PDO File converter

[airdave]

Pepakura has become a big hit with those "designers" who produce models from Game meshes.
A Game mesh is the polyhedron structure that is a figure or object form in a videogame.
There is no 3D design here...just steal the object mesh and its skin textures, and import them into Pepakura.
Pep can then "unfold" everything into a 2D parts assembly.


Originally Pepakura is a 3D modeling program.
And like any design software, it produces a file in its own format.
In this case its called .pdo

Its no different than a website program producing a .nod file.
Or a graphics program like Corel producing a .cdr file.
etc

Once you output a file to any other format it will lose all its basic
properties that allow you to operate and manipulate it in its base program.
Keeping a file in its base programming is a good idea.

I think the biggest complaint is that pepakura only outputs to .pdo format.

But, since Pepakura reader is readily available, for free, then there really is
no reason to fault the program for only outputting a .pdo type file.
With the reader you can view and print your files easily.
Its only if you want to be a designer, that you need to purchase the
full pepakura software.

As to why they have not made this software available to Mac users,
is beyond me...I guess the creators of the software have no interest
in Macs?

I don't like the look and operation of pepakura.
I don't like the idea of installing another program and having to go through
this entire conversion process.
But if I want a particular free model bad enough, then...

To convert a .pdo file to PDF, you need the basic Pepakura viewer to open
the file...and you need a PDF creation program on your system too.
Any program that allows you to "publish" or "print" to PDF.
(I use Acrobat but it costs money)

Once you have both of those installed on your system, you can open a .pdo file in Pepakura
and "print" the file...choosing PDF as your "print option".
This will allow you to produce and save a PDF on your system.
My PDO to PDF video also explains what I just said...
www.youtube.com/user/davescardcreations

...
I also found this video that explains the same thing, converting a pdo to pdf, but the creator uses
CutePDF as the print program. CutePDF is of course, a free program to use...however I personally
have no knowledge of this program. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq3Aw4FmOI8

[imcold]

Well, can anyone recommend an unfolder comparable with Pepakura - if we are at it, we should at least be constructive.

[rockpaperscissor]

Early in my papermodelling "career" I too, as a builder, disliked Pepakura. Nearly all of my Battlemech models are .PDO files. However, from becoming more familiar with the free Pepakura reader, I have really learned to appreciate the program. Many of the 'mech models are bundled with as many as 50 different skins (textures). With Pepakura viewer, the builder is free to change the texture at will, providing huge flexibility. With a .pdf or .jpeg file, you'd be stuck with just one skin. Also with P-viewer, the modeler can rotate the image of the finished model in 3-D to better see how pieces fit together. If some model parts are obscured by others in the 3-D view, you can easily make only the ones you are interested in visible, and then roll them around anyway you want for a better view. If you're not sure how a complicated piece goes together, P-viewer can show you which faces connect together. Don't like those dashed lines? With P-viewer you can lighten them, or even make them disappear altogether at printing. The texture files can be opened with Photoshop, and modified for even more flexibility. I'm sure there are even more capabilities that I haven't uncovered yet. For a free program, I think Pepakura reader is pretty darned good.

[codex34]

.pdo and .pdf have some really bad points.
.pdo - windows only, bloated file size, high proportion of stolen content (not a problem with "fan art", it's the 3D file your redistributing)
.pdf - well unless you have acrobat the output to multi page is basic, always need latest version or you can't view some models.

There really isn't a single format that works, jpg has isues with compression of the image, not many formats include the dpi setting.
This is why there are a few formats, pdf, pdo, jpg, tif that people use to publish their models. Pity .obj isn't used.

There isn't an unfolder outside of CAD software that is comparable to pepakura, except for the mathematica unfold routine, which pepakura was based on.

[airdave]

"Unfolders" are kinda pointless in my opinion...if you design "real school"!
Some might refer to it as "old school", but I prefer the term 'real school"
where you design a part(and model) using imagination, artwork, mathematics and real world part fitting!

I will give credit to a 3D modeler who actually spends hours designing a digital 3D object from scratch
and then uses an "unfolder" to save some time at the end...but thats all.

I think .pdo is only "bloated" because it carries a lot of information as a pdo file, to use in the pepakura program...like 3D reassembly.

PDF is an Adobe creation. So by rights, their programs will probably work the best.
However, over the last few years, many other programs have been created and improved
to better handle, view, and create PDFs.
I've never used it, but I have heard good things about CutePDF.

Older versions of Acrobat are pretty reasonably priced.
Yes, file versions are an important issue
...and as programs improved, newer file versions are required.
But that's inherent to any program...so you can't single out Adobe for that problem.

JPG has issues with compression? Not sure what that means.
JPG is a form of compression.
All image formats are forms of compression. Thats the point behind them.

However Jpegs have an incredible range of compression settings and if you
know how to edit and save a file properly, you can do a ton of things with a jpeg.

[legion]

It might look like my models are game rips, but I rebuild them just to get proper paper model out of it. And the textures I use are best used for single polygons and is the only way I know how to texture. As for unfolding them, Pepakura dos its job well, IF you hold its hands. You can assign cut edges before pressing the unfold button. You can also print to pdf and get a vectored pdf, which can be even more help full to those doing textures more traditionally.

[imcold]

Originally Posted by airdave

"Unfolders" are kinda pointless in my opinion...if you design "real school"!
Some might refer to it as "old school", but I prefer the term 'real school"
where you design a part(and model) using imagination, artwork, mathematics and real world part fitting!

I will give credit to a 3D modeler who actually spends hours designing a digital 3D object from scratch
and then uses an "unfolder" to save some time at the end...but thats all.

I disagree; while it may be useless for you, unfolder is as important part of many other people's development toolchain as any other. It's THE way do transform the model to parts for assembly, not just an unsignificant time-saving tool.
If you think that the only 'real school' way to do a model completely without any help of a 3d modelling package, well, okay; but other ways require imagination, touch of art, testing part fitting etc., too.

[imcold]

Originally Posted by codex34

.pdf - well unless you have acrobat the output to multi page is basic

I don't get this, could you please explain a bit?

[ProjectKITT]

Pepakura is quite good in my opinion. Recently, with a few of my models I started providing PDOs for assembly reference (in place of regular instructions) along with the PDF to print. I have asked a few builders about their opinions and they like being able to view it in 3D; it helps clarify things that are otherwise not easy to see. Pepakura can work in Wine (albeit not flawlessly) and even without a PDF printer like the ones mentioned above, it can export to BMP, PNG, OBJ, etc as well as several vector formats.

Originally Posted by imcold

Well, can anyone recommend an unfolder comparable with Pepakura - if we are at it, we should at least be constructive.

Ultimate Papercraft 3D is a lot like Pepakura. There is also an unfold script for Blender (it doesn't appear to be maintained) and some designers have a way to unfold from Google Sketchup but I'm not familiar with it.

Originally Posted by legion

It might look like my models are game rips, but I rebuild them just to get proper paper model out of it.

I have to agree; even if you use a game rip for a paper model, they were not designed with that purpose in mind and can require a significant amount of modification to be suitable for paper. I've done this before and it isn't easy by any means; I had to completely remake a large portion of the model and ended up reducing the number of polys from 6000 to 2000. It does not take any less skill to do computer-aided designs than by paper and pencil. Just different types of skill. To each his own

[legion]

My models tend to need more polygons than the original to be able to work as a paper model...