Simple Blender UV Unwrap fails

[deLord]

Hey guys

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Here are the steps I can repeat which will always result in a wrong UV Map

• Start Blender
• Press Tab (Edit Mode)
• Face Select
• A to mark the whole cube
• u - unwrap
• open a new view - UV/Image Editor

My UV map will always be a single square. What am I doing wrong? Smart UV Unwrap work properly

[Lesterdor]

Hey deLord,

the UVs overlap that's why you see only 1 square. Select a single face and move the UV to get them apart. The best way is to set your seams by hand. Then you have the best control...

[deLord]

aaaaaaaaaaah, now I see. So is "Smart UV Unwrap" the same as Unwrap + Ctrl-P ?
And why does it sometimes overlap and sometimes not, although the mesh is way more complicated?

[Lesterdor]

aaaaaaaaaaah, now I see. So is "Smart UV Unwrap" the same as Unwrap + Ctrl-P ?
And why does it sometimes overlap and sometimes not, although the mesh is way more complicated?

Hey deLord,

'Smart UV Unwrap' is not the same as Unwrap...

If you use Smart UV Unwrap, Blender will unwrap the model for you automatically. This works fine for very simple mesh complexity.
If you use Unwrap, you have to set your seams by hand ctrl+E -> Mark seam. Firstly, set your seams, in the end you press Unwrap. If you use this manuel method you have the best flexibility.

The overlaping topic:

If you let Blender unwrap your mesh by using smart UV unwrap or the other ones, Blender overlaps sometimes similar faces to save space on your UV-Map. But if you unwrap your model by your own (mark seams), you can overlap faces which share the same texture as well... This is a common use case to save space and size on your UV-Map.