Laying out uv's for multiple objects

[Damage_Inc.]

Just a quickie....I know this should probably be obvious, but it's confusing me. I have several separate objects that I'm trying to lay out the uv's for and texture on one map. I was wondering, in order to do this do I first have to collapse all the objects into a single object? I really don't want to do that, but I can't think of any other way. Any suggestions?

[Black]

Depends on the software as always.. please gain a habbit of stating the softwares to be used before you ask your questions.

If you are using XSI you would have to since you can't display select multiple components.

But if you are using Max or MaYA just select all the object and convert the selection to components/sub objects.

You'll have all the objects displayed in the layout. And be able to just arrange them in a manner to make sure they don't overlap.

qlthough; if you intend on using some feature such as planner projection or automap or UVW etc... then you best collapse them together then break them apart. as that will cover the whole 0-1 coord on per mesh basis.

Hope that answers your question

[Damage_Inc.]

Thanks for the help. Yeah sorry about that....forgot to mention I'm using max 5. I was wondering, if I had say, four objects that I wanted to texture with one 512x512 bitmap........when I collapsed them down, textured them, and broke them back apart........would each of the four pieces act like they had separate 512x512 bitmaps applied?

[Black]

Well the point here is that the texture maps are applied to the shaders/materials and not the objects them selves.

So iff you happen to put them together and then take them apart. they would preserve their UV coordinates unless you modify them seperately after the 'apart' bit.

So if you say have a texture that has the colour data for a variaty of UV sets. I don't think you shall have any problem. Even if they are assighned to diffrent materials.

[Station]

(In Max) I always detach them (an arm for example) to get a decent UVW unwrap mesh, then when I've finished all the bits, I re-attach them. Then you can select them as 'elements', within the sub-object modifier. I've never had a prob with it, and it's easy to do, no going back and forth.