Manually Placed Borders (Maya)

Manually Defined Borders

Unwrella allows you to define manual borders to guide the unwrapping process in Autodesk Maya.

Borders act as separation lines that control how UV islands are created.
This is useful when you need precise control over UV layout for texturing, baking, or stylized workflows.

Using Manual Borders

Manual borders can be created using Maya’s standard UV tools before applying Unwrella.

Unwrella will recognize these borders and use them as constraints during the unwrap process.

Keep Borders

If Keep Borders is disabled, Unwrella ignores existing borders and generates a fully automatic solution.

If Keep Borders is enabled, Unwrella respects manually defined borders and uses them as a base for UV generation.

Borders and Distortion

Manual borders influence how distortion is distributed across the mesh.

• Fewer borders → smoother UV flow, but more stretching
• More borders → less distortion, but more UV islands

Unwrella automatically balances this, but your borders define the initial structure.

Interaction with Automatic Seams

Unwrella may add additional seams if needed to meet distortion limits.

This means:

• Your borders are respected
• Additional cuts may still appear where necessary

To control the result:

• adjust your borders
• or relax distortion settings

Best Practices

• Place borders along natural edges or hard surface transitions
• Use borders to define important texture regions
• Avoid unnecessary fragmentation of UV islands
• Combine manual borders with Unwrella’s automatic features

Visualization

Unwrella displays borders directly in the viewport, allowing you to:

• identify existing borders
• distinguish between manual and automatic cuts
• refine your layout interactively

Summary

Manual borders give you control over the UV structure while still benefiting from Unwrella’s automation.

Use them when:

• you need predictable UV islands
• you plan detailed texture painting
• you want to guide the unwrap process

Let Unwrella handle the rest for fast and optimized results.