glukoz
gumroad
UVPackmaster
🕑 Added 2018-05-07 21:26:39 +0000 UTCTHIS VERSION OF UVPACKMASTER IS OUTDATED AND NO LONGER SUPPORTED. THE CURRENT RELEASE OF THE ADD-ON IS AVAILABLE HERE.
[NOTE] This product provides the demo (free) version as well as the extended and professional versions of the add-on. If you are having issues with buying another version of the add-on on this page after you downloaded/bought some other version (it's a gumroad bug) try to log out from your gumroad account and then reenter your e-mail address when buying a new version. If it still doesn't solve the issue simply use the duplicated extended version or pro version products.
[NOTE2] You can download the demo version of the add-on directly from here (no login/e-mail needed). If you want to receive updates by e-mail you can also use this product page to get the demo version (simply choose the 'DEMO' and 'I WANT TO RECEIVE UPDATES' variants). We highly recommend agreeing on receiving the updates - we send approximately one e-mail per month only, you will receive short information about all improvements added with new versions. If you still do not want to receive updates then please use the link provided above to get the demo version - there is no need to use gumroad.
UVPackmaster is an efficient UV packing solution for Blender 3D. Its robustness comes from the fact that the core of its algorithm was written in C++ and runs as a separate multi-threaded application. However, the solution is a typical Blender add-on from the users viewpoint - you install it using the standard procedure for Blender add-ons.
ATTENTION: early access beta version of UVPackmaster 2 is already available. You can get it by purchasing this product. The second release of UVPackmaster comes with great improvements so we highly recommend updating right now.
Starting from version 1.9 the add-on provides beta support for Blender 2.8. In order to run the add-on with Blender 2.8 simply use an add-on zip file with the 'blend-2.8-beta' suffix. If you see an error when enabling the add-on make sure you are using the latest Blender 2.8 build.
Important note: the add-on was tested with Blender 2.8 and it worked well and stable. Despite that this add-on version is considered as beta simply because Blender 2.8 is currently in the beta version. Keep in mind that unexpected issues may always happen when using this configuration. We recommend using the standard add-on version for Blender 2.79 in production as it is officially supported and thoroughly tested.
Watch the videos showing add-on capabilities:
The add-on is available in two versions: extended and professional. In order to check the differences between versions see the picture attached as third cover at the very top of the page (two first covers are YouTube videos). The differences are also provided in the list below:
- efficient packing algorithm: extended and professional
- multi-threading support: extended and professional
- measure area of selected islands: extended and professional
- check for overlapping islands: extended and professional
- rotate islands to achieve better packing: extended and professional
- heuristic search algorithm: extended and professional
- pack for a non-squared texture: extended and professional
- pack new islands into an existing packing: extended and professional
- process self-intersecting UV faces: extended and professional
- select UV islands of a similar shape: extended and professional
- lock overlapping islands: professional version only
- grouping by material: professional version only
- advanced heuristic algorithm: professional version only
- UV map validation: professional version only
The demo version is available for free. It has all capabilities of the pro version, but the packing result is rendered in a separate window - it is not applied to the UV map. Note the demo version still provides 'Area Measurement' and 'Overlap Check' functionalities, so it still has a practical use.
You can download the demo version of the add-on directly from here (no login/e-mail needed). If you want to receive updates by e-mail you can also use this product page to get the demo version (simply choose the 'DEMO' and 'I WANT TO RECEIVE UPDATES' variants and press the 'I want this' button).
In order to update from the extended version to the professional version you only have to pay the difference between what you already paid and the pro version price. Send us an e-mail with a update request and we will send you back a discount code. Make sure you send a request from an e-mail address you used for buying the extended version.
For more info read the Blender Artists thread.
User Reviews
Zacharias Reinhardt (website):
standard_owl:
(source)
actimelvanille:
(source)
spydurhank:
(source)
fiendish55:
(source)
Installation
Use the usual add-on installation procedure for Blender:
- go to the User Preferences
- select 'Add-ons' tab
- click 'Install Add-on from File'
- navigate to the zip file of the add-on and confirm (do not unzip the file manually)
- find the 'UVPackmaster' add-on on the add-ons list and enable it.
OS-specific Requirements:
Windows:
Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable must be installed.
Linux:
No specific requirements.
Mac:
OpenMP library must be installed manually. Follow the procedure:
- open terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
- install Command Line Tools, issue the command:
- install Homebrew:
- finally install OpenMP library:
Known Issues
On some Unix systems packer binary doesn't have the exec permission after add-on is unzipped by Blender [UPDATE: this issue should be now fixed in the version 1.6 of the add-on]. If you see '' or '' messages in the add-on interface try the following procedure:
- open system terminal
- go to home directory, issue the command:
- search for the packer binary in your home directory:
- add the exec permission to the binary, use a path returned by the previous command:
Interface
Starting from version 1.4: the add-on interface has its own tab named 'UVPackmaster' in the left side panel of the UV Editor (you can open the panel by pressing 'T' key when the mouse cursor is in the UV Editor space).
Prior to version 1.4: the add-on interface may be found in the left side panel of the UV Editor. Interface is located in the 'Tools' tab of the panel.
Topology Requirements
Packer has two methods of island topology processing:
- default method (Extended Topology Analysis option disabled)
- extended method (Extended Topology Analysis option enabled)
Default method requirements: all UV islands must have clean, no self-overlapping boundaries (the outer boundary and inner holes boundaries). Self-overlapping islands are not allowed. Faces sharing only one vertex are not allowed as well.
Extended method requirements: extended method is less demanding on islands topology. It accepts self-overlapping islands, faces sharing single vertex are also allowed. It still won't accept islands whose topology is really bad, e.g. islands containing a single UV face with self-intersecting edges or islands with no area (e.g. scaled to a single point).
