Pack

This panel contains tools to pack UV Islands in UV Area.

Panel

Pack

Pack Islands

Pack all Islands using selected Pack Engine.

Margin

Set space between Islands for Pack Islands operation. If you want to display Margin in UV Editor use Display UV Borders operator.

Pack_Margin

Tip

It’s important to have enough space (Margin) between UV Islands to avoid visual artefacts connected with texture filtering in game engine renders.

Here are suggested Margin values to use for different size textures:

  • 256 - 2px
  • 512 - 4px
  • 1024 - 8px
  • 2048 - 16px
  • 4096 - 32px
  • 8192 - 64px

UV Coverage

Calculate Islands UV Coverage and Empty space for active UV map. Increasing UV Coverage value leads to the increasing Texel Density value, this in turn leads to the more efficient UV space usage and you can see more pixels on your model using the same texture.

Subpanel

Get UV Coverage

Get Islands UV Coverage by given settings.

Options
Generic The size of each Island is calculated and added to the total value
Selected Show area for selected Islands only
Exclude Stacked Exclude Stacked Islands from calculations

Tip

To increase UV Coverage value and achieve efficient UV space usage (80-90% of UV Coverage):

  • Cut big Islands into smaller pieces if you have too much empty space.
  • Upscale small objects on UV map to fill empty space.
  • Downscale UV Islands that are barely visible on the model (e.g. bottom, back parts, etc.). In this case, don’t forget to disable Average Islands Scale option when packing.

Pack Engine

Panel

Supported Pack Engines

Zen UV supports three Pack engines:

Tip

If you want to use specific UV Packmaster Pack Engine features that are not present in Zen UV interface you can transfer existing settings to UVPackmaster using this Transfer settings button.

Then you can open UV Packmaster interface and complete the setup.

Pack Engine Preferences

The main preferences of each Pack Engine are placed in Zen UV interface. To use all the preferences please go to the main interface of the engine (UV Packer, UV Packmaster).

Below listed preferences from all Pack Engines. If you want to obtain information about Specific preferences for some engine, please refer to the documentation of the corresponding engine.

Subpanel

Blender UVPackmaster UV-Packer

Texture Size

Texture Size preset, works in pair with Margin.

Average Islands Scale

Average Islands Scale before Pack Islands operation.

Pack_Average_Scale

Rotate Islands

Allow Pack Engine rotate Islands.

Pack_Rotate_Islands

Pack Selected Islands

Pack only Selected Islands.

Fixed Scale

Do not scale Islands during Pack.

Note

Available only for UVPackmaster Pack Engine.

Lock Overlapping

Lock overlapping Islands during Pack. UVPackmaster has extra settings:

Options
Disabled Overlapping Islands won’t be locked
Any Part Islands will be locked together if they overlap by any part
Exact Islands will be locked together if they have the same area and bounding boxes

Note

Available only for Blender and UVPackmaster Pack Engine.

Tip

It’s recommended to use this option if you have Stacked Islands to save Stacks while packing.

Packing Mode

A packing mode determines how UV islands are processed on the general level during packing. More information you can find here.

Options
Single Tiles Overlapping Islands won’t be locked
Tile Islands will be locked together if they overlap by any part
Groups to Tiles Islands will be locked together if they have the same area and bounding boxes
Groups Together Islands will be locked together if they have the same area and bounding boxes

Note

Available only for UVPackmaster Pack Engine.

Pack in Trim

Pack Islands into Trim.

Note

Available only for Blender and UVPackmaster Pack Engine.

Pack_In_Trim

Margin Method

Choose method to process Margin if UV Islands are scaled.

Note

Available only for Blender Pack Engine.

Excluded System

System for managing Islands excluded from Pack.

Panel

Note

Available only for Blender and UVPackmaster Pack Engine.

Offset Excluded

Move Islands tagged as Excluded from Packing out of UV Area.

Tag Excluded

Tag Islands as Excluded from Packing.

Untag Excluded

Untag Islands tagged as Excluded from Packing.

Select

Select Islands tagged as Excluded from Packing.

Deselect

Deselect Islands tagged as Excluded from Packing.

Hide

Hide Islands tagged as Excluded from Packing.

Unhide

Unhide Islands tagged as Excluded from Packing.

Display Excluded

Display Islands tagged as Excluded from Packing.

Display Excluded Preferences

Unwrap

Options
Auto Update Draw Update Draw cache every time when mesh is changed
Excluded Color Excluded Islands viewport display color