rmKit Documetation

rmKit is an addon for Blender that contains a wide variety of tools designed to streamline my personal workflow. The bulk of the tools aim to bolster Blender’s modeling and uving tools. The addon itself can be found on my personal GitHub . Feel free to use the addon any way you like!

Note

• This project is under active development.

• Only Blender 3.3+ is supported.

• Please report bugs here.

• None of the ops currently support multiple active meshes.

Contents

Usage

Installation

To install the addon:

1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install.

2. Select the downloaded .zip file.

3. Enable the addon by clicking a tick box near its name.

4. It’s recommended to restart Blender.

To uninstall the addon:

1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons.

2. Navigate to the addon in the list and expand its tab.

3. Press the Remove button.

Note

All user addons are added to the following directories: * Winddows: %appdata%\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.XX\scripts\addons\ * Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Blender Foundation/Blender/2.XX/scripts/addons/ You may manually install/uninstall from there.

Preferences

Currently, only Hotkeys are shown in the addon preferences. To learn what a command does, you will have to look it up in the docs. Once the rmKit addon is enabled in Edit > Preferences > Add-ons, you can expand its tab to reveal the Hotkeys panel. Listed are all the operators that are included in the addon. While some are already exposed in the 3DVIEW and UVVIEW tool panels, many more only available once bound to a key.

Utility Ops

Mesh Clipboard

Three operators were added to allow the user to copy, cut, and paste selected faces.

• Copy : Copy the face selection to the clipboard.

• Cut : Copy the face selection to the clipboard and delete them from the mesh.

• Paste : Paste the geo from the clipboard to the active mesh.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the 3D View context or access it in the rmKit-Utils section of the tools panel.

• It is preferable that you bind these to the same keys as their object mode variants.

Grid Toggle

Grid Toggle will toggle the visibility of the grid axis and floor grid or the workplane depending on what’s currently visible.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the 3D View context or access it in the rmKit-Utils section of the tools panel.

Toggle Workplane

Workplane drawn to visualize transform orientation aligned to selected edge.

The Toggle Workplane operator creates a transform orientation aligned to the current element selection and draws a grid aligned to said orientation. Subsequent transform tools will automatically align to the active transform orientation. Manually changing the transform orientation or running the operator again disables the workplane. Many tools in the rmKit addon support the workplane.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the 3D View context or access it in the rmKit-Utils section of the tools panel.

3D Cursor Ops

A pie menu that contains quick access to default blender operations for managing the 3D Cursor as well as a few custom ones. The points below only cover the custom operators:

• Cursor to Origin: Same as Cursor to World Origin except it moves to the center of the workplane if active.

• Cursor to Selection and Orient: Moves the 3D Cursor to the current selection and orients it based on the topology.

• Unrotate Relative to Cursor: Unrotates the selected components based on the orientation of the 3D Cursor.

• Object Pivot to Cursor: Move the pivot of the mesh to the 3D Cursor and adjust the position and orientation of linked meshes such that they do not move as a result of changed pivot.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the 3D View context or access it in the rmKit-Utils section of the tools panel.

Toggle Dimensions

Dimensions drawn over selection.

Toggles the visibility of a set of world axes drawn over the current selection that displays the world space dimensions.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the 3D View context or access it in the rmKit-Utils section of the tools panel.

Item Name to Mesh Name

Copy the name of each item in the scene to its mesh data object.

Note

• Operator is accessible as a button in the rmKit-Utils section of the tools panel.

Grab Apply Material

Sample the material under the mouse cursor and apply it to the selection faces.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context.

Quick Material

Modal dialog for creating/modifying material.

This operator functions as a material creation utility. When executed, a modal dialog appears. Before opening the modal dialog, the operator samples the material under the mouse cursor. From here, changes to the material can be made via the properties exposed by the dialog.

• Material dropdown lets you select an active material. By default, the dialog is populated with the material initially sampled under the mouse cursor.

• Pressing the close button next to the Material dropdown will expose the Name input. Providing a name will create a new material and set it as active in the dialog.

• Color : The viewport color and albedo of the active material.

• Metalic : The metalness value of the active material.

• Roughness : The roughness value of the active material.

