Why have them disappear?

[LauraEss]

OK, I've downloaded AC3D and and test/using it in the trial period. I thought I'd see how easy it is to do some UV Mapping with it, and yet I couldn't find any tutorials anywhere that explain the process clearly. I think what through me was that surfaces and vertexes in the Texture Coordinate Editor appears to disappear entirely when those are not selected in the main window! I thought that I was doing something wrong and "failing to save them".

Surely it would be better to still show those faces and vertexes, even if they were no longer selected in the main screen. That would make it so much easier to align them in the TCE. Perhaps those that are still selected in the main screen, regardless of whether or not they're selected in the TCE, could be highlighted in particular.

[Andy]

Working on the current selection makes a lot of sense, especially if you have a massive model and you only want to work on part of it. If the whole lot was displayed, it would be a visual mess and very difficult to pick out particular parts to work on.

The ability to control individual texture coordinates is one of the reasons why AC3D's UV mapping is popular.

Here's a video of someone making a treasure chest and creating a UV map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNh81S__vNo
(the AC3D UI is slightly older but it works much the same way)

[LauraEss]

Then why not have a button in the TCE that allows the user to show hidden faces and vertexes? It could default to OFF, but would give the user a choice. Either way, a tutorial (video or not) about using the TCE would be good. I'd watched that video you linked to. It has a sound track but no clues about what's happening in it.

Edit: I went back and had another look at this, and clearly careful use of materials and Planar Map by Surface Material makes creating a UV a lot easier. I guess the routine is to initially pull the various mapped vertexes out of the texture area so that they probably don't overlap, then SELECT EVERYTHING on the main screen and then move/resize the individual maps around so that they fit. I found that very finicky to do, and for me prone to error. I have a another suggestion just for the TCE - a Vertex location copy and paste. If you want the vertexes to match exactly (so that edges will align) how about a Copy and Paste button on top status bar (up with the 50% / 100% / 200% buttons). You select the vertex you want to match with, press the Copy button, then select the vertex you want to move, and press Paste, and it moves to the first vertexes location.

Perhaps I shouldn't make suggestions, without more experience using AC3D. The thing is that I'm evaluating it before I commit to buying, so this is about seeing how easy it is to use.