unwrap3d?

[Christopher Nichols]

Has anyone tried or used the unwrap3d software that is posted on the front page of cgarchitect today? This is a subject that I am currently very interested in and would like to know what people's experiences have been.

[Igor K]

Hi,

 

This is topic of interest for me too.

But it seems this one is more for UV unwraping.

 

 

What I was after is more of heavy duty design tool that will decompose an non-developable surface into x n contiguous developable surfaces.

 

Whew - that will cost some $$$ eh?

 

There are some out there that will do some basic unwrapping starting from toys like tenkai to Pilot3D to Rhino (but rhino does only developable suffaces - like ruled, simple lofts etc.)

TouchCad looks OK too. But all miss funcionality.

 

 

Maybe catia? But then I know a guy who knows a guy working at Gehry's here in L.A. and he says they have costom app plug for catia which will keep regular NURBS panels, say, 4' x 8' arrayed over complex surfaces so then you custom cut panels at the edges. Saves $$$.

When you look at it that's how Gehry makes all undulating surfaces. rectangular overlaping metal panels with minimal number of complex cuts/joining pieces. So that means not even Catia has the thing!? I don't know.

 

I am generally looking for thing that will create developable surface in my case from nylon or similar cloth like materials - for design prototypes.

 

 

However, it seems some thing is cooking here that looks good. Check it out.

upcoming Expander rhino plug-in

 

Maybe I am off track here - lemme know

 

If anybody knows more - come on share here.

 

regards,

Igor

L.A.

 

www.flaregroup.com

[Ernest Burden III]

Has anyone tried or used the unwrap3d software?

Ahem... todays posts

 

For the surface un-wrapping I would have suggested Rhino, but you already ruled it out. I guess you would have to wait for that plug-in the available. If you need it before the June release date, maybe you can contact McNeel or the authors and get a beta copy. If what you are doing is so far from what most any software can handle, they may be interested in your helping them evaluate the plug-in. And Rhino + the plug-in are a LOT less than Catia.

[joseph alexander]

I took a furniture welding class at my school where I used rhino to unroll a 3d model into planes. I then had the planes laser cut out of stainless. I found that there's a big difference between being able to "unroll" a single curved plane and a double curved plane, think of an arch vs a dome. You can approximate a dome with polygons but, as far as I know, there isn't a program that will pop out very accurate patterns from a double curved plane. Usually there's a huge amount of work required by the user, (rebuilding things using approximated shapes, cutting things apart before unrolling them etc). If there was a program that did the dirty work for you and offered perfect precision from double curves I would pay a lot of money for it. Looking at the screenshots I doubt this program will offer that level of power.

 

-Joe

[Christopher Nichols]

Actually I think you guys have me all wrong... I am interested in exactly what it is about: UV unwrapping... not surface unwrapping... I have about 200 building modeled at high res that I need unwrap for texturing... a good solid tool would be great, wanted to look into DeepUV. If anyone has use unwarp3d, which I saw on today's headlines on cgarchitect as I stated before, that would be great...

 

The subject of surface unwrapping is also interesting, but not related to the subject of this thread. The answer to that is Catia, Pro-E and Solidworks... maybe Rhino as well.

[Ernest Burden III]

I am interested in exactly what it is about: UV unwrapping...

OK Chris...here's a paste from my post today...

"Jeff

 

Thanks for the news item about UltimateUnwrap3D having a new version. I will get it. The guy that makes that sharware puts out a new version number every few weeks, so its hard to keep current. The program supports about 50 gaming filetypes, so I guess I know where his head is at.

 

My problem with UU3D is that it is extremely intollerant of DXF files. If there is even one entity of a type it doesn't support dirrectly UU3D will simply refuse to open the file at all, rather than ignoring the entity like most 3D software does. What it doesn't like are text, 2D or 3D lines, or any file written by my modeler. The author suggested opening/saving through AccuTrans, which I have and which works, but I wish he would re-write the DXF import to read your every-day DXF file.