• World Width : The world scale of the 0-1 range of the U Texture Space axis. See Scale to Material Size operator.

• World Height : The world scale of the 0-1 range of the V Texture Space axis. See Scale to Material Size operator.

• OK : Pressing this will create a new material or modify the existing material using the inputs provided within the dialog.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context.

Material Cleanup

This operator removes unused materials on selected objects and adjusts the material indexing as needed.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the 3D View context or access it in the rmKit-Utils section of the tools panel.

Selection Ops

Background Selection

By default, Blender has no concept of a background selection where switching from face mode to vertex mode would restore the face selection when returning to it from a different mode or selection type. The operators below make this possible by encoding the selection state of an element in the mesh itself.

• Change Mode To: Store the current component selection as a selection set and switch to the arg component mode.

• Convert Mode To: Store the current component selection as a selection set and convert it to the arg component mode.

Note

• All six commands must be bound replacing Blender’s default change/convert operator calls.

• To use Change Mode To ops, bind it to a key in the addon Preferences in the 3D View context.

• To use Convert Mode To ops, bind it to a key in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context.

Loop / Ring Selection

Alternate edge loop and edge ring selection algorithms.

• Loop: Extend current edge selection by loop. Utilizes 3DS Max algorithm.

  • Setting Force Boundary arg to True will always extend loops along open edges.

• Ring: Extend current edge selection by ring. Utilizes 3DS Max algorithm.

In face mode, both Loop and Ring extend the face selection by adjacency from last face selection.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-Selection section of the tools panel.

Continuous Selection

• Select Continuous with Add or Set args do the same as Select Linked operator while in vert and face mode. In edge mode, the Loop operator described above is executed.

• Invert Continuous will invert the current component selection only on geometry 3d continuous with the current selection.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-Selection section of the tools panel.

MeshEdit Ops

Move to Furthest

Move to Furthest is used to quickly align verts/edges/faces along the axis most closely aligned to a desired relative direction. For example, selecting the Left option will flatten all selected elements to the planar axis most aligned with the viewport camera’s left direction vector. The position of this plane is the leftmost position in the selection. There are also Horizontal and Vertical options which will place the flatten axis plane at the center of the selection. Selecting a direction from within the Local submenu will evaluate all discontinuous geometry separately. Selecting a direction from within the Constrain submenu will ensure vert transformations are done along adjacent edges. This tools is designed to be used in combination with the Workplane Click here to visit the docs for UV Move to Furthest

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context.

Knife Screen

Knife Screen is a streamlined tool for cutting selected faces with a slice plane. The orientation of the slice plane is defined by the user depending on the active selection type, the orientation of the viewport camera, and the operator selected. This tools is designed to be used in combination with the Workplane

• Vertex Mode: Spawns one slice plane per selected vertex.

  • Selecting Horizontal / Vertical mode will orient each slice plane such that it cuts along a horizontal/vertical axis and into the screen.

  • Selecting Grid mode will align the axis defining the slice to the nearest grid axis. Selecting a Screen mode will use the absolute axis defined by the viewport orientation.

• Edge Mode: Spawns one slice plane per selected edge.

  • Topo orients the slice plane along the endpoints of an edge and slices into the normal of said edge.

  • Grid orients the slice plane along the endpoints of an edge and slices into the grid axis most aligned with the edge normal.

  • Screen orients the slice plane along the endpoints of an edge and slices into the screen.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

• Knife Screen slices through the background face selection. Thus, the Change Mode To and Convert Mode To operators must be bound: Background Selection;

Screen Reflect

Screen Reflect is used to quickly duplicate and mirror the current face selection about an arbitrary point and axis. Each are determined by a combination of viewport orientation and selected relative direction. Launching the command and selecting a relative direction in the top-level radial menu will set the normal of the mirror to the most aligned grid axis to that direction. The position will be the farthest vert along said grid axis.

Accessing the operators within the nested Slice and Reflect radial menus will fire similar commands that rely on the position of the 3D Cursor. This is why the top level radial menu provides quick access to commands that set the position of the 3D Cursor:

• Set Cursor will move the cursor to the center of the current component selection.

• Cursor to Origin will move the cursor to the world/workplane origin.

