, Y, or Z. Clicking the button again will flip the shell to face positive or negative along that axis.

Using orient X, Y, Z can be faster than using orient to edge or orient to UVs because you can select whole shells in the 3D viewport which is more intuitive, especially for circular shells where you can't tell which edge is facing which way in the UV editor.

edge/UVs
Orients a UV shell to a selected edge, or two selected UVs.

horizontal vertical
Orients selected UV shells to the horizontal or vertical axis in the UV editor. Clicking the button again will flip the shell to face positive or negative along that axis.

These tools should be used in conjunction with orient X, Y, Z. If orient X and Z don't produce a straight shell use orient horizontal. If orient Y doesn't produce a straight shell use orient vertical.

map size  ▼
The map size drop down allows you to control how padding works relative to what the final texture size is you're going to apply to the model. Set map size to the final texture resolution you plan to use on your model.

padding
Padding controls the amount of space between each UV shell and is relative to what you set the map size to. UV tile edge padding will automatically be half of whatever you set padding to.

 ✔  orient shells
Turn on to automatically rotate diagonal shells to be right angle facing when you use any of the following buttons:

-pack all 0-1
-pack selected get TD
-pack selected 0-1
-pack selected to pivot
-layout up
-layout right
-send shells to UDIM #
-send shells to NEXT #
-world space to NEXT #

The recommended workflow is to turn spin shells on for your first pack all 0-1 operation, then turn it off so you have full control over shell rotatation from that point on during the layout process.

 ✔  stack
Turn on if you want all similar UV shells to stack on top of each other during UDIM packing.

pack all 0-1
Lays out all UVs on selected meshes into the 0-1 UV space.

pack selected get TD
Lays out selected UV shells into the 0-1 UV space and pastes the resulting texel density on to all other UV shells, then moves them to the side for organization purposes.

pack selected 0-1
Lays out selected UV shells into the 0-1 UV space.

pack selected to pivot
Lays out selected UV shells to their pivot location while maintaining texel density and UV padding. You can move the pivot of the selected shells before using this tool to control where the UVs pack to.

This tool is very useful for organizing shells into clusters without needing to lay them out into a UDIM tile first. For example, if you have specific shells you want packed beside each other.

layout up
Lays out selected UV shells to their pivot location in a vertical rectangular shape while maintaining texel density and UV padding. Each time you press the button the rectangle cluster spreads out and gets thinner. To reset the shape back to a square use the pack selected to pivot button.

This tool is very useful for organizing shells into vertical clusters without needing to lay them out into a UDIM tile first. This is helpful if you need to organize a bunch of shells into a vertical strip with correct padding.

layout right
Lays out selected UV shells to their pivot location in a horizontal rectangular shape while maintaining texel density and UV padding. Each time you press the button the rectangle cluster spreads out and gets thinner. To reset the shape back to a square use the pack selected to pivot button.

This tool is very useful for organizing shells into horizontal clusters without needing to lay them out into a UDIM tile first. This is helpful if you need to organize a bunch of shells into a horizontal strip with correct padding.

Select UV Shells By Tile
overlap
Selects all UV shells that overlap between UV tiles.

In object mode the tool searches all UV shells on the selected objects. In UV, face, or UV shell mode, the tool searches your current selection for overlap and ignores unselected shells. If UV, face, or UV shell mode are active, but nothing's selected the tool searches all UV shells for the current meshes. Selecting only the shells you care about will significantly reduce search time.

bbox
Selects all UV shells that reside in a single UV tile including shells that partially overlap into that tile.

Select one component or UV shell and run the tool to expand your selection to the current tile contents. Tile selection speed is based on how many shells exist in the current tile, more shells will take longer to process.

pivot
Selects all UV shells that have pivot points that reside in a single UV tile.

This tool runs faster than the bbox method because it only needs to calculate one point per UV shell and ignores the shell's bounding box. Select one component or UV shell and run the tool to expand your selection to the current tile contents that have pivot points that reside in the current tile. Tile selection speed is based on how many shells exist in the current tile, more shells will take longer to process.

UDIM # x
-1 +1 -10 +10
Sets which UDIM tile UV shells will be sent to when you press the send shells to UDIM # button. Enter a number into the input field or use the +/- buttons to increase or decrease the value by 1 or 10. Press the x button to reset the input field back to 1001.

 ✔  auto pack shells
Turn on if you want the selected UV shells to layout into a square with padding after they've been sent to a UV tile.

I recommend leaving this checkbox on for most operations, turning it off means that no packing will occur during layout and UV shells will be moved to a UDIM tile maintaining their current layout.

UV shells are packed into the center of the UDIM tile unlike Maya’s Layout UVs tool which packs shells into the bottom left of the UDIM tile. In the film industry shells are commonly packed into the center of UDIM tiles so this tool does the same.

 ✔  select pack overflow
Turn on if you want to automatically select UV shells that don't fit into the tile they were sent to and overflow into the next tile.

