headus 3D tools

[Alex]

Hello,

When I save out the flattened geometry or its outline (as .obj or .dxf), the outline of the red square doesn't appear in the exported file. I need this square along with the flattened geometry to make texture images with details placed at the right place in the picture. Is there a parameter to enable this export or is there a way to exactly reconstruct the square in the CAD system after import?

Thanks.

[headus]

The DXF export is mainly for pattern making ... that is, the physical cutting of profiles for manufacture.

If you've want to paint textures, then the OBJ export is the one you want to use, but you may also want to save out a template color map with the "Render" tool. If you do that, you'll have an image with the shell boundaries drawn in it, so then you know where to paint.

Phil

[Alex]

Hello,

Thanks for the quick answer; in fact I am using UV-Layout for an industrial application where the colour map has to be scaled 1/1 and a resolution up to 2540 dpi. The "render" tool is what I have been using till now, but the map it produces needs some resizing work in my case.

I have a solution to produce a colour map template from exported .dxf or .obj curves, and the 1/1 scale is very convenient for me. This is why I was asking how to get the red square in that export format.

Thanks.

[headus]

"but the map it produces needs some resizing work in my case."

What pixel resolution are you wanting to produce? You can enter any resolution into the Render tool's size field ... you don't have to use the "power of 2" arrows if you don't want to. There's probably some maximum limit though (don't know it off the top of my head), that's why I'm asking how high you need it.

Anyway, once rendered, you could use a paintbox to add a pixel or 2 of black border (that would be your red square) and then some more white if you need padding around the outside. In Gimp its easy to add borders to an image, and I'm sure it is in Photoshop too.

Phil

[Alex]

In the Render tool size field I can enter an amount of pixels per side. This amount of pixels is a consequence of resolution (number of pixels per size unit) and size. So if I want to produce a colour map template with a specific size (1/1 scale) and a specific resolution, I need to know the exact size of the red square to calculate the amount of pixels to enter in the Render tool size field. The problem is that I have no way to determine precisely the size of the red square.

Our current way of working is:
- We export (out of UV-Layout) the outline of the shell as .dxf or .obj, we open it in a CAD system and measure the distance between 2 distinctive points on the outline.
- We export (out of UV-Layout) a colour map template of the outline (with an estimation of the correct amount of pixels in the Render tool's size field), open it in GIMP and make the same measurement as in the CAD system.
- In GIMP, we can now resize the colour map with the scale factor given by the 2 measurements, and then set the right pixel resolution.

The problem with this way of working is that it takes some time and in some cases there are no distinctive points on the shell to make precise measurements.

Alex

[headus]

OK, so if you could find out what size the red square is in millimeters, you could do a quick calculation to work out the correct Render output size. Am I understanding that correctly?

Phil

[Alex]

Yes. To be able to calculate the exact amount of pixels, if I want a colour map resolution of 2540 dpi (= 0.01mm per pixel), I need the size of the red square with an accuracy of 0.01mm (equal to the resolution).

Alex

[headus]

I did this quickly to see if its what you're after. If yes, then I'll clean it up and will probably do an update this week sometime.

Phil

[Alex]

Yes, it looks great! Thanks a lot.

Alex.