Operators within the nested Reflect radial menu will duplicate and mirror the face selection about the 3D Cursor. Operators within the nested Slice radial menu will do the same as Reflect but will also slice faces that intersect with the mirror, delete everything on the other side, and weld verts. This tools is designed to be used in combination with the Workplane

Note

Bind in the addon Preferences in the 3D View context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Create Tube

Convert a tube over a selection of edges.

Create Tube is a modal tool that creates a sequence of tubes based on sets of discontinuous edge selections. The user can dynamically change the radius, vert count, and rotation of the tubes before committing with LMB.

If you wish to rebuild an existing tube, select it in face mode and run the command again. This will create a new tube with the same vert count and radius. This is particularly useful when an existing tube has been deformed or manipulated.

Note

• To recreate a tube in face mode, there can only be one tube in the selection, and it must have two closed loops of open edges.

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Connect Edges

Connect selected edges.

Connect Edges is a modal tool that behaves like Loop Cut. It creates new edges between adjacent pairs of selected edges. The Connect Edges settings let you specify the number of new edges, the amount of separation from each other, and their general location. * Level controls the number of connecting edges. * Pinch controls the relative spacing between connecting edges. * Slide controls the position of the connecting edges.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Arc Adjust

Arc Adjust is a modal tool that lets the user resize the radius of arcs of edges. By selecting the edge loops that make up an arc, the algorithm with use the outer most edges to drive the resizing. There are two modes for arc adjust: * Default scales all verts that make up an arc from some point such that the end points of the arc slide along the outermost edges. This has the benefit of preserving details within each arc. * Radial assumes that all arcs are about the same axis. Each get remapped so a circle with a center along said axis. This is useful when you have sequences of bevels that need to radiate from some central point.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Unbevel

Unbevel is another tool that operates on arcs of edge loops. It’s find the outermost edges of an arc and finds a point at which they intersect, and welds all verts that make up the art to said point. This is the same as running Arc Adjust with Scale set to 0.0.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Radial Align

Radial Align is a simple command that remaps the verts that make up a closed loop edge selection to a circle. If run in face mode, the boundary verts get remapped.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Target Weld

In vert mode, Target Weld collapses selected verts to a single point and moves it to the position of the active vertex. In edge mode, sequences are edge loops are welded to the edge loop that contains the active edge.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Thicken

Thicken is a modal tool that behaves similarly to the Solidify tool except it provides attribute hauling in the 3D View. There is also a Thicken From Center option that can be toggled via checkbox in the modal dialog, or RMB.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Reduce Operators

These are slightly modified versions of the similar Blender operators that behave more like their 3DS Max equivalents.

• Delete: Delete selected components.

• Dissolve: Remove the selected components while preserving underlying topology.

• Pop: Similar to Dissolve except removes endpoint vertices from the resulting topology after removing the edges.

• Collapse: Collapse the selection into a single vertex.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

PolyPatch

PolyPatch is a contextual tool that performs a variety of mesh modifications depending on the selection mode, the type of topology selected, and the number of elements selected.

• Vert Mode

  • If two or more verts are selected on a single polygon, an edge is added to connect all selected verts to the others.

• Edge Mode

  • If a closed edge is selected the edge is turned.

  • If a closed loop of open edges is selected, it is capped.

  • If two non-closed loops of open edges are selected then they are bridged.

• Face Mode

  • If two sets of discontinuous faces are selected, then they are bridged.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Bevel

Bevel is a contextual tool fires the appropriate bevel tool depending on the selection mode.

• Vert Mode

  • Vertex Bevel is executed.

• Edge Mode

  • Edge Bevel is executed.

• Face Mode

  • Inset Faces is executed.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Extend

Extend is a contextual tool fires the appropriate Extend tool depending on the selection mode.

• Vert Mode

  • Extend Vertices is executed.

• Edge Mode

  • Extrude Only Edges and Move is executed.

• Face Mode

  • Add Duplicate is executed.

Note

• Bind in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context or access it in the rmKit-MeshEdit section of the tools panel.

