UV menu

UV menu

The UV header menu contains all the UV related operators in the UV Editor.

Legacy

UV Rip Move

This “cuts” the selection from the island so you can then move it. This can also be accessed by the modal operator in the tool shelf.

Transform

Rotate Clockwise 90°

Rotates the selection by 90 degree clockwise.

Rotate Counter Clockwise 90°

Rotates the selection by 90 degree counter clockwise.

Last Operator Rotate

Orientation

Choose the orientation for the shear action.

Shear

Shear shears the selection.

Last Operator Shear

Axis Ortho

Defines the other axis of the imaginary shear axis plane.

Vertex Slide

Slide a vertex along the parent edge of the mesh UV.

Last Operator Vertex Slide

Edge Slide

Slide an edge along the adjacent edges of the mesh UV.

Last Operator Edge Slide

Randomize

Last Operator Randomize

Mirror

Copy Mirrored UV coords

Copies and pastes the selected UV geometry on the X axis based on a mirrored mesh.

Use UV Select Sync must be off. The tool does not work with Use UV Select Sync on. And it is not fully reliable as our example shows.

Last Operator Copy Mirrored UV Coords

Axis Direction

The axis direction.

Precision

Tolerance for finding vertex duplicates.

X

Mirrors the selection in X axis. The mirror point is the pivot of the selection.

Y

Mirrors the selection in Y axis. The mirror point is the pivot of the selection.

Last Operator Mirror X Y Z Global

The Last Operator Mirror panel gives you tools to adjust the mirror action.

Orientation

Orientation is a drop-down box to choose the type of orientation for the mirroring action.

Constraint Axis

Constraint Axis gives you the possibility to define the mirror axis. You can choose more than one axis here.

Snap

Snap is a sub menu with some snapping tools. The menu items should be pretty self explaining. Selected to Pixels snaps the selected geometry to the pixels of the image, and so on.

Last Operator Snap Selection and Snap Cursor

Target

Set the snap target method again.

Pin

Pins the selected vertices . This vertices are now nailed for the unwrap algorithms Angle based and Conformal. Their positions will not change when you repeat the unwrapping. And the algorithms will try to fit the rest of the geometry to this pinned vertices.

Pinned vertices are marked red.

A use case is for example when you have a distorted result for symmetric geometry like a face with the Conformal method. Then you can try to align two center vertices, pin them, and repeat the conformal method. It may be more symmetrical afterwards.

Unpin

Unpins pinned geometry.

Invert Pins

This operator inverts the pins to all selected pins, and unpins the set pins. This will only work if you have geometry selected.

Last operator Pin

This last operator appears in the 3D view to the bottom left of the editor. Pin, Unpin and Invert Pins shares the same last operator.

Unwrap

Last Operator Unwrap

Method

Method is a drop down box where you can choose the unwrap method.

Method Angle based + Conformal

Unwrap ABF and Unwrap LSCM shares the same Last Operator.

Method

Method is a drop down box where you can choose between Unwrap method Angle Based and Conformal.

Fill Holes

Fill holes in the mesh before unwrapping.

Margin Method

Margin

The distance between the single UV patches.

Method Minimum Stretch

Iterations

Number of iterations.

Margin Method

Margin

The distance between the single UV patches.

Smart UV Project

Smart UV Project projects the UV mapping from different angles.

Smart UV Project Settings dialogue

Angle Limit

The Angle Limit defines after which angle the mapping happens from the next side. With an angle of 66 you have around six sides to map from. The calculation is 360/66.

Margin Method

Rotation Method

How to rotate islands.

Last Operator Smart UV Project

The Last Operator for Smart UV Project contains the same settings than the Smart UV Project Settings dialogue.

Lightmap Pack

Lightmap Pack maps each face individually, and puts the result into the UV space. Without margin.

Lightmap Pack has no Last Operator.

Settings

Follow Active Quads

Follow Active quads maps UV coordinates starting from an active face, and maps all adjacent faces in quad shape then. This way you can for example unwrap a pipe or a road. You first need to have a face selected. Then select everything. And then click at Follow Active Quads.

Settings

Edge Length Mode

Edge Length Mode is a drop-down box where you can choose the Length method.

Last Operator Follow Active Quads

The Last Operator contains the same settings than the Settings dialogue.

Cube Projection

Cube Projection maps the mesh from six sides, means cubic.

Last Operator Cube Projection

Cylinder Projection

Cylinder Projection tries to map the geometry cylindric.

Last Operator Cylinder Projection

Sphere Projection

Sphere Projection tries to map the geometry spherical.

Last Operator Sphere Projection

Direction

Direction is a drop-down box where you can choose in which direction the spherical projection will be mapped.

Align

Align is a drop-down box where you can choose the Align method.

Clip to Bounds

Clip UV Coordinates to bounds after unwrapping.

Scale to Bounds

Scale UV Coordinates to bounds after unwrapping.

Merge

At Center

Merges the selected vertices at the center point.

At Cursor

Merges the selected vertices not only at the cursor. The last operator provides you with four methods.

Last Operator Snap Selection

Target

The snapping target. Snap and merge at the following locations.

Adjacent unselected

Cursor ( Offset)

Cursor

Pixels

By Distance

Merge UV vertices when they are below a merge distance.

Last Operator Merge UV's by Distance

Split Selection

Splits the selected geometry. UV Sync Selection needs to be off.

Pack Islands

Pack Islands tries to pack the selected UV geometry as close together as possible. Without to waste too much empty space.

Note that the algorithm fails at round geometry. It calculates with rectangle shapes.

Pack Islands Popup

When you click the operator then you will see a popup panel where you can adjust the further settings.

Shape Method

How the islands are packed.

Scale

Scale islands to fill the unit square.

