Help with unwrapping a curved object (pipe)

I’ve been searching for an answer for how to unwrap curved objects (pipes specifically) in blender so that you have a flat uv island? Youtube throws out tones on how to do it in maya but nothing about it in blender.

If I unwrap this ring with a cap on either side and a seam straight dow, the uv island is really pinched on one side. Ive tried straightening out the mesh using the “follow active quads” but that doesnt seem to help as my quads are not of a uniform size.

I’ve also tried to use the downloadable addons “Quad Unwrap” & “UV Squares” to snap the mesh to the axis but that creates alot of stretching and colour change when I look at the heat map of stretches. I found another addon called “Tube UV Unwrap” by Jakub Uhlik, but after installing it into blender, I cant click the link in edit mode at all… Any help?

fggf - Copy.blend (1.68 MB)


Attachments


Hi Obloquy,

Check the file I’ve attached. What I did:

  • deleted cap surfaces;
  • reseamed your model (your seam wasn’t passing through the bevels);
  • installed UV Squares addon;
  • and played with the options available in that addon.


fggf_edited.blend (1.68 MB)

Many thanks for the help Nazarii. I had tried the same method you did which gave me a straight uv island using the squares add on but look at the heat map the colours aren’t blue but green and therefore would be stretched :frowning: thanks for trying though


follow active quads works just fine

You are better off fixing the problem at the source instead of forcing the UV to look a certain way.
The problem is that the edge rings are skewed so the quads will never conform.

Thanks very much Jay12 and iceythe for taking the time to help! Iceythe that worked a treat! Thanks again!