Mesh Layer Ops

Edge Weight Pie

A pie menu that gives quick access to setting discrete Crease weights to the edge selection. There is a nested submenu for Bevel Weight if that’s more your speed.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the Mesh context.

VNormal Kit

Panel for VNormal Kit

VNormal Kit is an interface to setting custom vertex normals based on the selection set membership of faces and sharp edges.

In order to use this tool, you must first ensure that Auto Smooth is enabled for the mesh. Also, any hard edges produced by a lower angle threshold will be preserved when using the VNorms tools. So if you don’t want that, be sure to set it to 180.0.

Vertex normals (also called Slip Normals Data) are computed in up to three passes using three selection sets respectively. Each pass iterates through all vertices and calculates the Split Normal data by only considering neighboring faces that are members of that set. If a vertex is not a member of a face, then it will not get a Split Normal.

• You can add a face to a selection set by making a face selection and pressing the + button for one of the three selection sets.

• Pressing the - button will clear selected faces from the set.

• Pressint the ++ button first clears set membership for all visible faces (for the relevant selection set row) and then adds the selected faces to the selection set.

• Pressing one of the SEL# buttons will select faces that are members of that set.

• Pressing the APPLY button will compute the Split Normals data for each selection set in order.

• Toggling the Area Weights button will weigh generated Split Normals based on the surface area of neighboring faces.

So, what faces get added to selection sets? First let’s define the problem: We want to make sure that edges and corners (even sharp ones) are slightly rounded. We also want smooth contiguous surfaces to have defined boundaries and the area between boundaries to have a nice transition. Thus, we assign each boundary to the same selection set and exclude a trim of faces between each boundary (or loop of sharp edges). When we compute the Split Normals by pressing APPLY the result will be smooth shading within surfaces and a nice transition between each surface. We can refine the shading of each surface by giving some faces membership to the other selection set. The video below demonstrates some simple and more complex cases:

Note

• Accessible from the rmKit-MeshLayers section of the tools panel.

UV Edit Ops

UVLoop / UVRing Selection

Alternate edge loop and edge ring selection algorithms.

• UV Loop : Extend current edge selection by loop. Utilizes 3DS Max algorithm.

• UV Ring : Extend current edge selection by ring. Utilizes 3DS Max algorithm.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context or find it in the rmKit section of the UV Editor tools panel.

UV Move to Furthest

UV Move to Furthest is used to quickly align uv components. Executing the operator opens a radial menu with relative directions. Selecting an option will move all components of the selection to the furthest point in that direction. For example, selecting the Left option will flatten all selected elements to the left most point included in the selection. This has the effect of aligning the selection along the vertical axis. Selecting the Local option will open a submenu with more relative directions. Selecting one of these will evaluate each uv-discontinuous group of components separately. This is particularly useful if you want groups of uv edges to be parallel to one another. Click here to visit the docs for the 3D View version of this tool:: Move to Furthest

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context.

Bounds Transform

Bounds Transform is a modal tool that enables the use to transform the selected uv components using a bounding box tool handle. Click and drag within the box to move the entire selection, pull on a corner to resize along U and V, or pull on an edge to resize along U or V.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context or find it in the rmKit section of the UV Editor tools panel.

Inset Scale UVs

Inset Scale UVs a modal operator that resizes selected uv islands by “insetting” int bounds of the selection. This is particularly useful which used in combination with the Hotspot tools.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context or find it in the rmKit section of the UV Editor tools panel.

Gridify

Gridify will map selected uv faces to a grid and preserve relative aspect ratios of each quad. This operator is only compatible with grid topologies.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context or find it in the rmKit section of the UV Editor tools panel.

Rectangularize

Rectangularize is totally FUBAR. Do not use.

Stitch

Stitch will weld two uv island together based on the use defined edge selection. Unlike Blenders default uv.stitch command, the target uv island is properly scaled and oriented to minimize distortion when welding to the source island.

In sync mode, both islands are transformed to an average position and orientations. In unsync mode, the target uv-island is stitched to the source uv-island containing the edge selection.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context or find it in the rmKit section of the UV Editor tools panel.

Unrotate

Unrotate will rotate the uv-island that’s part of the current edge selection such that each edge in the selection is aligned to the nearest uv grid axis. In face mode, the rotation is based on the longest edge in the face selection.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context or find it in the rmKit section of the UV Editor tools panel.