If you really don't care about your UV layout topology you can enable 'checkbox. With this option enabled add-on will process island with any topology.
If an island doesn't satisfy requirements for given method the 'Invalid topology' error will be returned by add-on.
Supported platforms
- Windows 64-bit
- Linux 64-bit
- Mac 64-bit, OS X 10.11 or higher (support added in the version 1.6 of the add-on)
Some users report that add-on is also working on earlier versions of Mac OS. If you have such system you can always download the free version and try to install it anyway. If it runs successfully then commercial versions should also work properly.
IMPORTANT NOTE: we are doing our best to make sure that UVPackmaster will run without issues on every system version and distribution, but it is impossible for us to check every existing configuration. That is why we recommend downloading the demo version of the add-on in order to check whether it runs smoothly on your OS before buying a commercial version.
Packing Options
Legend: letters in parenthesis describe the add-on version the given option is available with:
E - extended
P - professional.
Iterations (E|P): number describing how exact the algorithm will be when searching for island placement.
Margin (E|P): margin to apply during packing.
Rotation Enable (E|P): allow packer to rotate islands in order to achieve better result.
Pre-Rotation Disable (E|P): disable the initial rotation of islands before generating other orientations. The pre-rotation operation usually optimizes packing, use this option only if you have a good reason.
Post-Scaling Disable (E|P): do not scale islands after packing in order to fit them into unit UV square. Enabling this option is not recommended in most cases.
Rotation Step (E|P): rotation step in degrees to apply during packing.
Automatic Overlap Check (E|P): automatically check for overlapping islands after packing is done.
Automatic Area Measurement (E|P): automatically measure islands area after packing is done.
Heuristic Search Time (E|P): the time in seconds the add-on will spend searching the optimal packing solution using the heuristic algorithm. Value '0' means the feature is disabled. This feature is most useful when a single packing pass doesn't take much time (a few seconds). Use it with a limited number of islands and with limited island orientations considered ('Rotation Step' == 90). The current heuristic algorithm is most efficient for packing UV maps containing limited number of big islands of irregular shape.
Use Texture Ratio (E|P): take into consideration the ratio of the active texture dimensions during packing.
Pack To Others (E|P): add selected islands into those already packed in the unit UV square (no scaling will be applied).
Extended Topology Analysis (E|P): use the extended method of topology analysis if basic method fails for a particular island. If add-on reports invalid topology for an island you can enable this option in order to force it to use more sophisticated algorithm and try to process the island anyway. WARNING: enabling this option is not recommended in most cases - if the basic method reports the invalid topology error it probably means that you should verify your topology and fix it. If you enable this option the add-on may not notify you about such issues in your UV map.
Process Self-Intersecting UV Faces (E|P): With this option enabled add-on will try to process self-intersecting UV faces during the extended topology analysis procedure.
Similarity Threshold (E|P): A greater value of this parameter means islands will be more likely recognized as a similar in shape. '0.5' is a good threshold value to start with. Accuracy of the similar islands detection also depends on other factors: 1. 'Rotation Step' paramter: the lower rotation step value the better accuracy of the operation. Rotation step set to 90 should be sufficient in most cases though. 2. 'Iterations' paramter: more iterations means better accuracy. 200 iterations is a sufficient value in most cases. This value should be increased in the first place if the similarity detection returns incorrect results (especially when dealing with really small islands).
Group By Material (P) (experimental): make sure islands sharing the same material are packed together. This feature is experimental: especially it can block when used together with 'Pack To Others' option in case no appropriate place is found for an island in the unit UV square. In such situation simply press ESC in order to cancel the process. For some UV layouts it is required to use the 'Heuristic Search' option in order to obtain a decent result from the grouped packing.
Lock Overlapping (P): treat overlapping islands as a single island.
Advanced Heuristic (P): use advanced methods during a heuristic search. With this option enabled add-on will examine a broader set of solutions when searching for an optimal one. As the number of solutions to check is much bigger it is recommended to use longer search times in this mode. Note that in many cases this method provides best results with 'Rotation Step' set to a large value (e.g. 90 degress) because such setting considerably increses the number of packing iterations which can be performed in a given time.
Changes Log
Release 1.1:
- add 'Use Texture Ratio' option
- add 'Pre-rotation Disable' option
Release 1.2:
- add 'Pack To Others' option
Release 1.21:
- fix 'Maximum recursion depth' issue
- change 'Rotation Resolution' option to 'Rotation Step'
Release 1.3:
- complete refactor of the algorithm
Release 1.31
- do not show option in the interface which is still in experimental version and thus disabled
Release 1.4
- add 'Extended Topology Analysis' option
Release 1.41
- 'Extended Topology Analysis' hot fix.
Release 1.42
- bug fixes.
Release 1.5
- add the professional version.
Release 1.6
- add Mac support
- add 'Process Self-Intersecting UV Faces'
Release 1.7
- add 'Automatic Area Measurement' option
- add 'Post-Scaling Disable' option
- grouped pack improvements
- add the demo version
Release 1.8
- add 'Validate UVs' operator
- improve self-intersecting UV faces processing
Release 1.81
- hot fix for the topology analysis in the extended version
Release 1.82
- bug fixes
Release 1.9
- performance optimizations
- add the 'Select Similar' operation
- island grouping refactor - a new grouping method by similarity
- UV validation fixes
Release 1.91
- yet another UV validation fix
- Blender 2.8 beta - support multi object editing
Release 1.91.1
- Blender 2.8 beta - fix the extended version
Release 1.91.2
- Blender 2.8 beta - enable the add-on with the latest Blender 2.8 build
Release 1.91.3
- increase the maximal value of rotation step to 180
- Blender 2.8 beta - misc fixes