 

Otherwise, its a great program!"

 

I think UU3D could work for you, but it is a bit combersome to work with. It lacks layers, so getting groups by material or color or whatever is important so you have something to select by. I still have not gotten good imports, but haven't spent the time to learn how to prep for UU3D. I've also had models come in rotated 90 degs on X or Y--also an issue with setup on import. You have a lot of control of which projection type is used to unwrap the model, and you can mix and match, export to just about any size texture map.

 

UU3D also has a decent quads finder and a pretty good subdivision surface tool--for when poly count is no object.

 

There are going to be better tools available than this one, but it does what it says it will do, and is very affordable.

[Christopher Nichols]

A thousand apologies Ernest... I had a wirlwind day and I did not follow your link... Great information... hleps a lot... I will take a closer look at it.

[plastic]

formZ can unfold geometry.

 

http://www.formz.com/web_site_2000/content_pages/products/projections.html

 

i must say, i hate the app (we had to learn it at uni), but the unfold option is really fun.

there even is a possibility to include "connectors" for cardboard folding models.

[Ernest Burden III]

formZ can unfold geometry.

When FormZ unwraps an object is it assigning UV coords at the same time?

 

I must say, for years I've thought that FormZ must be the best modeler, but have never bought it. Partly its the price, which is a Mac proce, not a PC price. Also, every time I have tried to teach a friend a new technique that I am using on his FormZ, I cannot find the obvious buttons/boxes, whatever. He always ends up having to call tech support to figure out how to do something that I can at least get in basics in almost any modeler/renderer. It never seems intuitive. Watching him work with it causes me pain. Could I get used to it?

[bigcahunak]

Originally posted by Ernest Burden:

When FormZ unwraps an object is it assigning UV coords at the same time?

Ernest, FMZ unfolds the geomerty. So, once its done, there is no way back to the original geometry. this is good when you want to build a phisical model then u just unwrap the building, cut it from cartboard, and glue it together.

 

As for your question: yes, it does save the cordinates with the unwrapping.

Here is before:

 

And After:

 

Originally posted by Ernest Burden:

Could I get used to it?

Hmmm... I'm sure you can, but please DON'T.

[Igor K]

Well OK... so original question was about UV unwrap. I use MAX and MAX 5 has really good UV unwrap for texture mapping. It is virtually standard in gaming industry.

 

Deep UV is excellent also and integrated in MAX too. So for MAX users I wouldn't bother with anything else at the moment.

 

As far as geometry unwrap goes... yeah that's a tough one. I looked into it - and all of them need more funcionality to unwrap double curved (that is, non-developable) surfaces.

The same thing formz can do - MAX can do too... but it is not very useful for complex surfaces.

 

I am not familiar with proE but as I can tell rhino can't do it... basic Catia can't do it.

Good plug-in for rhino coming up (see above).

[Richard McCarthy]

Just wondering, what do you guys mean "double curve" that isn't developable?.. (some attached pics would have explain better...?)

I have developed very curvious surface, with Tenkai, and it works wonder. (Although it still approximate, it's good enough) You just have to segment the surface/model to parts that's all.

 

 

-RM

 

Originally posted by Igor K:

Well OK... so original question was about UV unwrap. I use MAX and MAX 5 has really good UV unwrap for texture mapping. It is virtually standard in gaming industry.

 

Deep UV is excellent also and integrated in MAX too. So for MAX users I wouldn't bother with anything else at the moment.

 

As far as geometry unwrap goes... yeah that's a tough one. I looked into it - and all of them need more funcionality to unwrap double curved (that is, non-developable) surfaces.

The same thing formz can do - MAX can do too... but it is not very useful for complex surfaces.

 

I am not familiar with proE but as I can tell rhino can't do it... basic Catia can't do it.

Good plug-in for rhino coming up (see above).