Helpful UVW Mapping Tip

There are lots of 3d tips on the web and it's difficult to come up with fresh ones. I've used 3ds Max for 15 years now and from time I forget about a setting that is useful. After all, there are 1000's of settings and it gets a bit mind boggling sometimes.

Here is a handy thing to remember. Today I was working on a complex organically shaped model. It had a perfect UVW Unwrap modifier applied to it at one time and then the stack was collapsed so I didn't have access to that modifier. The mesh was pretty heavy so I added a 'ProOptimizer' to it to reduce it. I go to render and get a message that the object has no 'UVW Coordinates.' Drat...

So what I have now is an 'Editible Poly' on the bottom and a 'ProOptimizer' above it.

I had 6 of these objects so I go in and recreate the UVW Unwrap for one of them and it took me an hour. I was about to do the second one and I happened to see a setting under the 'Edit Poly' modifier. I'd certainly used this switch before but had forgotten about it. It's the 'Preserve UV's' switch.

I clicked on it and like magic, my texture mapping reappeared. I just saved 5 hours.

I hope this saves you a ton of time one day.