This checkbox only works if you also have the auto pack shells checkbox turned on. Select pack overflow works when you press the send shells to UDIM # button, or the send shells to NEXT # button.

A helpful workflow can be to select all your shells and turn the checkbox on, then press the send shells to NEXT # button which will pack all the shells to the next tile and select the shells that don't fit. You can then press the send shells to NEXT # button again to fit the selected shells to the next UDIM tile and repeat the process until all your shells fit into tiles.

Packing time is much slower with this checkbox on, so turn it off if you don't need it.

send shells to UDIM #
Lays out selected UV shells to the UDIM tile number set in the UDIM # input field.

UV shells are packed into the center of the UDIM tile unlike Maya’s Layout UV window which packs shells into the bottom left of the UDIM tile. In the film industry shells are more commonly packed into the center of UDIM tiles so this tool does the same.

send shells to NEXT #
Lays out selected UV shells to the next UDIM tile number set in the UDIM # input field. The input field is updated each time you press this button.

UV shells are packed into the center of the UDIM tile unlike Maya’s Layout UV window which packs shells into the bottom left of the UDIM tile. In the film industry shells are more commonly packed into the center of UDIM tiles so this tool does the same.

World Space To Next #
X Y Z
Lays out each mesh's UV shells into a UDIM tile from left to right based on world space location of the meshes.

The starting UDIM can be set using the UDIM # input field. This tool only works on separate meshes.

Meshes that happen to be at zero and aren't positive or negative are treated as center meshes and are sorted between negative and positive meshes in world space. World space is determined by the center of each mesh's bounding box.

Use the corresponding button to layout along X, Y, or Z from left to right into UDIM tiles. The order the world space layout occurs in is:

-Negative X to positive X
-Positive Y to negative Y
-Positive Z to negative Z

Texel Density
map size
Stores the texture resolution used to calculate the pixels per unit below. Set this input field to the pixel size your final texture will be, for example 4096 if you plan to use a 4096x4096 texture on your model.

pix per unit
Stores the texel density the paste TD button uses and is updated by the copy TD button. The value can be manually input or will auto update if one or more faces are selected and the copy TD button is pressed.

copy TD paste TD
Copy TD copies the current texel density from selected faces and updates the pix per unit field. Texel density is displayed in pixels per unit and will be relative to what map size is currently set before copying.

Paste TD applies the current texel density from the pix per unit field to selected UVs, objects, or faces. The paste TD button is significantly faster than the set TD button found in the Maya UV Toolkit.

YouTube Video 1

YouTube Video 2

Light Mapping Toolbox

This toolbox is significantly easier to use than Maya’s Layout UV window for creating light map UVs and comes with a bunch of custom tools to make working with light maps faster.

Use the angle method for minimal seams, or use the map1 method to automatically convert your map1 UVs into usable light map UVs.

To get started turn on the cut auto seams checkbox and set the angle input field to 150, then press the angle button to generate light map UVs with minimal seams. If the UVs are a jumbled mess try lowering the angle value and pressing the angle button again until you get UVs you're happy with. Lower angle values will produce more UV cuts/shells.

An angle value of 150 is good for organic shaped meshes, an angle value of 80 to 90 is usually good for low poly hard surface shaped meshes.

To further refine your light map UVs turn on the cut crease edges checkbox, select edges you want cut in the light map UVs and click the crease button to mark those edges for cutting, press the angle button again to see the result. Use the uncrease button to remove marked edges and press the angle button again to see the result.

Creasing and uncreasing edges allows you to guide the shape of your light map UVs non-destructively.

If you turn off the orient shells checkbox and the uniform TD checkbox you can adjust the rotation and scale of specific shells and then press the layout UVs button to repack everything. These manual edits will be lost if you press the map1 button or the angle button to regenerate light map UVs.


reset
Resets the toolbox back to default settings.

 ✔  on top of UV editor
Turn on if you want the toolbox to stay on top of the UV editor when the UV editor is undocked. If you close the UV editor with this checkbox on, the toolbox will also close which is a limitation of how Maya works. If you're primarily working with a docked UV editor I recommend turning this checkbox off.

checker map + -
Toggles the checker map on/off, press the plus or minus buttons to increase or decrease the checker map size.

Switch to UV set
UV map1 UV lightmap
Switches all meshes in the scene to UV set map1 or UV set lightmap. Meshes don't need to be selected first, every mesh in the scene will be automatically switched.

orient shell to edge
Orients the rotation of a shell to the selected edge or two selected UVs. Works on multiple shells at the same time, for best results select sets of UVs on each shell to avoid shared edges.

crease uncrease
Sets the crease amount to one or zero on selected edges. In object mode uncrease sets the crease amount to zero for all edges on the mesh.

Creases are used to mark edges that will be cut when creating the light map UV set using the map1 method or the angle method. Creases are non-destructive and appear as a thicker looking edge in the viewport.

Create LM UVs from
map1
Creates light map UVs for the currently selected mesh from the existing map1 UV set and stores them in a second UV set named lightmap.

