jim12
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Posts: 7
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Post by jim12 on Oct 16, 2017 11:32:47 GMT
Hi, I'm testing Unfold3D for hard surface product geometries. Your algorithm seems to be one of the best for this purpose, and slightly better than even the unwrap tool in Rhinoceros, which handles nurbs. However, there is still room to improve, or maybe there are functions that I haven't discovered yet. Let's assume that the attached shape is a metal speaker mesh for a bluetooth speaker: After adding cuts at the appropriate locations, the flattened island looks like this: This looks very good, but after adding a texture, it's easy to notice slight warping on the main top surface: What can be done to avoid the uneven lines seen on the texture?
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jim12
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Posts: 7
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Post by jim12 on Oct 16, 2017 11:39:11 GMT
Ideally, the unwrapped UV on the main top surface, highlighted here in blue, should be close to perfect with no obvious warping: The other surfaces can have warping, but should still flow naturally from the main surface. Is this possible to achieve? Thanks.
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Post by ChrisGFX on Oct 17, 2017 15:19:49 GMT
Hi Jim, you always get this distortions. Yo need to make two more cuts ... An one more cut in the middle part too. This should help. Chris
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Post by Remi Arquier on Oct 17, 2017 16:10:40 GMT
Thanks Chris,
Adding cut like Chris suggested would reduce distortion for sure.
However I suppose that you need something even better. I think that you would want to have an almost perfect unfolding of the selected polygons, and you would like that the others polygons be adapted around them as better as possible.
To do that you may try the following steps:
0- Switch to polygon selection mode (key F3) 1- Press 'C' to separate them from the original mesh 2- Select the polygons as shown in your last picture 3- Press 'U' to unfold them (you may add some Optimize iterations by pressing key 'O') 4- Select the others polygons that you want to be placed around (simply let the selection as that, we will use it later) 5- Switch to Island selection mode (key F4) (the polygon selection is kept) 6- Select the Island you want to be perfectly unfolded 7- Weld it by pressing 'W' (you will have something a bit ugly for now) 8- Switch to Polygon selection mode (key F3) 9- Press unfold to unfold the selected polygons of the other part, then press several time on 'O' to optimize the polygons
That is a bit tricky but it worked with my mesh
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Post by Remi Arquier on Oct 17, 2017 16:15:37 GMT
Which make me realize that if we would add the two following feaures:
1- Invert selection 2- option to disable pinned vertices on selection borders.
It would reduce the step count to 3 instead 10.
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Post by Remi Arquier on Oct 17, 2017 17:22:42 GMT
Currently uploading new release 2017.0.16. Contains "Invert Selection" and "Free mode" for vertexes that are on selection limits (option is located in the Unwrap panel in the lower left corner). The 10 steps will reduce to: 0- Switch to polygon selection mode (key F3) 1- Enable the free mode on selection border in the unwrap panel 2- Select the polygons you want to be unfolded as best as possible 3- Press 'U' and 'O' if needed 4- Invert selection by pressing Ctrl-I 5- Disable the free mode on selection border in the unwrap panel 6- Press 'U' and 'O' Well, 6 steps, I thought 3, but well... that's better
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jim12
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Posts: 7
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Post by jim12 on Oct 25, 2017 11:49:29 GMT
Hi Remi, sorry I wasn't aware there were replies to my post. I tried the suggestion of adding cuts, but that made the UV very wobbly, and it got worse the more cuts I added: Then I tried your instructions for version 2017.0.16, but I was not able to use polygon selection. Things like select loop path didn't work (perhaps a bug?), so I used Edges Mode and selected loops, then cut them to split up all the relevant areas. Then for the remaining fillet areas I used Island mode to select them. I don't know if the selection method makes a difference to the overall outcome. Anyway, below is the result: The main top surface comes out perfect. However, the problem here is that UV of the "fillet surfaces" (the secondary surfaces that flow from the main surface) are detached. This means that when applying a texture there will be a visible seam where the main surface meets the fillet surfaces. What I want is that the fillet surfaces flow naturally (with some warping allowed) from the main surface (which should be perfect). I'm not sure if I did this the right way, or maybe it's an issue with my 3D file. I've attached the FBX file here, if you guys would like to have a go at it: uv mesh test.fbx (345.26 KB) Any help is greatly appreciated.
