Beginner Question: Blender unfolding

[Taulmarill]

So, I'm pretty new to papercrafting, but since i've build a few of the easier models, i'd reckon i try designing something myself. Since i am a fan of the concept of open source, my idea is, that i mainly use Blender for both modeling and unfolding. Sadly the unfolding-script works only on very simple models for me. As soon as the meshes start getting complicated it fails. I've tried including seams but the unfolding script seems to ignore them.

As I'm unsure if all this is a result of lacking skills on my part or if the software is just not up to the task, i'd like to know if someone here has experience with unfolding in Blender or can recommend alternative software (I'm aware of pepakura, but want to try to find an open source solution first).

[ssmeier]

Flatpack / Papercraft, Bringing your sketches to life
http://www.stencilrevolution.com/for...howtopic=29024
gaki - Feb 25 2009, 02:20 PM Post #1 From: Melbourne
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Creating paper models
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=101194
emu - 20-Jul-07, 10:26
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-Steve

[Taulmarill]

Thanks. Those tutorials look most helpful.

[maurice]

Might I suggest you visit
Bürodienstleistung Holzinger
leading to
Bürodienstleistung Holzinger
and follow all the links.
W. Holzinger has been active in working out how to use open source in the way you seem to be interested. You might find the German language difficult but there are many pictures. Wolfgang has posted here once as "woody". is fluent in English and has been very willing to help in the past.


edit

Just checked and I see that you may in fact have little difficulty with the German language.

[Taulmarill]

Thanks a lot maurice. Looks like thats exactly what i was looking for. And since i'm fron Germany, the german shouldn't be a problem

[woody]

Hello Taulmarill

sorry that it took me so long to read your posting. If you have any question regarding the process I use to build card models using open source software then please feel free to contact me. I would be pleased to help you if I can.

@maurice
thank you very much for you kind words!

Best regards, Wolfgang (aka woody)

[PixelOz]

I'm aware that the post is very old but I found it by casual browsing and just in case you are still interested I wrote a free e-book on this subject of designing paper models with Blender 2.49b and it gives a lot of info of the limitations of the Unfold script and what to do about it and it also talks about another script that works great too in more complex models.

If you really want to have more information about all those issues that you are having I suggest that you read it.

Here is the post in this forum (right here in PaperModelers) about the e-book (it's in PDf form) and how to download it:

New Free E-Book About Paper Model Design With Blender 3D

There is a section of the book that talk about some problems that the Unfold script have with the somewhat invisible triangles that quads have and I think that if you read this section carefully you will get a much better understanding of why you are having troubles with this script in this respect (Pages 84 - 98 in a section titled: "A Common Misunderstanding About Quads And Triangles".)

Also the other free script (the B-Paperizer script that is included in the zip file with the e-book) that was written by another talented programmer (Czestmyr) has far less issues in dealing with this but if you truly want to get a better understanding of the subject in whole I suggest that you read the entire book, you may find quite a few important datums about this art form that have a tendency to confuse beginners and sometimes even experienced designers as well.

Read the e-book and you will understand what I mean. There is much more than it seems to understand about paper modeling and how to do it right. There is more that you think at first but once you learn all these important fundamentals it is much smoother sailing.

For example, there is the principle of making the models high polygons in only one of the directions of a compound curve which in my opinion is one of the most important fundamentals to understand in paper model design and yet it is too often overlooked or unknown altogether by many designers cause you can notice it in many paper models designs out there and also because it is seldom mentioned (if ever) in any of the paper model designs forums (and I read a lot in many of them).

To be more honest I don't remember anybody ever mention this principle at all before and yet by looking at the designs done by pro paper model designers you can tell that they eventually learned this so I explained this particular thing thoroughly in this e-book in an attempt to clear this for beginners or anybody else.

I hope that this helps you or anybody else trying to learn paper model design.

My direct link to my all my free things (including of course the free e-book) in Deviantart:

PixelOz on deviantART

Click the Browse Gallery button and you can see everything there including the other higher res version of the e-book.

The e-book files in Mediafire:

Free File Hosting Made Simple - MediaFire

[Zathros]

Oooooooooops