Can you send me the model? I might be able to help... Steve stevecox@optonline.net

For anyone who's interested, I think this was related to the length of the prop name in Poser. It seems that there's a problem in Poser with names longer than 28 characters (the one in questions had a 30 character name.) Keeping the name to 28 characters or less fixed it. Has anyone else seen this problem? Steve

the3dwizard - I like the idea for a mailing list and have added it to my to-do list. Thanks. michalki - No worries =) And you were right about my thinking being Windows-centric... (which I'm working on improving) Actually, another reason I got the iBook was so I could use the cool software that was only available for the Mac, so I appreciate your concerns. It's great to know there's a strong interest in the Mac version, which I have high hopes for. Steve

michalki - I've been working hard recently to get the Mac verison of UVMapper caught up with the Windows version. But being a Windows programmer I naturally develop for that platform first. I suppose I should have just said pop-up or context sensative menu (doesn't the Mac use click and hold to bring up a pop-up menu?) But I am committed to the Mac. I bought myself an iBook just so I could work on this project. Even though it may not be first, please understand that the Mac version is very important to me. Steve

Thanks for the kind words everybody, I really appreciate them =) I just added shift-drag to add to the current selection, control-drag to subtract from it, and have started working on the lasso tool. Finally, I plan on adding a right-click to bring up a popup menu so you can select from material/group/region under where you click, a single facet, or every facet connected to the one you clicked on. It should make selecting things much easier! Steve

the3dwizard: Sorry 'bout that =) Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I plan on keeping the current UVMapper free for those who don't need the Pro version, which I'll be charging for (I promise to try and keep it inexpensive.) CharlieBrown: You're right, it's not a function of the UV coordinates. I've been adding some functionality to the Pro version that goes beyond just texture mapping. I've also added a smoothing feature like the one in Bryce for renderers that support facet normals. Poser doesn't so I came up with this alternative. JAFO: You're welcome =) I hope to have it available before long. I'm working on an update for my website with information on UVMapper Pro (features, estimated timeline, etc.) and hope to have it up in a few weeks. Steve

Attached Link: http://home.pb.net/~stevecox/boxtut.htm

Michalki - Something to remember is that a photograph is itself simply a planar projection. Even if you flatten out the facets of the model on the texture map, a single photograph would not be able to take advantage of that. To get the best results, photograph the source from the same direction that you plan to use when rendering the model. Then do a planar projection on the model from the same angle, apply the photograph and render. To get better results from several angles, you can take photographs from 6 directions (front, back, left, right, top and bottom, or 4 sides if you don't care about top/bottom) use box mapping on the model, drop the photographs onto the texture map template and render (the attached link is for a tutorial where I use this technique to model a box, admittedly a best case scenario =) Lastly, you can use the "select by vertex" feature of UVMapper to select and move individual vertices to get the layout exactly how you want it. While this can be tedious, and you'll need to fill in the "spread" facets by hand, the results can be spectacular. Hope this helps, Steve

Attached Link: http://www.uvmapper.com

Please take a look at my site, I've got several tutorials there. You can find it at either: http://home.pb.net/~stevecox http://www.uvmapper.com If you have specific questions after looking them over, let me know and I'll do what I can to help. good luck, Steve

I grabbed the skateboard from 3D Cafe, converted it to wavefront (obj) using 3D Exploration (v.1.2.54) loaded it into UVMapper and created the following map. This is just a quick job, there's much more that can be done... Steve

The skateboard from Zygote (texture template pictured above) was done by Robert E. Whisenant who uses UVMapper to do his mapping =) You can see the entire template here: http://store.zygote.com/PoserTemplates/access/skateboardT.jpg I'm really interested in seeing any model that causes a problem with UVMapper. Could you send it to me at stevecox@optonline.net What did you use to convert the .3ds file to .obj? Also, do you have the latest version of UVMapper? You can get it here: http://www.uvmapper.com Thanks.

James - I noticed you used UVMapper to texture map the box (thanks for the mention in the readme =) but was wondering what you used to model it. UVMapper only generates boxes with six facets, this one has many (very nice if you need to deform it!) Thanks, Steve

Thanks for the info, Doozy. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has seen this with the Mac version. As for assigning groups and materials, it's one of the next things on the "to do" list.

Thanks James =) Doozy, what was memory allocation before and after the problem? Thanks.

Jim, Marque, duesentrieb and bloodsong - thanks, I appreciate it =) Davo - I'm planning on adding the ability to hold the shift key when dragging a corner of the seleciton to preserve the aspect ratio. At the moment, you can sort of do this with the keypad +/- keys (and shift +/-) These will resize the selection while preserving the aspect ratio. Also, have a look at the hotkeys (Help->Hot keys) to see the other scaling options.

Thanks MARK =) Peter - I haven't actually formalized the list yet... at the moment, it's more like a collection of notes to myself written on napkins and other stuff =P How about I tally up the list, post it here (maybe in a new thread) and ask for the features others would like to see as a wish list. Sound good?