Texture Mapping
(Tip 2 - Groups)

When working with small models, highlighting and selecting faces is not much of a problem. Selecting and de-selecting can be done easily enough with a few pushes on the space bar. But once you start building models with over fifty faces (or even hundreds of faces), the prospect of cycling and selecting, and then re-cycling and re-selecting hundreds of faces is very discouraging.

Imagine cycling through all those faces, selecting the few you need, mapping them to a texture, then you can't see the finished result with them selected. So, you de-select them, for a better look, only to find that they are not how you want them. Now you have to cycle through all over again, selecting as you go. And if it's still not right, you have to do it again and again and again.

Fortunately, BinEdit provides an easy way to handle this situation.

First, open your model, and highlight and select the faces you want to map. Now, before you do anything, goto Groups>Store Face Group:

This will bring up the following box:

Type in a name for the group in the thin box near the top (where I have typed the word "name").

Hint: Keep it simple, short and without spaces. Also, use a name that gives a clue about what the group is; for example, on the model we have been working on you might call it "stop" or "sign." If it was a truck, you might call it "ldoor" (for left door) or "tgate" (for tail gate). For more complicated models you will use this feature a lot. So, do yourself a favor and use names you can remember.

When you are done, click OK. The group is ready for future use.

It will be a good idea to save your work right now.

When you save, the group information is stored in the NAME.BIN.NFO file so that it will be available to you as often as you need it. The great thing about this procedure is that you only need to do it once.

Now, go ahead and map your faces to a texture. When you are done, feel free to de-select all faces so that you can have a better look at your work. If it is not the way you want it, goto Groups>Restore Face Group:

This will bring up the following box:

Although this looks exactly the same as the previous box, it is not. The first box is for storing groups; this one is for Re-storing groups.

You will see a list of groups that you have stored and that are available for you to use. Use the mouse to highlight the one you want, and click OK. Voila, the same faces are now selected (green) but without the need to manually cycle through all faces and select them using the F key.

Go ahead and map the group again. Repeat this as many times as you want for as many groups as you need.