Relative Islands

Relative Islands is a command that scales uv-islands relative to one another such that they have the same texel density. It opens a modal dialog asking the user to specify the method by which the target texel density is computed. Either the Minimum texel density found in the selection, the Maximum or the Average. Blender does have a build in command for this, but it only averages the texel densities.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context or find it in the rmKit section of the UV Editor tools panel.

Scale to Material Size

Scale to Material Size will scale the selected uv-islands to the target texel density defined by the material via the Quick Material operator. Technically the target is not a texel density because that would require an input image. Because of the prevalence of blended or composite materials in games, a texel density has become a meaningless metric. This a target world scale area density is used.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context or find it in the rmKit section of the UV Editor tools panel.

UV Grow / UV Shrink

UV Grow and UV Shrink were designed for use in unsync mode, where detaching faces from their neighbors is not possible with the move tool. Rather than immediately growing the face selection it will first grow to include the overlapping vertices. Once they are all part of the selection, the next set of faces is selected. Running once more will include the overlapping verts. For example, select one uvface while in unsync mode. If you move the face around with the move tool observe that the face is still “welded” to its neighbors. Pressing UV Shrink once will shrink the uvloop selection. Moving the face now till detach it from its neighbors.

Note

• Bind to a key in the addon Preferences in the UV Editor context or find it in the rmKit section of the UV Editor tools panel.

Normalize Texels

Normalize Texels U and Normalize Texels V will scale uv islands along the U or V axes respectively, such that the texels on the first triangle per island is as square as possible. This is particularly useful when working with quad strips and Hotspots.

UV Transform and Orient

GUI for UV Transform and Orient tools.

The Transform and Orient is a GUI designed to streamline uv mapping for environment art creation for games. Holding down modifier keys like Ctrl, Alt, or Shift will change the icons and functionality of the button. The uv tools are divided into four categories: Move/Slam, Rotate, Scale, and Fit. See below for breakdowns.

GUI State Buttons

The top row of buttons in the GUI manages the state of the UI. Toggling these buttons will modify the UI to expose different ops. See below for more info.

Move/Slam

• Move: Pressing the directional buttons will offset the uv selection by the amount specified in the center of the Move GUI buttons.

• Slam: Toggling ON the Group button will modify the direction buttons to include a grey dot. Pressing these will move the uv selection such that its bounds are flush with a side/corner of the unit uv square.

• Local Slam: Toggling ON the Local button to will also change the direction button style; this time with a yellow dot. Pressing these will evaluate each selected uv-discontinuous element individually and move their respective bounds such that they are flush with a side/corner of the unit uv square.

• Anchor : Toggling ON the Anchor button changes the directional button stile to include a red dot. Pressing these will toggle the state of the anchor for future transformations. An Anchor is a pinned corner or side of a bounding box. Subsequent transformations are done relative to this anchor. For example, anchoring the top left corner and rotating using the Rotate buttons below will rotate about the top left corner of the selection. This can be particularly useful for things like scale and flip operations as well.

Rotate

• Rotate: Pressing the rotate buttons will rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise by the angle amount specified in the center of the Rotate GUI buttons. If an Anchor point is set, rotations are done about the point in the evaluated bounds.

• Rotate Local: Toggling ON the Local button will change the rotate button style; this time with a yellow L. Pressing these will evaluate each selected uv-discontinuous element individually and move their separately. If an Anchor point is set, rotations are done about the point in the evaluated bounds.

Scale

• Scale: Pressing the scale buttons will scale the uv selection by the scale factor specified in the top right of the Scale GUI buttons. The first column is for scaling up, and the second column is for scaling down. The first row is for UV scaling, the second row is for U scaling, and the third is for V scaling. The two buttons on the bottom right are for flipping about V and U respectively. If an Anchor point is set, scaling is done relative to a point in the evaluated bounds.

• Local Scale: Toggling ON the Local button will change the scale button style; this time with a yellow L. Pressing these will evaluate each selected uv-discontinuous element individually and move their separately. If an Anchor point is set, scaling is done relative to a point in the evaluated bounds.

