UV texturing - complex objects

[omnigon]

Hi all.
I use maya as a tool to texture and fine-tune my 3d models that are done in a software called ARC+.
Then I render it with Maxwell.
I have a question about texturing a complex obejct - let's take for example, a winding sidewalk - since I use polygonal objects, all UV methods (planar, auto etc.) are not good since I want to adjust the tiles to the curves of the sidewalk. Is there a way to do this easy without editing a huge UV map, pulling and pushing every bit of the texture to the object?
thanx ! 

[sha-zaf]

/users/choochee/forums
hi choochee

if i m getting it right you want to texture a sidewald bay be of stone or brick, there can be 2 ways for texturing environments,

1. UV based which u r already using and the second one can be

2. Texture based that is put the texture on the object and arrange uvs accordingly this is cold be fast rather very fast as u will have to tweek texture accorking to the texture of visibility of the surface.

hope this helps you

 

[omnigon]

thanx.
however I want to know if theres a different way other than tweaking the texture in the uv editor, since when you have winding sidewalk or road with white lines on it, it's time consuming to adjust it... thought of a plugin or MEL that takes a simple tile and knows how to project it repeatedly on the complex object. 

[crashcreative]

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to tell software how you want texture and geometry to relate, except for simple procedural shapes that are already easy enough to UV map. That said, I remember seeing a Maya script a while back that projected UVs from a simpler NURBS wrapper shape - you might want to search this site.
It's sometimes easier to reverse the workflow and tweak the geometry to make UV mapping easier - in the case of your winding road, straighten it out and then apply a planar map. Then either transfer mapping or use the original as a morph target.
Good hunting!

[omnigon]

thanx, you gave me an idea...
since I model outside MAYA and thus have to create new V projections, I can just re-model the simple stuff (like road, pavement etc.) again in MAYA as I have to corretct 3d reference, but to do it as simple atraight plains - and then adjust it to the CAD 3d model ! a bit of work but I'm gonna try.