Label Mapping Type Question

[seanglenn]

We work with a lot of curved surface models, and I'm a graphic designer, not a Solidworks guy, so I'm a little confused when it comes to exactly how to get things to work right in the 3D arena. So far I've just been taking models from our PD team to apply materials and patterns. What I'd like is a (hopefully) easy way to make sure that our patterns don't distort when they wrap the edges of our models (as they do in the rendering I have here). This was set to Planar mapping, and looks fine except when it comes to the corners, Normal seems to give me the same thing, and I don't appear to get good or useable results with any of the other modes (my guess is that I need to figure out how to set this up for UV Coordinate mapping, but I really have no idea how to go about that). Suggestions?

[jhiker]

I struggle with this too. I often wonder when it might be appropriate to use  'UV co-ordinates' as I've never had much luck with that. A tutorial might be nice.

[Despot]

Yes, the only way to stop the warping is to UV map the model.

I'm not sure if CAD software allows you to UV map, so I would think you would have to export the model and map it in another dedicated program. This is a link to a freely available one :

http://www.uvmapper.com/index.html

I've tried it and it does the job quite adequately.

But be warned, it's not an easy process - it takes a lot of effort and time. I don't want to put you off, but for me it was the single hardest facet of 3D that I had to master - it took me months literally to fully understand the process and that was with the help of a texture artist colleague who sat me down for hours on end and went through the whole procedure on different types of meshes until eventually a lightbulb went off in my head and it eventually sunk in...

I mean it could just be that I'm exceptionally dense, but... 

My advice would be to look at tutorials on the Interweb, pick your software and block out a month of your life..

It's also worth noting that most other 'general' 3D application has UV capabilites, like Cinema 4D (the software of my choice), Blender (free), 3DS Max, Modo etc etc - so there is no shortage of software

Happy UV'ing 

J