Okay, I asked this elsewhere and people seemed not to understand the question. Hopefully, I'll do better here. I have some models that started out as obj files. They had UV maps, but they were empty. I just don't have the skill to paint UV maps yet. So I brought them into carrara as objs divided by groups so I had several different shading domains to work with. These came into Carrara as different objects, children under the master object as normal. I textured them. They look great. But when I try to export the OBJ file for use in other programs, it doesn't translate. The textures do not fit over the model correctly, lose lots of detail and are often just grayish colored squares. When I go into the modeler area and go to the UV map editor, the UV map for each object is blank except for the vertex points and the grid. No texture, even though a texture has been applied. I know there's a program called Baker, which bakes or skins carrara's procedural shaders on an obj file into one texture map for use with other programs. That's what I want to do, but I'd really like to be able to do it myself. The program's kinda overpriced. So, how do I transform textures on a grouped object ,created in carrara's shader room, into a single uv map for use with other programs?

(see images below)

It is my understanding that this can only be done with a plug-in utility.  "Baker" by inagoni (inagoni.com) is one such plug-in ($35). I have not used it myself but you can probably find some references to it in the forum history.

The problem is even if you turn on the texture view, you will see the mesh anyway, so if you take a print screen you will end with the texture (lowresolution in the view) and the mesh.
If you dont have the money for Baker you can try to win one of the prizes from our contest... Inagoni is one of the donors for prizes:

http://carraralounge.com/index.php?topic=158.0

Follow me at euQfiz Digital

"Baker" seems to be my only recourse, unless someone has some bit of arcane wisdom that can help...

Thanks for the info on carrara lounge. I'm waiting for my confirmation e-mail as I post this. I'll look into that contest.

 Hi Darklorddc,

Everything seems to be working  ok here when I try. On export, do you change the export option to "Convert Procedural to Texture Map" and then set a resolution?

I've had the best results using .tif as an export format. 

Mark

When I try, even as a .tif, many of the textures are just colored squares, or they won't rewrap correctly in other programs. Many just don't seem to export at all. Additionally, it asks me to name each one, and there are sometimes over 100 of them.

 Not all procedurals will convert to texture maps perfectly since they're mathematically based - there is a reason that texture painting is worth while ;-) . I haven't tried Baker so I can't tell you if that solution is a better option than Carrara's native export. 

If you take time  to name the shading domains, those texture names should export automatically - at least they do on my rig.

The naming issue is really (believe it or not) a good thing for yourself or other users of the model once opened in .obj format. If the texture names are all the same, except for a number, tracking down and changing a texture can be a huge pain for the user. On a couple of assignments where I needed to use purchased models, I could  have killed the author because the textures we only numbers so tracking them down and  modifying them was a time  killer.  

So, if you're going to be selling your creations, the easier you can make it on your customers will pay of in continued sales. ;-)

So, if I name each shading domain, the textures won't be called "default_material" any more, and would instead be named for part they are placed on?

I'll give that a try and see what happens.

 That's correct. :D

name each material (shading domain) and make sure all polygons are covered by a single shader.  there may be unmapped areas (unassigned polygons) in the exported wavefront.obj.

 "a universal way to turn procedural textures into texture maps is to apply the procedural texture to a flat surface, and make a rendering of the surface. The rendered texture can then be applied as a map on different objects.... another reason to convert procedural textures into bitmaps is to move textured models between different programs."  from "Digital Lighting and Rendering" y Jeremy Birn, p. 327.

If you have many procedural textures to deal with, this may not be practical. Still, no one mentioned it and it seems like a good thing to know.