UVs can be confusing but it helps to think of it as standard projection mapping that you can edit.
Also try to imagine a sheet of rubber stretched over your object and how you might push and pull areas to minimize stretching. UV view polys can be pushed and pulled and will not alter the geometry's point/poly positions.
The painted texture maps will auto scale to fit the square aspect of the UV space so don't worry about matching the square aspect in photoshop to the UV grab. It is better to stretch the UV grab in photoshop to make it easier to paint. The idea is to paint maps the way they should look and let Lightwave and the UV map apply the images to the object. The UV mapping offers a type of pinning control used to deal with stretching. Think of pinning down the rubber sheet to control stretching. This is the advantage over standard projections.
The resolution of the UV image maps are set by the render size and close up shots. For example, if you have a close up shot of a character's face you would want the rez to be high enough so the pixel density doesn't break down. Like when you scale a small image in photoshop,.. the pixels get bigger. Same thing here. Paint the maps at the scale you need but not so high that it uses up all of your ram.
Using the Texture filter in the image editor is a way to calculate the resolution while giving the ability to adjust the checker pattern aspect as well. This way you can let the UVs correct the aspect for you and gain the maximum usage of the UV space which will keep your image size smaller and ram usage lower.
When in doubt, Unweld first then merge back after.
If you find extra floating points in your UV maps, you can select them and press the clear map button, but it doesn't hurt to leave them.
UV maps are double sided so be aware of twisting of flipping your polys in the UV view.
Sometimes it helps to set the checker pattern image in the UV view to help grasp the idea of inverted editing,.. where the bigger the UV poly,.. the smaller the checkers will be, and the smaller the poly,.. the bigger the checkers will be.
Alpha map textures are great for layering Multiple UV maps. Just be sure to include all of the polys in the UV mapped surface or you will have issues with distortion.
It doesn't hurt to include all of the polys for your object as long as you use an alpha map to mask out what is not needed for the surface. This works just like standard projection textures but you have the added control of surfaces and UV maps to specify where the textures are applied. The restriction is that you must use an alpha map to mask unwanted polys of the surface and include the extra polys in the UV map when layering UVs. Think of using the rubber sheets in layers with the upper layers having transparent areas.
I hope this makes sense and helps a bit. :nod:
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