There was a previous thread about UV mapping programs.
(Mainly UV mapper Pro and Ultimate Unwrap 3d)

I have both these programs and have used both extensively.

UV mapper pro is better for basic Poser stuff...its stretching and unwrapping of edges is great and so on...also if you are working from Poser you dont have to re scale the tiny Poser size model.(all other apps use a much larger obj scale...so Ultimate Unwrap requires this...re scaling the obj is no problem though, and you need to do this to see the model in realtime in the 3d window)

However overall Ultimate unwrap 3d is a much much more powerful program......you can subdivide any part of the model with out destroying the UVs (very usefull), you can pan the cAMERA around the 3d model in real time and point it at vertices and UV map them in real time in 2d (AWESOME FEATURE),
also you can grab a line of vertices and straighten them vertically or horizontally in one stroke (doing this on UV mapper Pro is a point by point PAIN IN THE REAR!!! and slow as hell!!
I would get both...they dont do the same job, rather they do different areas in a way.
So to sum up...for basic Poser work...UV MAPPER PRO
For just about everything else ULTIMATE UNWRAP
However to be honest Ultimate Unwrap is like a version 3 of UV Mapper pro...its quite a long way ahead.
Cheers
Harvey Mann

Thanks Harvey..and thanks for the reply in the other thread as well... V3 of UVMapper Pro has been in the works for a bit...wonder how that will be...what enhancements. I can't afford both right now, but would like to do Poser stuff...such as clothes, character models, etc...but also other objects....I'm a rookie, so it makes it hard not knowing which to get... I've used the UVmapper classic/free just to learn about it..so the next step is a bit vague to me... Its all vague to me...mapping, modeling, Poser , etc :)

If it hadn't been for Steve Cox's house fire, UV mapper pro 3 would be here by now. The feature list is very similar to Ultimate Unwrap, including subdivision, real time mapping manipulation, relaxation etc. Those of us who only have UVM pro will just have to wait until Steve gets all of the fire stuff sorted out.

Real bummer on the fire...wow... is all ok ????

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

Yeah, everybody got out OK. It happened during that blackout in New York back in August. Sounds like they lost the whole house, but Steve said that his computer and all of his source code were OK because they were in the room farthest from the fire. Apparently UVM 3 is 98% finished and has been since just before the fire. He says he wants to get back to it as soon as they have all of the stuff sorted out that you have to sort out when your house burns down and you lose almost everything you own. You can read what Steve said about it in the forum at his site. There's a thread showing some of the features of UVM pro 3 as well.

I saw a tutorial the other day concerning MAYA. It went into detail where the program can actually automatically separate a model by the direction a polygon faces. Using MEL script language. So what happens is: You get a self generating map of a models front, back, and sides. That sounded really cool. And I'd love to be able to try it. Too bad it's a MAYA MEL script thing. -ScottA

Hmmm About UV Mapper pro version 3 ...sounds interesting! One thing Steve could do is add the ability to add polylines point to point manually on the mesh without destroying the UVs. Ultimate does this in subdivide...but you cant just add a polyline ...if the next version of UV mapper could do this it would be amazing!!! and very very usefull. Cheers Harvey

I agree that would be a useful feature. I saw somebody ask for it on the forum and Steve said he didn't want to get too much into things that properly belong in a modelling application but that he would consider it as a low priority for a later update. I'm sure that like anybody, he responds to what customers ask for, so if a few of us ask for it in the forum that will probably push the priority up.

Thanks for the thoughts/comparrisons Harvey. I had been wanting to purchase UVM Pro for quite a while now, but still haven't due to not being able to use PayPal to purchase it (I buy all my 3D toys with PayPal or in-store credit). If Steve would broker it here or 3DC or somewhere (even at a slightly higher price), I'm sure the added exposure would more than make up for the loss of proffit. I just purchased Ultimate Unwrap3D a week or two ago and it does indeed seem powerfull. I'm looking forward to improvements in the new 'relax UVs' feature. When I registered the program, he sent a note along saying: "Just FYI, I am planning to release Unwrap3D v2.15 sometime before Dec. 20, so you might want to check back soon." ..hmm I guess I should go look - it may already be out.