producing a simple physical model out of max?

[jinsley]

I have been asked by the office if it would be possible to use 3ds to produce some sort of simple, paper model... I have said yes, we could but I'm not 100% sure of the process that would be necessary.

 

I think you would have to basically do something along these lines:

 

1. do some orthographic renders of each face of the building (keeping scale consistent)

 

2. patch them together in PS

 

3. print and cut them out (with tabs maybe)

 

4. paste them together

 

yeah!? no? Does anyone have any experience with this?

[Fooch]

Use this.

http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/

 

Its an origami software but i've used it for complex geometry.

Export a 3ds out with layers. Make sure the poly counts are lowish (i think 5K is the max, anyway you dont want to fold 5K)

Print out a pdf + print = voila, (plus that software is cheap 38 USD)

[Macer]

If its really simple and you have access to sketchup there are several free tools available, such as:

http://news.sketchucation.com/new-unfold-tool-flattery/

 

I'd be surprised if a script didn't exist for max though?

[JonRashid]

Another way would be to map the object and the use the uvw unwrap tool. This works the same way as a pattern cutter.