3ds Max or Maya - UV on Complex tubing - UV along a path

mawilbolou

Hi guys

Dont know if this is possible, but ti would help me alot if it is..

I have a bunch of objects to unwrap, objects such as chairs that have varied amounts of complicated bendy tubes.
What is the easiest way to unwrap them so the result is a straight row of UV's? 
I would have thought creating a shape path and trying to generate auto UV's might work but I havent tried that yet.
Just thought I would enquire before going any further.

Examples here:
http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/05/BRIC-Recycled-Pipe-Chair-Lead1.jpg
https://a.1stdibscdn.com/archivesE/upload/9137/50_13/cpnew1/cpnew1_l.jpg

Cheers for any help 
M

musashidan

Max's unfold from strip will do it. I'm sure Maya has a similar feature. 

throttlekitty

It's not as straightforward in Maya, but still simple:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dahgVetfUZg

gandhics

in 3ds Max, try "Straighten Selection"

Synaesthesia

The tool needed here in Max is called Unfold Strip from Loop, accessible from edge mode in the Unwrap UVW editor.

mawilbolou

Thats awesome guys, thankyou very much.
Worked perfectly using the Unfold Strip method