What is the difference and use of seams and pins in UV Unfold. I have been using seams but I don't understand how to use the pins.

I have a feeling this is why my textures from UV Unfold are coming into Carrara all messed up.

Seams 'seem' easy enough but to do, but how does one use the pins? I have a feeling pins hold the texture in place on the object. Can someone verify this and how to use the pins in UV Unfold?

Also, does one UV Unfold before or after displacement? Will displacement screw up UVs? I know for texture painting you need to UV map your object and create a texture map in the materials before you can paint. I know I am doing something wrong from the results showing up in Carrara.

Anyone out there with some insight on this?

Appreciated

You should always UV map before doing any type of texture work, wether it be displacement, bump, or standard texture work. It makes it easier on you.   Pins are used in the UVspace, not the regular object space. They are used to help lock down a particular part of the UVMap so that when you relax the rest of the map, the area "pinned down" is unaffected.  This can be used in several ways. Most common uses is to get part of an area ...say the ears, of a head relaxed and laid out then use pins to lock that down while relax the rest of the head. Another way is to pin down the outer corners of the UVMap and then relax the interior so that the map relaxes relative to the pin. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. My experience with Headus UVLayout has helped me to understand the tools before I got Hex2 and I have to say, In someways Hex 2 is neater but in other's, UVLayout is better. I guess I'll be using both.

Well I got UV Unfold UVs to work inside Carrara by exporting from Hex 2 as a Carrara file. However the exported displacement map was a mess when applied in Carrara.

When exported as an object file the displacement is good and the UV texture is a mess.

Try flipping the map around also did you collapse DG? UV mapping isn't simple so it could just be a bad attempt. Since you have to manually choose the seams it's a bit more complicated than auto unwrap, but gives more control.

Actually, that brings up a good question...why does Hex flip the maps? I mean, I know it does this, as I had imported a UVMapped object, painted it in Hex, exported the maps and discovered them to be flipped.

Not sure about that one. It's in the manual so assumably it is deliberate :biggrin: It is nice to see someone doing some nice work with hex2 to get past the recent bumps.