Use the map1 method when you have really good map1 UVs that you want to convert into light map UVs.

The cut auto seams checkbox doesn't have any effect on the map1 method of light map generation.


angle
Creates light map UVs for the currently selected mesh, texture seams are automatically cut where the normal angle of the mesh is greater than the angle input field. Lower values will produce more UV cuts/shells. Existing normals and UVs are not modified or used to create the light map UVs. Light map UVs are stored in a second UV set named lightmap.

The angle method can be superior to the map1 method if the map1 UVs aren't suitable to generate light map UVs from. The angle method produces minimal seams, but you may have to lower the angle input field or add crease edges to guide light map generation if the UVs don't unfold correctly.

The fix map1 UV overlap checkbox, uniform TD checkbox, and the orient shells checkbox don't have any effect on the angle method of light map generation. If you want to scale or rotate specific shells after using the angle method, use the layout UVs button with the uniform TD checkbox and orient shells checkbox turned off.


 ✔  overwrite lightmap
Turn on if you want to overwrite the lightmap UV set each time you generate new light map UVs using the map1 or angle method.

 ✔  stretch UVs
Turn on if you want the light map UVs to be stretched to fit into the 0-1 UV space.

 ✔  fix map1 UV overlap
Turn on if you want the tool to automatically search for shells that won't unfold correctly because they self intersect. Faces that can't unfold will get an automatic map to avoid baking errors and warnings in Unreal.

The fix map1 UV overlap checkbox doesn't have any effect on the angle method of light map generation.

 ✔  cut auto seams
Turn on if you want the tool to automatically cut light map UV seams for you when using the angle method of light map generation.

If some shells still won't unfold correctly try lowering the angle value and regenerating the light map UVs, or add crease edges to guide the light map UV generation.

The cut auto seams checkbox doesn't have any effect on the map1 method of light map generation.

 ✔  cut crease edges
Turn on if you want the tool to cut light map UV seams on creased edges.

This feature allows you to non-destructively fine tune exactly how your lightmap UVs unwrap and works with the map1 and angle methods.

If you want full control of where UV seams appear in the light map, turn off the cut auto seams checkbox and add crease edges everywhere you want light map UV seams.


 ✔  unfold UVs
Turn on if you want the light map UVs to be unfolded during creation.

Unfolding takes time, so turn this checkbox off if you don't need it. You may also find when creating lightmap UVs from map1 that unfolding rounds shells that were perfectly square which you may not want.

The unfold UVs checkbox doesn't have any effect on the angle method of light map generation.

 ✔  orient shells
Turn on if you want the UV shells to be rotated 90 degrees for best fit.

The orient shells check box doesn't have any effect on the angle method of light map generation.

 ✔  uniform TD
Turn on if you want the light map UVs to be scaled evenly to the same texel density during creation. If you turn this checkbox off you can manually scale specific shells up or down and then use layout UVs to repack them at that new scale relative to the rest of the UV shells.

This is helpful if there are parts of the light map that are less important and require less space in the UV pack overall. It's also helpful if there are tiny shells that won't bake correctly unless they're scaled up a bit.

The uniform TD checkbox doesn't have any effect on the angle method of light map generation.

map size  ▼
The map size drop down allows you to control how padding works relative to what the final light map size is you're going to apply to the model. Set map size to the final light map texture resolution you plan to use on your model.

padding  ▼
The padding drop down controls the amount of space between each UV shell and is relative to what you set the map size to. UV tile edge padding will automatically be half of whatever you set padding to.

layout UVs
Lays out UVs using the checkbox options from above. Works on the whole mesh rather than selected UVs so you can save time not needing to make UV selections before pressing the layout UVs button.

If you turn off the orient shells checkbox and the uniform TD checkbox you can adjust the rotation and scale of specific shells and then press the layout UVs button again to repack everything. These manual edits will be lost if you press the map1 button or the angle button to regenerate light map UVs.


find shells < %
Selects all UV shells smaller than the % number you type into the input field. The 0-1 UV space is considered to be 100%, the default value is 1.0 which will select any UV shell smaller than 1% of the 0-1 UV space.

This is helpful for selecting small shells that won't bake correctly so you can scale them up and then turn off the uniform TD checkbox and layout UVs again to give them more space in the final pack. Doing this will keep those shells larger than they should be and give them a better chance to bake correctly.

After changing the value in the input field you can press enter on the keyboard numpad to automatically run the tool again so you don't need to click the button each time as you fine tune the number to select the small shells.


UV set editor
Toggles Maya's UV set editor on/off.

delete lightmap UVs
Deletes the UV set named lightmap on selected meshes.

YouTube Video

Easy UVs Toolbox

Automatically create UVs for your mesh, then cut and sew interactively to make adjustments. Use the other included tools to finalize and layout your UVs without needing to leave the toolbox.

This toolbox is useful for organic shaped meshes or if you prefer faster UV creation with a bit less control.