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Post by ChrisGFX on Oct 25, 2017 15:52:33 GMT
Hi Jim,
first of all I have a question.
What do you want to do with this model? Will it be textured and if yes what program you want to use for it?
If you use programs like MARI, Substance Painter or Quixel the seams doesn't matter that much because you are painting directly on the 3D model and the program projects the texture om the UV well for you.
I have downloaded your model and will take a look at it later ...
Chris
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jim12
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Posts: 7
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Post by jim12 on Oct 25, 2017 16:47:30 GMT
Hi Chris, After unfolding the UV in Unfold3D, the model will be brought into Cinema 4D where it will have a texture applied and rendered. Actually, the whole workflow is a bit convoluted because I work with products, and there seems to be little support for high quality visualization for this. That's why I'm very interested in the capabilities of your Real Space product. The entire workflow is CAD (e.g. Solidworks) > STEP > FBX > C4D > FBX > Unfold3D > FBX > C4D. To show what it looks like after importing the model into C4D from Unfold3D: Test UV texture: Final hole mesh texture preview: As can be seen, the holes by the arrow are slightly bigger than the others due to the uneven UV unfolding. This is what I want to avoid, at least for the most visible top surface.
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Post by Remi Arquier on Oct 25, 2017 18:02:54 GMT
Hi Jim, Do you allow me to make a public video tutorial using your mesh ? I could show how I achieved this: I think that it certainly help you and many others. Best
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jim12
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Posts: 7
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Post by jim12 on Oct 26, 2017 1:58:38 GMT
Remi, that looks really impressive!
Go ahead, you can use that model any way you want.
Looking forwards to see the video.
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Post by ChrisGFX on Oct 26, 2017 7:07:08 GMT
Hi Jim, Do you allow me to make a public video tutorial using your mesh ? I could show how I achieved this: I think that it certainly help you and many others. Best this looks good! Looking forward to to video too :-)
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Post by Remi Arquier on Oct 26, 2017 9:21:49 GMT
Perfect. You'll get the tutorial on monday. I have to terminate the development of a new feature before.
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Post by Remi Arquier on Oct 31, 2017 15:26:02 GMT
Sorry Jim for the delay
We had to handle others urgent things yesterday.
Do you made nurbs to polygon mesh conversion into C4D at import from Solidwork to C4D ?
The conversion is really good quality.
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jim12
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Posts: 7
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Post by jim12 on Nov 1, 2017 2:14:49 GMT
No problem, Remi, take your time.
That's a good question. The conversion takes place in Rhinoceros, it's a step not included in the workflow I posted. It's ...STEP > Rhino > FBX... Rhino does a very satisfactory job, in large part due to the many parameters than can be manually adjusted to make the resulting mesh as accurate as possible at the lowest polygon count. In general, large flat areas will have less polygon density, whereas detailed areas will have a high polygon density.
I've tested MoI for this purpose, as allegedly it does a really good job at conversion, but I get better and more reliable results with Rhino.
I should add that in C4D I run the Optimize command on the imported FBX mesh before exporting out to FBX again which will "clean up" the mesh. If not, the mesh in most cases does not open well in Unfold3D.
That might be something to look into, whether the import mesh function in Unfold3D can be improved, by adding an "Optimize mesh" checkbox, which will attempt to automatically fix any problems with the import mesh so that the mesh appears in Unfold3D nice and clean, without any seams/open edges.
If you're really ambitious, you can make Unfold3D so that it can open STEP/IGES nurbs files, and use that geometry to create the UV unfolding, then have a really good algorithm which will convert the nurbs geometry and UV into a mesh to be exported to FBX/OBJ (essentially what Rhino does).
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