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Is there any way to mark seams to not be cut by Smart UV? I know you can mark seams by hand and they'll be considered by the Smart UV, but I can't seem to find a way to do the opposite.

I'm trying to use Smart UV to unwrap my edges and then manually edit the seams to hide the cuts behind geometry, but I can't seem to find a way to do that.

A way to mark seams based on edge angles would suit me too, since Smart UV doesn't marks them, it unwraps directly. Then I would be able to unmark seams manually.

Thanks in advance for the help.

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The top option of the Unwrapping dialogue is called Unwrap and is the best method to use if you want full control over the UV Island creation. For this method to work properly, you must manually add seams to your model along all edges where you want a seam.

The menu shown in the image below is accessed using Ctrl+e

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Using Unwrap with edges already marked with seams, you should get results something like the following. The seams show up exactly as I placed them on the model.

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For this next unwrap, I used Smart UV Project. It's quick and easy but gives you very little control over seam placement.

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If you are using Unwrap, there is a feature called Live Unwrap which helps speed things up a bit when you are still deciding how to layout the UV islands.

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You can also work directly in the UV Image Editor when using Live Unwrap by marking new edges with Ctrl+e, this shortcut is different than it is in the 3D View. For UV's there is no menu, it will behave as if you marked a seam and the Islands will be recalculated.

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When you are finished you should disable Live Unwrap so that you don't accidentally set it off later when you are doing something else and are not paying attention to the UV Image Editor. You may also want to use -> Mark Seams From Islands after using Live Unwrap from directly within the Image Editor since Ctrl+e does not do this automatically, this way you will be able to see the seams in the 3D View highlighted in red.

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Once you are finished with the seams, you can disable the visibility in the 3D Views right-side panel n.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for the very detailed answer! I was a little confused about live unwrap. It's unfortunate that Smart UV gives little control. Do you know if there is any script that marks seams based on edge angles? $\endgroup$
    – Gus
    Commented Aug 24, 2014 at 15:42
  • $\begingroup$ Live Unwrap just rebuilds the new UV Islands every time you make a change to the seams. Normally you would have to press 'u'->Unwrap every time that you add a seam to apply the change. $\endgroup$
    – MarcClintDion
    Commented Aug 24, 2014 at 16:10

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