To get started click the reset button to reset all the checkboxes to default. Make sure the auto cut seams, keep normals, and cut at angle checkboxes are on. Set the angle input field to 30. Select your mesh and click the easy UVs button to generate UVs.

Try raising the angle value and pressing enter or the easy UVs button again to see the results. Higher values will produce UVs with less cuts/shells. Repeat the process until you're happy with the number of UV shells. Higher values are usually better for organic shaped meshes, and lower values are usually better for low poly hard surface shaped meshes.

To interactively cut and sew edges click the 3d cut and sew button to enter the 3d cut and sew tool:
Each time you cut or sew an edge click the layout UVs button to interactively see how the cuts effect the shape of your UV shells. After you've pressed the layout UVs button once, use the g key on the keyboard to repeat last command while you cut and sew. This gives you interactive unwrapping directly in the viewport without needing to click back into the toolbox to see the result. Make sure to press the exit button when you're done using the 3d cut and sew tool to get back into regular selection mode in Maya.

Finalize your UVs using the other tools in the toolbox like rotate, straighten UV, etc. Press the layout UVs button each time you make an edit so you can see how the UVs pack together.

If you turn off the orient checkbox and the uniform TD checkbox you can adjust the rotation and scale of specific shells relative to the rest of the UVs and then press the layout UVs button to repack everything.


reset
Resets the toolbox back to default settings.

 ✔  on top of UV editor
Turn on if you want the toolbox to stay on top of the UV editor when the UV editor is undocked. If you close the UV editor with this checkbox on, the toolbox will also close which is a limitation of how Maya works. If you're primarily working with a docked UV editor I recommend turning this checkbox off.

checker map + -
Toggles the checker map on/off, press the plus or minus buttons to increase or decrease the checker map size.

UV shaded UV border
Toggles shaded UVs and UV borders on/off in the UV editor.

show mesh edges
Toggles mesh edges on/off in the 3D viewport.

planar map camera
Applies a planar map from camera, this is helpful to quickly create temporary UVs.

crease uncrease
Sets the crease amount to one or zero on selected edges. In object mode uncrease sets the crease amount to zero for all edges on the mesh.

Creases are used to mark edges that will be cut when using the easy UVs button if the cut crease edges checkbox is turned on. Creases are non-destructive and appear as a thicker looking edge in the viewport.

 ✔  cut UVs angle
Turn on if you want to use the angle of the mesh to create UV cuts when you press the easy UVs button. Use the angle input field to enter a value from 0 to 180, higher values will produce UVs with less cuts/shells.

After changing the value in the angle input field you can press enter on the keyboard numpad to automatically run easy UVs, this is helpful to quickly experiment with different values until you're happy with the results.

Turning the checkbox off will use automatic mapping to create the base UVs instead of the angle of the mesh, this is typically not recommended.

 ✔  cut hard edges
Turn on if you want to cut UVs on hard edges when you press the easy UVs button.

 ✔  cut auto seams
Turn on if you want to cut UVs using Maya's auto seams feature when you press the easy UVs button. This is helpful for cylindrical and spherical shaped meshes so they unwrap without errors. It's recommended to leave this checkbox on in most cases.

 ✔  cut crease edges
Turn on if you want to cut UVs on crease edges when you press the easy UVs button. Crease edges can be used to non-destructively mark up your mesh for UV unwrapping.

If you want to exclusively use crease edges to unwrap your model set the angle input field to 180, and turn off the cut hard edges, cut auto seams, and keep existing seams checkboxes.

 ✔  keep normals
Turn on if you want to keep the normals intact when you press the easy UVs button. Turn off if you want the angle input field value to be applied as a soften/harden normals value when you press the easy UVs button.

 ✔  keep existing seams
Turn on if you want to keep the existing UV cuts/shells you have when you press the easy UVs button. It's recommend to leave this checkbox off, but turning it on can be useful in certain situations.

easy UVs
Automatically creates UVs for your mesh with less seams than automatic mapping.

Use the different checkboxes to configure how you'd like the easy UVs to be created, different checkbox combinations will create different results. See the instructions at the top of this document to get started learning this tool.

The uniform TD checkbox has no effect on the easy UVs method of UV generation.

rotate rotate flipU flipV
Rotates selected UVs left or right 90 degrees. The left rotate button rotates left, and the right rotate button rotates right.

Flips selected UVs along U or V based on their current pivot point. UVs are not cut during flipping which avoids unwanted seams like the Maya default flip UV commands.

soft hard hard border
Softens normals, hardens normals, or hardens all UV border edges on the selected mesh.

Unfold         Straighten
unfold UV UV shell
Unfolds UVs on selected components.

Straightens UVs on selected components or straightens UV shell based on the edge loop you select first. An angle of 30 is used for the straighten UV command.

create shell orient
Create shell converts selected components into a new UV shell, for best results select faces first.

Orient aligns the rotation of a UV shell to the selected edge or two selected UVs. Works on multiple shells at the same time, for best results select sets of UVs on each shell to avoid shared edges.

3d cut and sew exit
Enters and exits the 3d cut and sew tool.

