Attached Link: UV Map & Edit

UV Map & Edit is a powerful, but simple to use solution to do UV mapping and editing inside of Cinema 4D. This plugin consists of three tools. The interactive UV mapper applies standard mapping methods with many control options to an UVW tag. The UVW object allows detailed editing of an UVW tag with the editing tools of Cinema 4D and the integrated tools. The UV draw tool draws complete or partial UV maps colored by polygon selections in the picture viewer.

For more information, visit the product page, have a look at the PDF manual (278 KB), or try the demo (372 KB, full functional for 14 days).

Other plug-ins by Dimension 3D:

• CinePoser LT imports Poser scenes as obj files and adds materials, lights, and cameras from the Poser scene.
• Splines PLUS facilitates the work with splines by combining splines, subdividing splines, and cloning along splines.
• Snapshot (free) takes a snapshot from the editor view and copies it to the clipboard.
• Render On (free) turns on generator objects during render only to improve editing performance.

looks pretty cool

i crashed it going into interactive mode thoe.

Mike

No mac version?!!!

Leadnut: Sorry, no MAC version. Maybe later, if I find someone to compile it for me.

slouchcorp: It crashed in interactive mode? Should not happen. Can you give me some details? Cinema version, Windows version, anything special about the object for which it crashed? Which kind of crash, does it freeze or goes down?

ok,

cinema version 9.603

winxp pro.

dual dual core amd270s

7900GT

added a cube, added a uv object, then clicked on interactive mapping, tryed to select a handle and it crashed,(no drop out just stuck frozen, no errors in the console or bugreport sorry.

non repetable,

however just crashed it again in the same mode clicking on the display icons in the viewport.

allso seems theres no undo

Thanks slouchcorp.

I don't have C4D 9.5, but tested with 8, 8.5, and 9. I had a problem with freezing in 9 when updating the Active Tool tab, but managed to get around this. Maybe your problem is something similar, I will have a look at it..

Aha! :).  I hadn't looked at the details yet, but if your plugin is what I think it is, then.. great minds think alike :).  I've been thinking about writing this plugin for years now (started writing the framework in fact, but never got around to finishing it).

Time to go take a peek....

...just went and read your product page and.. yep - that's exactly what I had in mind :).  It's interesting to see your implementation - nice work! (damnit, someone beat me to it!)

I expect you to have great success with this... now folks can use all the features / tools in C4D that are missing from BodyPaint, like:

• lock X / Y / Z axis for move and scaling operations (!!)

• potentially easier to use magnet tool

• slide (uv) points along an (uv) edge tool

• stitch and sew tools (!! I assume)

• things lke the iron tool might also be handy

...should be fun to try it.

There are some limits in applying editing tools to the UVW object, because it consists of unconnected polygons. I guess iron tool won't work.  For stich and sew, there's a weld mechanism included to bring / keep together points that are mapped to the same point in the original object.

BTW, thanks for the great Riptide plugin.

One way or another, I just don't get how UV works.
 
I guess that UV and W correspond with  X,Y and Z, and that every point has its own coordinates.  I guess that most often, Z isn't important as texture has no thickness, so it's UV (corresponding with XY).
I guess these UV coordinates for each point can be projected on a flat surface and get a new, second set of coords. This new set can be moved around, and will be remembered to correspond with the original xy coords of each point. This way you can make a clear set of shapes that correspond with the vaious parts of your 3D shape.
I guess that you can create a kind of 2D image, a map from these (moved) UV points and that you can draw on this.
I guess that when Cinema associates this drawing with the UV map it has for that particular 3D shape, it will project the texture on the 3D shape following the specified projection method.

And still I don't get it. It's really a very annoying kind of blackout. Is the above correct?

$29 is really an acceptable price tag, and we must support our plugin makers where we can. But I would really ove to know more as painting on maps looks really exciting.

The UV coordinates of the UV-map are the projection of XYZ coordinates of the points of the 3D object to a 2D map for surface texturing. For each polygon in the 3D object, there is a polygon in the UV map. When applying a 2D texture to the 3D object, the UV-map is used as follows. The area of the texture covered by a polygon (or better triangle, as the polygons are divided into triangles internally) in the UV-map is taken and projected to the according polygon of the 3D object. The triangles of the 3D object are flat themself, so the mapping is rather obvious.

