Sorry for the slow response, garblesnix. One way to get the alpha/trans map to fit would be to have the image share the proportions of the support sides (I'm assuming your support has the same width on each side) and use a cubic projection. The example above was done in C4D but it should adapt to Amapi.

The way that I approached this in Wings was to UV map the support. That gave me a template to use so I knew exactly where the edges of the supports were when it came to adding the line of holes and the model contains the information about how to apply the image. That way there would be no distortion when the alpha/trans map was applied and I could use the template as the base for a texture/colour/diffuse map where I could have rust wrapping around the edges of the support or something similar.

I really like SHONNER's NURBS solution and if Amapi can produce similar results I'd definitely look into it - if not for this project then for the future.

Alpha/Trans maps can provide a quick and easy solution but aren't suitable for all situations. For mid-distance/background work they'll usually work OK but even then their effectiveness will diminish as the size of the finished image increases. Still a useful shortcut though.

swishy