Pepakura size problems

[mckinnell]

Hi to all,

After getting my model of a sci fi cargo ship from 3dsmax 2010, fully rendered etc etc, into Pepakura and, manualy unfolding same, i went about editing it starting with the over all sizes, L...W....H.

I noted that, every time i put in a value for length, hight, width, it immediately altered the other values, also, setting the scale value will only alter the total values, so, is of little use in the begining.


These alteration are done in 2D menu/ change scale, so i`m in the correct area:), trouble is that their seems to me at least, no way of setting the seperate values without them changing what has already been set; have looked at the tiny help area on the Pepakura page etc etc and found ZIP on this matter, also, not much around the net on this subject, but, i realy can not belive that software used for unfolding 3D models, can not give seperate values for hight, width and length, without impacting and changing the other values, but, i may be missing some litttle point or two:confused:.


If anyone can give me a good answer and help in sorting this out, i will be very happy indeed, i am not interested tho`, in how xxxx or xxx, a person feels the software to be and that , thats the reason, thats not an answer:confused:;).



So if any kind person/s can help as i stated all ready, i will be grateful and hope then to offer some of my OWN models for others to do, as a thank you for all the model i have enjoyed doing from others....



Many gratefull thanks and regards to one and all,



Tom.........;):):cool:

[eric_son]

Hi,

Those values automatically change because Pepakura retains the H-W-D proportions to 1:1:1.

I don't think there's a setting that would allow you to manually alter the size of an axis without Pepakura adjusting the other two axes.

[rch123]

I think your problem is one of ratio. When you enter in a number, like say you want the scale to be 1/1 and the length of the object your making in the real world is 545mm. If you put in 545mm in your length box, its going to automatically adjust your entire model to keep it in proportion. That would cause all the numbers to change. I don't know if there is a way to override this, I just know that is probably your problem.

[nothing]

you cant edit geometry in pep. you can resize the model but are locked into the parameters of the overall mesh. if you need the width changed for example you have to do it in your 3d program.

[mckinnell]

Thanks for the swift reply, not what i was hoping for,but, i think i was expecting some thing in that line of answer; are me, i realy do not know what to do then, all i want to finnish is a simple cheap unfolder, any suggestions on that subject of software to do the job better?????..


My best regards to you all,


Tom......:)

[once]

If you were to make different changes to the X & Y axes of your 2D parts they would no longer fit together as a 3D assembly.

[Modeller]

Hello.
In order to get the 1:1 size of the model or its separate parts, simply assign the scale your model is made in 3dmax in pepakura.

Its 2D menu-Change scale-Scale factor-Scale.
http://f7.ifotki.info/org/ca940db63005d0b9b309bb84fa303c9f5f99a275174495.jpg (http://ifotki.info/)

[Julescrafter]

pepakura designer is only an unfold software, it cannot use to modify your 3d model, if you could change a separate value from height, length or width then your template would be impossible to build, because the templates will be distorted. pepakura always has fixed 1:1:1 ratio.

to change the length / height / width you must use 3d modeling software. you can use google sketchup to edit your model by importing your 3ds file into sketchup.

source (http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=36217)

[mckinnell]

Julescrafter,

Thank mate, Armourman has been helping me out understand what to do and, as of the moment, things are very much better and improving; my software choise for 3D modeling has always been 3Dmax, and, have just upgraded to 3DS max2010, so am well sorted out in that area my friend, many thanks for your response, very welcomed.....cheers.


Tom......:);):cool:

[Wulf111]

@mckinnell: tried to reply to your pm but the system will not allow me to pm you. so here is what i was going to reply i hope it helps make things a little clearer for you.

Hmmm most of the time i just eyeball it i usually dont follow any set scale i just set the largest piece of the model to one page. If the actual scale of the ship is known lets say the USS Enterprise is 305 meters long. when the model is unfolded in pepakura it is all on one page if you use pep3 you go to the 2DpatternWindow tab and select "Change the Scale of Development" and then "specify the scale" now here is where some math comes in at 1/1000 the ship will be 305mm in length, at 1/1500 the ship will be 203.3mm, at 1/1700 it would be 179.8mm, 1/2000 it will be 15.25cm long. just divide the original length by the scale desired (305 divided by 1700 is .1798 move the decimal 3 spot to the right to go from meter to mm 179.8). now if you have more than one model you want the same scale at the bottom of the change pattern size menu there is a "scale" field just copy that number down and you can set the models to the same scale but they would have to be scaled with each other in your 3DS max first for this to work properly. best way to do this is load up a ship of known scale ie. uss. enterprise. move it to the side a bit and merge the model you want scaled into max. select new model only and adjust the size till it fits the scale you want compared to the uss e. highlight new ship and "export selected" name it XXX_resize.3ds and then you import it into pep and put the number into the scale field and it now should be the same scale as the uss e.

[Wulf111]

pepakura designer is only an unfold software, it cannot use to modify your 3d model, if you could change a separate value from height, length or width then your template would be impossible to build, because the templates will be distorted. pepakura always has fixed 1:1:1 ratio.

to change the length / height / width you must use 3d modeling software. you can use google sketchup to edit your model by importing your 3ds file into sketchup.

source (http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=36217)

i beg to differ with you on this point, you can edit/modify the 3D model in Pepakura but it is limited to one vertex at a time.

i am in the process of creating a few tutorials on how to use Pepakura hopefully have it somewhat done after the new years

[mckinnell]

Wulf111,

Firstly, sorry you can`t pm me direct, shall see what is a miss their and sort it out, secondly, my very very grateful thanks for such an indepth and involved response, that and some info from Armourman realy does it for me, my model is coming on swimingly, will send up a picture in the new year.

You know, this sort of involvement to questions and problems from any one in the forum is, what makes Papermodels.com, the very very best, with, the best of the very best people on board, kind helpful and friendly, what a great place to escape to..

Tom......:):);):cool:

[grimpirate]

I'm slightly confused by your problem mckinnell. I've never used Pepakura so I'm unfamiliar with how it works. My confusion comes from your scale problem though. Are you trying to change the OVERALL scale of your model? Or do you want to distort the model by stretching it in one direction? Judging from the responses you've gotten I'd venture to say it's the first option. Working under that assumption I can suggest the following approach (assuming that you can print/export to PDF from Pepakura software):

Once you export the PDF from Pepakura, import it into a software called Inkscape.
Pick one of your parts to use as the scaling object, particularly one that has a straight line in it somewhere.
Trace the line to determine its overall length.
Draw another line that represents that same line but in the size that you want.
Divide the length of one line by the other to determine the scaling factor.
Finally, select all your parts and apply a numeric transform to scale the parts to the size you wanted according to the number you calculated.

If you want to create a distortion along one axis by only scaling along that axis, then it would serve you better to create the distortion first on your model in 3dsmax and then use Pepakura.

[mckinnell]

grimpirate,

Thanks for your response, i seem to be doing ok now, but, will give your suggestion a good try my friend...........cheers.


Regards,


Tom........:);):cool:

[Modeller]

Also, one advice.
Pepa would never unfold correctly if you try to put the whole thing at once. Make small exports of several independent parts, one by one, especially its applicable to the parts that have complicated mesh. (Lots of polygons in one part). They need to be exported from Max as the one peace only.
Overall, this method is used when something, can not be joined together rightly....