To interactively cut and sew edges click the 3d cut and sew button to enter the 3d cut and sew tool:
Each time you cut or sew an edge click the layout UVs button to interactively see how the cuts effect the shape of your UV shells. After you've pressed the layout UVs button once, use the g key on the keyboard to repeat last command while you cut and sew. This gives you interactive unwrapping directly in the viewport without needing to click back into the toolbox to see the result.

Make sure to press the exit button when you're done using the 3d cut and sew tool to get back into regular selection mode in Maya.

 ✔  unfold
Turn on if you want the layout UVs button and easy UVs button to unfold UVs during UV layout, it's recommended to leave this checkbox on in most cases.

 ✔  uniform TD
Turn on if you want the layout UVs button to scale UV shells to have uniform texel density relative to one another in the 0-1 UV space.

The uniform TD checkbox has no effect on the easy UVs method of UV generation.

 ✔  orient
Turn on if you want the layout UVs button and easy UVs button to rotate UV shells for best fit during UV layout.

 ✔  layout all
Turn on if you want the layout UVs button to layout all UVs on the current mesh. Turn off if you want the layout UVs button to layout selected UVs.

If the 3d cut and sew tool is active the layout UVs button will always layout all UVs on the mesh even if the checkbox is turned off, this prevents the unwrapping process from failing when using the 3d cut and sew tool.

map size  ▼
The map size drop down allows you to control how padding works relative to what the final texture size is you're going to apply to the model. Set map size to the final texture resolution you plan to use on your model.

padding
Padding controls the amount of space between each UV shell and is relative to what you set the map size to. UV tile edge padding will automatically be half of whatever you set padding to.

layout UVs
Lays out UVs, use the unfold, uniform TD, orient, and layout all checkboxes to configure how layout UVs works.

Finalize your UVs using all the different tools in the toolbox, press the layout UVs button each time you make an edit so you can see how the UVs pack together.

If you turn off the orient checkbox and the uniform TD checkbox you can adjust the rotation and scale of specific shells relative to the rest of the UVs and then press the layout UVs button to repack everything.

YouTube Video

Gridify UVs

Select some faces in the 3d viewport or the UV editor and run the tool to gridify UVs.

Existing UVs are not required for this tool to work so you can gridify UVs on unmapped faces if you want.


-Doesn't work on triangles.
-Doesn't work on n-gons.

If the newly created grid of UV's is facing the wrong way, click the gridUV button a second time to rotate it by 90 degrees.

This tool uses Maya's auto seam feature to automatically cut a UV seem when needed. For example, on cylindrical shaped meshes that don't have a natural UV border edge.

If you're not happy with the resulting auto seam you can manually choose which edge loop to use as the UV seam:


The texel density the UVs are created with is 5.12 pixels per unit, if you'd like to modify this value locally:


If you'd like to keep the existing texel density of the selected faces and apply that to the grid of UVs:


If you'd like to always normalize the grid of UVs to fill the 0-1 UV space:


YouTube Video

Rectangularize UVs

This tool creates better and faster results than Maya's straighten UVs tool because faces are UV mapped instead of trying to straighten existing UVs which is slow and error prone. As well, there's no tolerence setting so UVs won't collapse back onto themselves if they're too close together like the built in straighten UVs tool.

Select some faces that form a square, rectangle, or strip in the 3d viewport or the UV editor and run the tool to rectangularize UVs.

Existing UVs are not required for this tool to work so you can rectangularize UVs on unmapped faces if you want.


-Doesn't work on triangles.
-Doesn't work on n-gons.
-Doesn't work on selections that are jagged/stair stepped.

If the newly created grid of UV's is facing the wrong way, click the recUV button a second time to rotate it by 90 degrees.

The recUV tool doesn't work on selections that are jagged or stair stepped, for the tool to work you need to select faces that form a square, rectangle, or strip. If you want to gridify a jagged selection use the gridUV tool instead.


This tool uses Maya's auto seam feature to automatically cut a UV seem when needed. For example, on cylindrical shaped meshes that don't have a natural UV border edge.

If you're not happy with the resulting auto seam you can manually choose which edge loop to use as the UV seam:


In certain situations even though you selected faces that form a square, rectangle, or strip, you may find that the tool fails. This is because Maya's auto seam created a UV border edge automatically that doesn't form a square, rectangle, or strip. If this happens you'll need to manually choose which edge loop to use as the UV seam.

To determine if this is happening on your mesh, select the faces you want and run the gridUV tool instead of the recUV tool. The gridUV tool works on any shape of selection and will reveal the issue.

If you run the gridUV tool and the UVs that get created are jagged or stair stepped, then you know the problem with recUV is caused by Maya's auto seam feature cutting a jagged edge and you'll need to manually choose which edge loop to use as the UV seam as shown in the example image above.