Rotate

Rotate islands to improve layout.

Rotation Method

The rotation method.

Margin

Adjust the margin amound.

Margin Method

What method to use for the margin. UV patches needs a margin between the single patches. So that the pixels of the texture doesn't bleed into other areas.

Scaled

Use scale of existing UV's to multiply margin.

Add

Just add the margin. And don't use the UV scale for calculation too.

Fraction

Specify a precise fraction of final UV output.

Lock Pinned Islands

Constrain islands that contains any pinned UV's

Lock Method

How to deal with pinned UV islands.

Merge Overlapping

Overlapping islands stick together.

Pack To

Average Island Scale

Scales the selected UV geometry to have the same relative size than the rest of the mesh. So that the texels at the mesh have roughly the same size everywhere.

Minimize Stretch

You might end in a UV mapping result that still shows unwanted distortions here and there. For example when you UV map a human face. Minimize Stretch tries to minimize this stretching effects in the UV patches.

To view stretched areas at your UV patches, tick Display Stretch in the Overlays panel, and switch from Angle to Area. Then a stretch mask gets displayed. The color range goes from blue to green to red, where blue is minimal stretch and red is maximal stretch.

Let's explain it with an example. A sphere where the cut is nearly at the pole. And UV mapped with Angle Based. The result will of course show heavy stretched areas.

Note that the UV geometry must be selected in the UV Image editor. Now let's use the Minimize stretch tool. The algorithm now first tries its best to find the best fitting result that shows fewest stretching across the overall UV geometry.

The header shows a help text while the algorithm works. The Blend factor is the value between the original unwrapped UV mesh, and the maximum minimized stretch. You can set this value manually by using the scroll wheel at your mouse, or with the + and - keys.

Last Operator Minimize Stretch

Stitch

Stitch tries to union UV patches along the selected edges or vertices.

Last Operator Stitch

This last operator appears in the 3D view.

Operation Mode

The operation mode. Calculate with Edges or Vertices.

Mark Seam

The unwrap algorithms Angle based and Conformal requires to have edges marked as seams. Think of it as a cutting pattern for a trouser for example. Such a trouser is also made of fabric patterns.

Same goes for the UV patches when you use Angle based or conformal unwrapping. You need to cut your mesh into parts and mark edges as seams, so that the algorithm knows where the seams are.

Mark seam marks the currently selected edge(s) as a seam. Seam edges will be displayed as red in the 3D viewport. But not in the UV Image Editor. The UV patches represents the seams.

You need to unwrap the mesh again when you want to apply changes by the new marked seams.

Last Operator Mark Seam

Clear

Clears the seam instead of marking it.

Clear Seam

Clear seam removes the seam from the currently selected edge(s) in the 3D view.

Seams from Islands

Unwrapping creates the UV geometry from the 3D object. You mark the seams, then you click at unwrap, and the UV mesh gets created.

Mark Seams from islands goes the other way around for marking seams. It creates the seams at the mesh object in the 3D view from the UV geometry in the UV Image Editor.

A use case is when you import meshes. Then you usually just have the UV patches in the UV Image editor. And when you want to modify the UV's further, then you need the seams at the mesh.

Align/Arrange Islands

Provides a unified interface for aligning, distributing, and organizing UV islands based on axis, order, and spacing. Ideal for texture atlases, modular layouts, and precision packing.

Aligns selected UV islands along a chosen axis.

Last Operator Arrange/Align Islands

Initial Position

Defines how the alignment reference is calculated for each island. This determines where each island "snaps" during alignment—e.g., top edge, center, or bottom edge.

Axis

Specifies the direction along which islands will be aligned. X or Y. Useful for stacking islands top-to-bottom or side-by-side.

Align

Controls which part of the island is aligned to the axis. This affects how islands are visually positioned relative to each other.

Order

Determines the sequence in which islands are arranged.

Margin

Sets the spacing between islands after alignment. Adds consistent padding between islands to avoid texture bleeding or overlap.

Value

Float input (e.g., 0.050)

Set User Region

Defines a custom region within the UV Editor viewport, allowing you to isolate, focus, or constrain operations to a specific area of the UV space.

Use

An example is for Packing Islands: Limit packing to a specific region (e.g. top-right quadrant of the UV space). This can be used to constrain packing or alignment operations.

This can also serve as a reference zone for manual editing or snapping.

To toggle visibility after defining it manually, use the Options drop down to the top right of the header.

Align submenu

Align the selected geometry. Affected are the vertices.

Align Y

Aligns the selection along the Y axis. The align point is the pivot of the selection.

Last operator Align

The Last operator Align unions all the single straighten and align actions in one operator.

Axis

Lists the straighten and align methods again.

Align Rotation

Aligns the selected geometry horizontally or vertically. It aligns to the closest angle.

Last operator Align Rotation

Method

Geometry

Aligns the whole geometry.

Edge

Aligns the geometry along the selected edge.

Auto

Checks for selection, and aligns then either the whole geometry or by the selected edge.

Move on Axis submenu

Show / Hide Faces submenu

Show or hide faces. This happens in both, the 3D View and the UV editor.

Last Operator Reveal Hidden / Hide Selected

Select

Define if the selected or the unselected elements gets hidden or revealed.

Reset

Resets the UV projection. Every single face gets fit into the UV space range of 0/1

Export UV Layout

Export the UV layout to an image, so that you can use it as a mask to build your texture in your favorite image editing software like Photoshop. It will open a file dialog, where you can define further export settings down left.

In the export dialog you will see export settings at the right side

All UV's

Export all UV's, not just the visible ones.

Export Tiles

If to export UDIM tiles.

Modified

Export UV's from the modified mesh.

Format

Choose the export format.