A good UV-map is important when using patterned textures to avoid distortions when the pattern is applied to the surface of the 3D object. If you want to learn more about UV-mapping, at best have a look at an UV-mapping forum, there's a good one over at PoserPros.

This is really wonderful. I haven't had any crashes and it works perfectly so far. I tested it on a cube and also on a chocolate chip cookie I modeled. :-) Great job! Version 9.603 here with Winxp Pro, 3.0 Mhz, Pentium 4 with  hyperthreading.

Quote - ok,

cinema version 9.603

winxp pro.

dual dual core amd270s

7900GT

added a cube, added a uv object, then clicked on interactive mapping, tryed to select a handle and it crashed,(no drop out just stuck frozen, no errors in the console or bugreport sorry.

non repetable,

however just crashed it again in the same mode clicking on the display icons in the viewport.

allso seems theres no undo

 

Same here and same test

Cinema4d9.603

winxp pro sp2

Pentium 4 2.01 GHz

Radeon 9550 256 MB

Thanks for the feedback about the problem in C4D 9.5. I posted the problem at Maxon's Plugin Cafe, I hope I can get some statement about it by Maxon next week.

If the reason is what I think (a thread deadlock) it might be impossible to fix in the plugin. In any case, the problem should not happen when changing the parameters for interactive UV-mapping in the Active Tool tab only. Then, it's only a small restriction on useability of the plugin for C4D 9.5, but no restriction on functionality.

After several crashes of cinema, I come over here and lo: the problem has already been mentioned. So: same problem here. Luckily the manager works. perhaps simply remove that screenclutter alltogether in an update?

this said: your pdf gives a detailed overview of what it all does, but nothing on how to do it or how to use it.

I load a cube, make it editable, add an uvw object, get  a new tag with lots of options, can movescale and rotate that lila line cube with interactive.
But no way I get that cross (four squares in a row, and on second or third one on top and one below). I cannot select on that uvw object, cannot set it to point, edges, polys. So why is it for?

Please create some simple tut or a movie or so in which you show how to use your plugin. I told Erik to buy it for me, which he did, but now I'm stuck.

Since the problem is only in C4D 9.5, but not in earlier versions, not using the viewer menu and handles in 9.5 is my preferred solution at the moment. I will add a warning in the manual, readme and promo, when I'm sure that it can't be fixed.

I think there are already several tutorials about UV mapping in general. Since I have to update anyway, I will add a small tutorial for UV Map & Edit then.

To get the cross for a cube, do the following:

1. Create a cube and convert to polygon.
2. Create the UVW object for the cube.
3. Use the interactive UV mapper tool with the following parameters:

• mapping: cube
• split: horizontal

1. Select Live update or press Update, and the mapping is applied and the UVW object becomes a cross.

You have to leave the interactive UV mapper, before you can select the UVW object again, and edit it in point, edge, or polygon mode. While the interactive tool is active, it always changes the selection from the UVW object to the main object, because otherwise the editor camera would rotate around the wrong object during mapping.

OK. I got to the cube mapping type. It was only when I saved (or used "filled") that I saw the cross I was looking for.
Next question: it is now four parts wide, and the same width for three in height. But it was a square. And there is no exact mathematical relationship between one fourth and one third. How do I get a cross of  squares? I can approximate by reducing the height, but that won't give me squares.

BTW: thanks for replying. I now already have a cross. And I will experiment further.

There are two ways to get exact squares for the UV map. Either, you use a texture with 4 to 3 ratio (e.g 1000 x 750) when drawing the template with UV draw. (This is most common, most UV maps are not made for square textures.) Or, you go in point mode, select all points of the UVW object, and set the height for the points (not the object) to 0.75. Then, you get squares when using a square UV-texture.

Great! I'm getting the hang of it.

After "update" and in front view, you can move each point and poly as you fancy. The only "limit" is that you have to stay in the upper right quadrant for the generated psd map.

Thanks for your help and patience. The results are there, so it's not wasted time. And once I get the basics, I can visit the uv mapping forum.

This looks like a much needed plugin for those without access to Bodypaint! And the price looks reasonable as well.

/Anders

I just released a new version of UV Map & Edit to handle the problem with the interactive UV mapping tool that some people had for Cinema 4D 9.6. Since the problem is internally to Cinema 4D, it's not a fix, but an option to turn off the feature that might cause Cinema 4D to freeze.