The texel density the UVs are created with is 5.12 pixels per unit, if you'd like to modify this value locally:


If you'd like to keep the existing texel density of the selected faces and apply that to the grid of UVs:


If you'd like to always normalize the grid of UVs to fill the 0-1 UV space:


YouTube Video

UV Mapping Toolbox

The main benefit of this toolbox is it contains the best UV mapping commands and the best UV Toolkit commands all in one place. It also has a bunch of custom tools to make working with UVs faster.

Having all the best UV tools in a single toolbox significantly speeds up UV creation and editing.

Another benefit of the toolbox is all the buttons are visable all the time, so you don't have to expand menus or apply settings to create UVs.

Many of the buttons in this toolbox automatically delete history, if you prefer to keep history intact while using this toolbox you can modify the script locally:
reset
Resets the toolbox back to default settings.

 ✔  on top of UV editor
Turn on if you want the toolbox to stay on top of the UV editor when the UV editor is undocked. If you close the UV editor with this checkbox on, the toolbox will also close which is a limitation of how Maya works. If you're primarily working with a docked UV editor I recommend turning this checkbox off.

 ✔  image dimming
Toggles UV editor image dimming on/off. After the checkbox is turned on the desired brightness level can be adjusted in the UV editor using the standard controls.

The image dimming checkbox loads your last dimming settings the next time you open the toolbox. This is helpful because image dimming always resets to off when you close Maya.

checker map + -
Toggles the checker map on/off, press the plus or minus buttons to increase or decrease the checker map size.

UV shaded UV border
Toggles shaded UVs and UV border edges on/off in the UV editor.

show mesh edges
Toggles polygon edge display on/off in the viewport.

UV Editor HUD
tile lines tile labels
Toggles UV tile lines and UV tile labels on/off in the UV editor.

% used # shells
Toggles % used UV space and number of shells on/off in the UV editor HUD.

 ✔  keep w/h ratio
Turn on if you want to keep the width/height ratio during UV creation when you press the map X, Y, Z, cam, automatic, and best buttons.

If you turn off keep w/h ratio the proj w/h checkbox is also turned off.

 ✔  proj w/h
Turn on if you want to apply world space texel density during UV creation using the map X, Y, Z, cam, automatic, and best buttons.

Use the input field to set a world space value you want the UV mapping created at and then press the map X, Y, Z, cam, automatic, or best buttons to create UVs at that world space texel density.

This is helpful if you want to create UV mapping at a consistent scale as you work. The default value is 400 world space units in Maya which is equal to 5.12 pixels per unit using a 2048x2048 texture.

If you want to find out what value you should use if you prefer pixels per unit as a measurement, take the target texture resolution divided by the pix per unit you want. For example, 2048 texture ÷ 5.12 pix per unit = proj w/h 400

In this example image the plane is 400x400 world space units so applying a proj w/h of 400 and planar mapping on Y projects the UVs into the 0-1 UV space.

map X map Y map Z
Applies X, Y, Z, planar mapping to your selection.

cam automatic best
Applies camera mapping, automatic mapping, or best plane mapping to your selection.

Automatic mapping needs to be done in world space for the proj w/h checkbox to work correctly so the scale transform will be frozen on any meshes you use automatic mapping on.

If you want to change the number of automatic map projection planes you can modify the script locally:
Turn on the keep w/h ratio checkbox and turn off the proj w/h checkbox if you want the automatic mapping to uniformly scale the UV shells to fit into the 0-1 UV space.

Turn off the keep w/h and proj w/h checkboxes if you want the automatic mapping to stretch the UV shells to fit into the 0-1 UV space.

Turn on the keep w/h and proj w/h checkboxes if you want to apply world space texel density to the automatic mapping using the value from the input field, UV shells will be created outside the 0-1 UV space.

grid UV rec UV
The grid UV button maps selected faces into a uniform grid of UVs, the rec UV button maps selected faces into a non-uniform grid of UVs with correct aspect ratio.

To get help on gridUV and recUV click the links below to go to their individual help pages:
Gridify UVs
Rectangularize UVs

Both tools work the same as the shelf button versions, but these versions use the texel density from the pix per unit input field found in this toolbox to create the grid of UVs. The shelf button versions of these tools have a fixed texel density that you have to modify in the script itself if you want to change it.

Move Shells  ✔  align
Turn off if you want the up, left, down, right buttons to move selected UV shells by one tile in the specified direction.

Turn on if you want the up, left, down, right buttons to align UVs in the specified direction.

Switch to UV shell component mode and select two or more UV shells if you want to align UV shells in the specified direction instead of aligning individual UVs.

rotate rotate
Rotates selected UVs left or right 90 degrees. The left rotate button rotates left, and the right rotate button rotates right.

If you want to change the rotation amount you can modify the script locally:
If you want the rotate buttons to select the whole UV shell before rotating you can modify the script locally:
If you want the rotate buttons to create a new UV shell from selected components before they rotate you can modify the script locally:
up left down right
Moves selected shells by one tile in the choosen direction. To save time only one component needs to be selected on the shell to move the whole shell.

stack flipU flipV
Stacks selected UV shells on top of each other. To save time only one component needs to be selected on each shell to stack them.