Fit

The purpose of the Fit tools is to map the selected uv elements to a cached bounding box.

• Store Bounds: Will store the bounds of the current uv selection. This is the bounds you will fit to.

• Fit U: Will map the width of the current uv selection to the width of the cached bounds.

• Fit V: Will map the height of the current uv selection to the height of the cached bounds.

• Fit UV: Will map both the width and height of the current uv selection the the cached bounds.

• When Use Aspect is on, the aspect ratio of the current uv selection will be preserved when mapping to the cached bounds.

• When Move To is checked, the current uv selection will be moved to the center of the cached bounds during a mapping.

• Fit Local: Toggling ON the Local button will change the fit buttons to read LU. Pressing these will perform a fit operation on each uv-discontinuous element separately.

• Fit Grid: Toggling ON the Group button will change the fit buttons to read GU. Pressing these will fit to the unit square rather than the cached bounds.

UV Hotspot

GUI for UV Hotspot tools.

Hotspoting refers to a uving practice whereby the user divides a texture into a sequence of bounding boxes, and patches of geometry is mapped to the bounds that best fits the aspect ratio and target texel density. It’s a streamlined way to uv unwrap a model that aims to minimize the time spend fidgeting with uvs.

Example Hotspot Atlas.

By mapping the surfaces of a mesh to the available hotspots in the atlas, we can quickly and easily make a model appear detailed and seamless by capitalizing on the bevels and contextual grime on the boarders of each hotspot.

Some hotspot tools are available in the tools panel in the rmKit section of the 3D View and the UV View. Others need to be bound in the addon Preferences. See below for more information.

There are two way to use the hotspot tools. First is to save all your atlases into the user archive along with a unique material name respectively. When you call a hotspot command, the material on the selected faces is used to lookup the appropriate atlas to map to. The second is to have an atlas mesh object in your scene and use it as an override to all archived atlases. Both approaches are perfectly valid.

• New Hotspot: In order to use a hotspot, it must first be added to the user archive. Create a plane and apply the hotspot material. Then slice up the mesh such that each quad is mapped to a hotspot in the texture. Once done, go into object mode with the plane selected and press the button. The hotspot data is now saved and the Match, Nearest, and MOS commands can now be used for this material!

• Ref Hotspot: It is common to reuse the same hotspot configuration across multiple materials. Thus, it is necessary to reference an existing hotspot in the archive rather than creating a duplicate. With a polygon of the ref hotspot material selected, press the button and select the icon with the hotspot atlas configuration you wish to reference.

• Use Override Atlas: If you wish to use a temp hotspot atlas without saving it to the archive you can load a sliced-up mesh into the Atlas property and use it for all Subsequent hotspot operations.

• Use Trims: Hotspoting can also be used for trim textures where the hotspot tiles infinitely along the U or V axis. When checked, subsequent hotspot operation will map the geometry to a hotspot like normal. But if the hotspot maps from 0-1 along an axis, then the uv’s will be allowed to tile along that axis.

• Ins: Inset the uvs after hotspoting by the provided scalar value. This is useful when you want to shrink boundary bevels/details. Alternatively, you can use the Inset Scale UVs operator.

• Hotspot Match: In the UV View it will map the selected uv faces to the best fit hotspot pertaining to the material on said faces. In the 3D View the selected faces are unwrapped and scaled to the world scale target before being mapped to the best fit hotspot for that material. The auto-unwrapping breaks up uv islands based on auto smoothing angle, sharp edges, and seam edges. The world scale target is defined by the material in the Quick Material dialog.

• Hotspot Nearest: In the UV View it will map the selected uv faces to the hotspot nearest to that uv island.

• Hotspot MOS: The command must be bound in the addon preferences and only works in the UV View. Using the atlas defined by the materials of the selected faces, it finds the hotspot under the mouse cursor and maps all selected uv island to said hotspot.

• GrabApplyUVBounds: The command must be bound in the addon preferences and only works in the 3D View. While, not strictly a Hotspot tool, it can be looked at as a 3D variant of Hotspot MOS. It maps the bounds of the uvs of the current face selection to the bounds of the uv-island of the face under the mouse cursor.