Elaborate answer: When I was in the situation I wanted the same setup in between different projects, I often duplicate my mari scene (when you 1st open mari, right click on your project and duplicate / rename it), then I open the new one, and import the new object as an object version. I then remove the version currently available, so it switch to the new one I just imported. I then proceed to delete all I don't need (altho you can do that before I guess) and I have the same "setup". Allowed me to texture a whole city with similar buildings in a breeze as I had set up my uvs to be from 1001 to 1010 stones, then 1011 to 1020 metal, and used triplanar on everything and masking of groups, as soon as I switched to a new version, the building was almost already textured and ready to export.
I use object version a LOT (open object palette in view menu). Let say you have 20 planks all stacked on top of each others and rotated in random angles. painting those is a bitch as they are all overlapping.
What I do is import an object version with all the planks that I lined up in my 3D app at the right angle and so on, then use triplanar on them (or whatever really), bake it down to a paintable layer (after I copy and hide it if I need to adjust things a bit later on I can always roll back) Then switch back to my stacked version and continue painting if needed. If I need to do color variations I then switch over the the lined up version and add adjustment layer that I can easily mask. I use select trough from top view (for example), add mask - hide all, and paint through selected only with white to paint my mask on the whole plank in 1 go for example, as they are all lined up, it's fairly easy to do it on multiple planks in one go as well...If I need to color tweak particular planks I paint a bit of pink / red on it on a new layer before switching to my lined up version so I can spot which is which.
What you can do as well is do multiple mapping of the same object. Let's say a rope / beam.
In my case my rope / beam might be so long that I need to separate it in multiple cuted uvs so it's holding up in resolution and I don't need to use a 16k map. I map it correctly, then duplicate the object and map it as a plain cylinder. I then use a script to flatten my mesh from the UVs so it's all flat and in 1 piece (there is scripts for both Max and Maya to do that) and then copy the UVs from the 1st one to this flat one and Import both as different object versions. This way if I want to paint on the rope / beam it's easier to do and I have full resolution when I switch back to my original unflatten copy.
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Elaborate answer: When I was in the situation I wanted the same setup in between different projects, I often duplicate my mari scene (when you 1st open mari, right click on your project and duplicate / rename it), then I open the new one, and import the new object as an object version. I then remove the version currently available, so it switch to the new one I just imported. I then proceed to delete all I don't need (altho you can do that before I guess) and I have the same "setup". Allowed me to texture a whole city with similar buildings in a breeze as I had set up my uvs to be from 1001 to 1010 stones, then 1011 to 1020 metal, and used triplanar on everything and masking of groups, as soon as I switched to a new version, the building was almost already textured and ready to export.
I use object version a LOT (open object palette in view menu). Let say you have 20 planks all stacked on top of each others and rotated in random angles. painting those is a bitch as they are all overlapping.
What I do is import an object version with all the planks that I lined up in my 3D app at the right angle and so on, then use triplanar on them (or whatever really), bake it down to a paintable layer (after I copy and hide it if I need to adjust things a bit later on I can always roll back) Then switch back to my stacked version and continue painting if needed. If I need to do color variations I then switch over the the lined up version and add adjustment layer that I can easily mask. I use select trough from top view (for example), add mask - hide all, and paint through selected only with white to paint my mask on the whole plank in 1 go for example, as they are all lined up, it's fairly easy to do it on multiple planks in one go as well...If I need to color tweak particular planks I paint a bit of pink / red on it on a new layer before switching to my lined up version so I can spot which is which.
What you can do as well is do multiple mapping of the same object. Let's say a rope / beam.
In my case my rope / beam might be so long that I need to separate it in multiple cuted uvs so it's holding up in resolution and I don't need to use a 16k map. I map it correctly, then duplicate the object and map it as a plain cylinder. I then use a script to flatten my mesh from the UVs so it's all flat and in 1 piece (there is scripts for both Max and Maya to do that) and then copy the UVs from the 1st one to this flat one and Import both as different object versions. This way if I want to paint on the rope / beam it's easier to do and I have full resolution when I switch back to my original unflatten copy.
Hope it helps!