Flips selected components along U or V. Unlike Maya's standard flip tool, UVs are not cut in the flipping process and modified pivots are supported.

Unfold UVs  ✔  orient
Turn on if you want the unfold UV button to unfold and then orient the UV shell to the longest edge on the mesh. This is helpful for unfolding certain shapes so they aren't rotated diagonally after the unfolding is complete.

UV U V
Unfolds selected components along U and V, U only, or V only.

opt 0 opt .5 opt 1
Optimizes selected UVs with a surface angle of 0, .5, or 1. Optimize UVs can sometimes give better results than unfold UVs depending on the shape of the mesh and the UV shell.

If you have a lot of stretching in your UVs after using unfold UV, try using the opt 0 button multiple times to even out the UV distribution.

Straighten UVs
UV shell U V
Straightens selected UVs along U and V, shell, U only, or V only.

UVs are straightened using an angle of 30. For best results using the straighten shell button, select an edge loop that runs across the shell first so that edge loop is used as the line to try to straighten the shell to.

Orient Shells To
X Y Z
Orients selected UV shells to world space X, Y, or Z. Clicking the button again will flip the shell to face positive or negative along that axis.

Using orient X, Y, Z can be faster than using orient to edge or orient to UVs because you can select whole shells in the 3D viewport which is more intuitive, especially for circular shells where you can't tell which edge is facing which way in the UV editor.

edge/UVs
Orients a UV shell to a selected edge, or two selected UVs.

horizontal vertical
Orients selected UV shells to the horizontal or vertical axis in the UV editor. Clicking the button again will flip the shell to face positive or negative along that axis.

These tools should be used in conjunction with orient X, Y, Z. If orient X and Z don't produce a straight shell use orient horizontal. If orient Y doesn't produce a straight shell use orient vertical.

gather
Moves selected UV shells to the 0-1 UV space maintaining their relative positions. If you're in object mode or component mode with nothing selected, all UV shells on the mesh are moved to the 0-1 UV space.

ungather
Moves each selected UV shell to a different UV tile to the right maintaining their relative positions.

In object mode, moves all UV shells on the mesh to different UV tiles to the right maintaining their relative positions.

In component mode with no components selected, moves all overlapping UV shells on the mesh to different UV tiles to the right maintaining their relative positions.

Transfer UVs From
mesh group
Transfers UVs from one source mesh to multiple target meshes, or transfers UVs from one source group with multiple meshes inside it to one target group with multiple meshes inside it.

To transfer UVs from one source mesh to multiple target meshes:

To transfer UVs from one source group with multiple meshes inside it to one target group with multiple meshes inside it:


measure
If nothing's selected, toggles Maya's UV measure window on/off.

If something's selected, opens Maya's UV measure window and updates the measure results.

If the measure window is open, updates the measure results from the current selection.

To quickly measure multiple UV selections, make sure the UV measure window is open, select some UVs and click the measure button. Select some different UVs and press the g key on the keyboard to repeat last command to measure different UV selections without needing to click back into either interface.

UV grouper
Opens the UV Grouping Toolbox.

Grouping UVs allows you to manually choose which UV shells stack on top of eachother when you press the layout UVs button in the UV Mapping Toolbox or the UV Grouping Toolbox.


-There's only one set of UV groups saved per scene file.
-If you duplicate a mesh that has UV groups you need to clear all the groups from the newly created mesh to avoid errors.

To create a UV group, first turn off the stack checkbox in the UV Mapping Toolbox, then select two or more UV shells and press one of the 1 to 50 number buttons to assign the UV shells to that group number. When you assign shells to a UV group faces are selected to show you what shells the group consists of. To save time you only need to select one or more UVs on each shell to assign them to a group.

Number buttons in the toolbox are coloured if they contain one or more shells, buttons that don't contain any shells are grey.

UV groups are exclusive, so if you assign shells from group 1 to group 2 those shells are automatically removed from group 1.

If you forget which shells are assigned to which groups, select UVs on the shells in question and the group numbers will display at the top of the toolbox. UV shells that don't belong to any group will display as None.

The clear button removes all shells from the group, you only need to select one component from a grouped shell to remove all shells from that group. The clear all button clears all UV shell groups.

Group Shells
sel sel sel sel sel
1 2 3 4 5
Number buttons assign selected UV shells to that group number, sel buttons select the contents of the corresponding group number.

To save time you only need to select one or more UVs on each shell to assign them to a group.

Clear Groups
clear clear all
Clears selected UVs shells from whatever group they're in or clear all UV shells from all groups.

To save time you only need to select one or more UVs on each shell you want to clear from whatever group they're in. Clear all doesn't require any selection.

 ✔  layout after edit
Turn on if you want to layout UVs each time you add or remove something from a UV group. This is helpful to see how your UV shells stack without needing to press the layout UVs button each time you make an edit to a UV group.

layout UVs
Lays out UVs using the checkboxes you've configured in the UV Mapping Toolbox.

find shells < %
Selects all UV shells smaller than the % number you type into the input field. The 0-1 UV space is considered to be 100%, the default value is 1.0 which will select all UV shells smaller than 1% of the 0-1 UV space.

