Blender Tip - Halve Your UV Mapping Time

[SickleYield]

Those who already know this, ignore it, of course. But I've been working with Blender for three years and never knew this until now.

My friend the mysterious Lord Enigmatic just shared this incredibly useful little tip with me. Normally if I want to select an edge loop (that's a circle of vertices, something you need to do a lot when modeling clothes or armor) I would press ctrl+e and select from the menu that comes up. It's faster and easier to select one vert and press alt+right click. It takes a little bit to get the hang of it, since it chooses which vert loop to select based on which direction you click, but it's VERY worth it.

And you know why?

It works in the UV screen too.

I cannot even DESCRIBE how useful this is. It has cut my UV mapping time in half. The reason is that whenever you model something long and twisty, like a strap or a belt or a vine, you can't auto UV map it without it looking screwy (even with a seam up one side created by selecting a vert loop with either method). Before I would have to individually select every individual vertex in that line of 100 or so before I could use w, 2 to haul them into a straight line. Now I can just alt+right click and there it is.

I am SO geeked out about this, I had to share it with everyone. I'll be posting it on other forums I frequent as well.

EDIT MUCH LATER: I just got this message from Vince here at the forum. He suggested consolidating the relevant info, and it seemed like a good idea to me. It will be added at the end as well.

After your post on Alt-RMB to select an edge loop, grond pointed out that you can use Shift-Alt-RMB to select multiple edge loops. Since then, I have discovered that Ctrl-Alt-RMB selects edge rings. Also, in face select mode, Alt-RMB selects a loop or ring of faces, depending on where the cursor is relative to the center of the face.

[PacificMorrowind]

I cannot even DESCRIBE how useful this is.

I'll second that! Thanks for passing this on. I first used Blender around 5 years ago but seeing as I didn't play any video games at the time I was like so what... but now I have 4 months of real experience with Blender and I never found that yet.

Pacific Morrowind

[charlescrowe]

Those who already know this, ignore it, of course. But I've been working with Blender for three years and never knew this until now.

My friend the mysterious Lord Enigmatic just shared this incredibly useful little tip with me. Normally if I want to select an edge loop (that's a circle of vertices, something you need to do a lot when modeling clothes or armor) I would press ctrl+e and select from the menu that comes up. It's faster and easier to select one vert and press alt+right click. It takes a little bit to get the hang of it, since it chooses which vert loop to select based on which direction you click, but it's VERY worth it.

And you know why?

It works in the UV screen too.

I cannot even DESCRIBE how useful this is. It has cut my UV mapping time in half. The reason is that whenever you model something long and twisty, like a strap or a belt or a vine, you can't auto UV map it without it looking screwy (even with a seam up one side created by selecting a vert loop with either method). Before I would have to individually select every individual vertex in that line of 100 or so before I could use w, 2 to haul them into a straight line. Now I can just alt+right click and there it is.

I am SO geeked out about this, I had to share it with everyone. I'll be posting it on other forums I frequent as well.

THAT, my friend, is very usefull

[Vince]

I've been using the Alt-Right click for UV mapping ever since Blender made mapping part of edit mode. Of course it's extremely useful. However, I didn't realize that I could also use it outside of UV mapping. It's sure faster than Ctrl-E, Edge Loop Select.

Thanks for sharing.

Vince

[grond]

I'm a Blender rookie, and so, have been hanging around the Underground for useful info, and epic length tutorials. Alt-Right click was one of the first shortcuts I learned, and tattooed to my brain. It's very useful indeed. And adding shift to the combo works just as you'd expect it to.

[SickleYield]

Underground, you say?

Linky?

[grond]

Here ya go, in-depth tuts about general Blending, big forum, and more: Blender Underground

[Vince]

While Alt-RMB is great for selecting an edge loop, did you know that Ctrl-Alt-RMB selects an edge ring? That can be handy too.

[grond]

That's awesome - just tried it. Thanks Vince!

[SickleYield]

I added this info to the first post as well.

After your post on Alt-RMB to select an edge loop, grond pointed out that you can use Shift-Alt-RMB to select multiple edge loops. Since then, I have discovered that Ctrl-Alt-RMB selects edge rings. Also, in face select mode, Alt-RMB selects a loop or ring of faces, depending on where the cursor is relative to the center of the face.

As this is very useful information, I wish to have a topic where all this Alt-RMB information is in one post. Since you started this, I want to give you the opportunity to create the post. If you would rather not, I will create it. Just let me know.

Vince