So get this... I woke up this morning to my alarm, then got out of bed and stood up as one normally would.  I then proceeded to black out and fall right on the floor.  I'm pretty sure I actually fell asleep standing up.  For those of you that havn't tried it, sleep deprivation over an extended period of time is really fun!  NOT.  I love my new little baby Henry but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to getting past this newborn phase.  Until then I will be perpetually sleepy...

Otherwise, I'm trying to get back in the swing of things and find some level of normalcy, so I figured the blog would be a good place to start.  A lot of you probably checked out one of my posts back in the fall about a new BonusTool that I've been working on called "Auto Unwrap UV's".  It has been my most viewed post to date so I guess there must be some interest out there.  I've been meaning to post an update for a while now, so I finally decided to get my butt in gear and finish this thing up. Thanks to those of you that reported bugs from the earlier version of the script that I posted. I've fixed all that I could find and have made a few other tweaks to the UI, naming conventions, workflow, etc...  Barring any unforseen issues the version that I'm posting here should be the final version that will be included in the next release of bonusTools.

Here is a quick movie that covers some of the things that can be done with the tool.  This includes a look at the new UI as well as a more complex example of how the tool can be used  ->

And if you haven't already you can watch the movie from my previous post here ->  

Unwrap UV's Tool Part 1
 

As for the tool itself here is some basic info about the UI and the associated options...

  Description:

This tool can be used to quickly and easily create UVs shells for a variety of objects ranging from roads to pipes to horns to trees to faces. Shells can be automatically unwrapped in various ways based on different options.

  Options:

UV Shell Creation

• Uniform Face Method : Tries to make each face in the UV shell the same general size in UV space (e.g. a uniform road or pipe)
• Proportional Face Method : Tries to scale each face in the UV shell according to their 3D size (e.g. an uneven path or tube)
• Basic Unfold : Uses a simple unfold algorithm to spread out the resulting UV shell (e.g. a horn, tree branch, arm or leg)
• Advanced Unfold : Takes symmetry into account by initially aligning along a specific axis (e.g. a face or head.) This option also adds the additional step of defining points of symmetry (e.g. tip of the nose or center of the chest)

Initial Projection

• Facing X (used only by advanced unfold mode)
• Facing Y (used only by advanced unfold mode)
• Facing Z (used only by advanced unfold mode)

UV Shell Layout

• Uniform Fit : Layout new UV shells uniformly (no distortion) in UV space between 0-1
• Stretch Fit : Layout new UV shells non-proportionally (stretch to fit) in UV space between 0-1
• Proportional Fit : Layout new UV shells along with any other existing shells for that object based on actual 3D world space size
• None : Do not alter size or layout shells at all in UV space

Display Settings

• Use Test Pattern Shader : Creates test shaders for better viewing of border edges as well as resulting UVs
• Set Edge Color to Red : Temporarily sets selected edge color to red for better visual feedback while tool is active
• Isolate Select Object/Faces : Isolates only selected object or faces while tool is active and hides all others

Here is the script itself   ->   bt_autoUnwrapUVTool.mel    (Just source the MEL file from the Script Editor)