UV map question

Basis

Okay, so I'm several weeks into a project on building a 3d object from scratch. Started with primitives to make the sub-components, welded them together. Once it looked good I increased polygon count, and made multiple parts using the same sub-component.

I made 24 parts that are identical, placing 12 in the upper domain and 12 on the lower as a mirror of the top.

It was looking good, and I thought to myself; "Self, you know what would make this look better? UV Map." Self replied "Thought, you are so right! We've been dragging our feet trying to figure out how to make a UV map. LET'S DO THIS!"

So I looked up some information on UV maps and somewhere in the middle of one of these webpages the suggestion; Do the UV maps early when there aren't as many vertices.

Ah Hell. So I'm now trying to teach myself how to make a UV maps using a 39,000 polygon object.
Luckily I have the domains already built. And learning how to make a UV Map the hard way has taught me some interesting tricks. Tricks I had to teach myself through experimentation because there aren't any UV map Tutorials showing how to make a UV map going the wrong way.

I need to find a way to streamline some things. I've already figured out how to merge two UV's together by cutting a Shading domain out of the main object and making it a separate object in Hexagon, Building the UV map for that part, then saving both objects together as an .obj.

But I want to know if I can trick Hexagon to use the same UV map from one domain and use it in a different Domain that has an Identical vertex configuration. If I can do that, it will cut the time in doing the UV maps in half.

Can that be done?

Wee Dangerous John

Here is a link to a 3 part tutorial by Gary Miller on making a tree trunk -

http://www.geekatplay.com/hp1.php

After you have watched and tried it for yourself I would suggest you have a look at the other tutorials he has done.

About your multi part UV mapping question, it can be done but you should of created the single object then UV mapped it before making duplicates. If you where making a shelf full of books you would create one book, uvmap it, then copy and paste it. Then after naming them book1,2 3 etc (so you can identify them) move them around on the UVmap so they can have different covers.

If you want to have more than one prop on the map I would suggest you have a look at UVmapper Classic (free) which will let you resize the map.

dot_bat

create your uvmaps when you are done, adding vertices will only break the uvmap and you will have to uvmap all over again. once the model is done and your satisfied and the mesh is good then uvmap