Hello guys and gals,do any of you happen to know how to hide geometry while unwrapping in 3ds max?

It gets really annoying when im trying to unwrap with a bunch of overlaying faces in the viewport.You would think autodesk would make it simple and let you hide the faces within edit poly,but that would be smart and practical. ..And there shall be none of that..

So anyways, am i doing something wrong? is there a way to hide the faces i want?
Any suggestions will help.

go into edit poly.. select what you want to hide.. hit hide selected.

reverse of that. select what you want to keep. hit hide unselected.

but i loose the current seems i was working with.the already unwrapped uv's stay the same,but all the seams are gone.once i get on again tomorow,ill show an example of what im talking about.

You can assign various faces to different material IDs and then use the ID selection box in the UVW Unwrap window to toggle different material ID groups on and off. If have never used this feature - I simply separate my object into logical sections and unwrap each by itself. Once a piece is unwrapped, I drag it off to the side and begin on the next. Then I re-attach all the pieces into one object, go back into UVW unwrap, and assemble their unwraps into the texture square. Alternatively, I might do a flatten mapping on everything at once and then begin the laborious process of grouping and stitching. Better yet, I use Roadkill to unwrap stuff and then bring it back into Max and fine-tune that unwrap.

But if you want to do it your way, here is where you find the material ID selector box (Max 2013):

down the bottom of the UV unwrap window there's a button with a triangle on it. It's next to the lock selection button. This is the filter selected faces button.

If you select some faces in the viewport, and then hit this button, it will hide the other faces.

Rainyn: I knew that was an option but what im trying to do hear is find a reason to use 3ds max over blender (for unwrapping purposes) So far,Blender is a hell of alot better/easier when it comes to unwrapping.

And sprunghunt,I dont see that button anywhere.maybe it has to do with us having different versions of 3ds?

The button has been there since at least max8. its near the list box indicated in the image attached a few posts up

also, max is by far the better tool-you just need to find the buttons

Ah,Thanks poopipe,i was looking in the wrong window.

And What about editing geometry? can you be unwrapping,and decide to delete a couple faces without losing your seems?

Thats another reason i prefer blender in these cases.They make it really easy for me to edit faces however i want without the loss of seems
(whether it be hiding,moving,or deleting faces)

The easiest way would be to stop using seams!
Select edges and 'break' them, then use peel/relax.
Wtf are seams for anyway? that useless pelt function?

You mean theres another way?!
Could you tell me more about breaking edges and all that good stuff? i knew nothing about that..

you can select faces in the uv editor and then right click and hit break. it creates map seams (the green ones). pelting will do this for you, only difference is you cant use the edit seams functions on map seams

alright,imma play around with it and see how it works out.
Thanks for the advice.

Originally Posted by Cheathem

And What about editing geometry? can you be unwrapping,and decide to delete a couple faces without losing your seems?

Add edit poly modifier on top of Unwrap then edit geometry add new Unwrap Modifier and continue unwrapping. Of course you gotta relax the shells or may have to re-unwrap parts depending on what edits you do.