After changing the value in the input field you can press enter on the keyboard numpad to automatically run the tool again so you don't need to click the button each time as you fine tune the number to select small shells.


pack selected to pivot
Lays out selected UV shells to their pivot location while maintaining texel density and UV padding. You can move the pivot of the selected shells before using this tool to control where the UVs pack to.

This tool is very useful for organizing shells into clusters without needing to lay them out into a UDIM tile first. For example, if you have specific shells you want packed beside each other.

layout up
Lays out selected UV shells to their pivot location in a vertical rectangular shape while maintaining texel density and UV padding. Each time you press the button the rectangle cluster spreads out and gets thinner. To reset the shape back to a square use the pack selected to pivot button.

This tool is very useful for organizing shells into vertical clusters without needing to lay them out into a UDIM tile first. This is helpful if you need to organize a bunch of shells into a vertical strip with correct padding.

layout right
Lays out selected UV shells to their pivot location in a horizontal rectangular shape while maintaining texel density and UV padding. Each time you press the button the rectangle cluster spreads out and gets thinner. To reset the shape back to a square use the pack selected to pivot button.

This tool is very useful for organizing shells into horizontal clusters without needing to lay them out into a UDIM tile first. This is helpful if you need to organize a bunch of shells into a horizontal strip with correct padding.

 ✔  flip
Turn on if you want to flip reversed UV shells when you press the layout UVs button.

 ✔  orient
Turn on if you want to rotate UV shells for best fit when you press the layout UVs button.

 ✔  move
Turn on if you want to move UV shells for best fit when you press the layout UVs button. In most cases you'll want to leave this checkbox on.

Turning this checkbox off will keep your existing UV layout, but scale it up to fill the 0-1 UV space. This is helpful if you want to adjust your UV layout by hand and try different arrangements to get the most efficient UV pack.

 ✔  stack
Turn on if you want all similar UV shells to stack on top of each other when you press the layout UVs button.

If you want only specific UV shells to stack, turn off the stack checkbox and use the UV Grouping Toolbox instead.

 ✔  uniform TD
Turn on if you want to scale UV shells to have uniform texel density relative to one another in the 0-1 UV space when you press the layout UVs button.

 ✔  keep TD
Turn on if you want to keep the current texel density of the UV shells when you press the layout UVs button. Keeping the current texel density can result in a UV pack which extends outside the 0-1 UV space.

The keep TD checkbox works in conjunction with the uniform TD checkbox, so if you'd like to keep the exact texel density you see on all your shells during UV layout, you have to turn off the uniform TD checkbox to avoid shells having uniform texel density relative to one another.

 ✔  layout all
Turn on if you want to layout all UVs on the current mesh when you press the layout UVs button. Turn off if you want to layout only selected UVs when you press the layout UVs button.

To save time only one component needs to be selected on each shell you want to layout when the layout all checkbox is turned off.

map size  ▼
The map size drop down allows you to control how padding works relative to what the final texture size is you're going to apply to the model. Set map size to the final texture resolution you plan to use on your model.

padding
Padding controls the amount of space between each UV shell and is relative to what you set the map size to. UV tile edge padding will automatically be half of whatever you set padding to.

layout UVs
Lays out UVs using the checkboxes you've configured above.

Texel Density
map size
Stores the texture resolution used to calculate the pixels per unit below. Set this input field to the pixel size your final texture will be, for example 4096 if you plan to use a 4096x4096 texture on your model.

pix per unit
Stores the texel density the paste TD button uses and is updated by the copy TD button. The value can be manually input or will auto update if one or more faces are selected and the copy TD button is pressed.

copy TD paste TD
Copy TD copies the current texel density from selected faces and updates the pix per unit field. Texel density is displayed in pixels per unit and will be relative to what map size is currently set before copying.

Paste TD applies the current texel density from the pix per unit field to selected UVs, objects, or faces. The paste TD button is significantly faster than the set TD button found in the Maya UV Toolkit.

YouTube Video from 2018

Update Video 1 from 2018

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Update Video 5 from 2021

Copy Material to Clipboard

Copying a material to the clipboard allows you to paste the material to other objects or faces without opening the Hypershade.

The copied material stays in the clipboard until you copy a different material or close Maya. You can also use the replace tool to replace whole material ids.

In object mode the first material it finds on the mesh gets stored in the clipboard. This is helpful if you only have one material on the mesh and can save time not having to enter face mode.

Paste Material from Clipboard

Pasting a material from the clipboard allows you to apply that material to other objects or faces without opening the Hypershade.

The copied material stays in the clipboard until you copy a different material or close Maya. You can also use the replace tool to replace whole material ids.

Replace Material id from Clipboard

Select a single face of the material id you want to replace and press the replace button.

Copy and replacing is a quick way to change material ids without opening the Hypershade.