Keeping aspect ratio in unwrapping (not a scale issue)

So I have been having this problem with the ratio/size of the faces and resulting UV maps - when I try to unwrap this thing, the faces that are next to each other (but have totally different widths) seem to unwrap as if they were all the same (smart unwrap does it correctly, but also separates them which is undesirable.) Also it seems to shorten them on the long side if I don’t add loops around.

I’ve tried the apply scale solution, but it didn’t help as I didn’t use scaling in the first place.

Here’s an example to see what I mean:


Anyone knows how to work around this without moving the edges manually? (there are too many of them to do by hand properly without screwing it up).

Thanks in advance!

Hi naevea,

Have you tried the ‘Minimize Stretch’ function in the UV/Image Editor? After unwrapping. Press ‘Ctrl-V’.