Ok, at first I didn’t get what you said, but I tried it out.
It works great, so now I know how to export the simplified model with the original textures on top…
However, what I was asking was: How can I view the simplified model in 3D view in Blender, so that I can see how it looks in 3D before deciding to create it? Is it possible?
And anyways, could you post the 50-minute long video, if it’s not too much work? I would still love to see it! 
Here is a screencast of me making a tiger paper model. As the basis, I used a textured model by Pikadude, and the resulting blend file and PDF are linked in my previous post.
Open the video in new tab to see timing of the whole process.
Wait! Don’t leave.
I really appreciate the video, but could you please answer my questions above? I have to go to sleep very soon and would like to see the responses today.
Umm… kind of, yes. You can preview view the net in the UV editor if you enable Save UV Layout in the Unfold operator. That is also shown in the video at 41:15.
If you want to view the model textured, you’d have to bake the texture by hand. You can use Render baking for that.
EDIT: Once the texture is baked, you can just export the textures using the From Materials option, and it will also be much faster. If you wish, you can edit the texture by hand any way you like, or add another texture over it, draw shapes, whatever you like. What you see when you render the model will be seen in the paper texture.
Aha. Some more questions while you’re still on:
That’s all the questions for now; Thanks so much for the help!
Sure. You can mark seams (as shown in the video) to split the islands at custom positions. If you want to do this automatically, set a fixed scale in the left panel and enable Limit Island Size.
If you bake the texture manually to the simplified model, you can then edit it using Texture Paint mode. Or maybe if you edit the simplified model slightly, these spots will disappear.
If you bake the texture manually, yes. In the tutorial, I’ll also show how to do that.
Hey! I’m back! (although you might not appreciate it, lol)
I was working on a project for the whole month and didn’t have time to work on the papercraft.
So today, I decided to make the Tony model, just so that I could see which bits were wrong or weird, so that I could fix it.
However, when I looked at the template, it turned out that it has many sections where the tabs overlap with eachother or the textures, to the point where some tabs were directly covering up textures and making it physically impossible to create in real life.
(See photo; I got all the bits where the tabs overlap)
I can sort of fix this by converting the PDF to JPEG (or another format) and editing it in paint, but if it was a complex project with detailed textures, this would be a problem. Do you have any idea what’s causing this, and how it can be prevented? Thanks as always!
(By the way, how’s the tutorial going? Are you still working on it?)
Is it ready the version for 2.80?
Now the development version is ready for Blender 2.8. Get it from the blender28 branch on Github.
I believe all functionality has been ported correctly. There may be only some issues with baking textures – obviously, only Cycles can be used now. I did some tests but I’d be glad if any of you tell me about your experience with textured paper models.
I’m sorry the update took me this long. I needed some time to concentrate on my other projects.
Thanks for the info and for the update!!
I installed the add-on on macOS 10.13.6 & Blender 2.80.53 and it works but there are some problems with textures baking. For testing I created a new file in Blender 2.79, I used Suzanne mesh and its default MapUV, I unfolded it with the add-on (to generate the islands) and I saved the Blender 2.79 file then I oponed this file with Blender 2.80, I did that to compare the results between 2.79 and 2.80.
A) PDF format, Create UVMap off and Cycles
1. With the “Export Paper Model > Textures > From Materials” option, it appears the saved document message in the Info-bar (but the file was not saved) and an Error Report popup with this text:
Error: Bake pass requires Direct, Indirect, or Color contributions to be enabled
2. With the “Export Paper Model > Textures > Full Render” option, the file is generated, the unfolded mesh (generated by the add-on) appears correctly rendered but the original UV Map also appears rendered and overlaid, see the attached image.
3. With the “Export Paper Model > Textures > Ambient Occlusion” option, it happens the same like previous, overlapping.
B) SVG format, Create UVMap off and Cycles
It happens the same as with the pdf format.
I’m not expert in Blender so I do not know what are the correct settings to fix these issues.
REQUESTS:
Thanks in advance for your time and effort!!
Thank you for the testing, Oxer. It seems textured export is completely broken. I’ll look into it tomorrow.
Ok, I’ll continue testing.
It’s very exciting to see this is being updated for 2.8 - a wonderful tool.
I was able to export a simple model to paper mesh. When I subdivide and apply modifier so it has more triangles (7500 tris, 3700 verts) I get this error message:
Exception ignored in: <function Unfolder.__del__ at 0x7f53ec9639d8>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "~/blender-2.80-1ae6aaad43ad-linux-glibc224-x86_64/2.80/scripts/addons/io_export_paper_model_28.py", line 201, in __del__
if not self.do_create_uvmap:
AttributeError: 'Unfolder' object has no attribute 'do_create_uvmap'
Exception ignored in: <function Unfolder.__del__ at 0x7f53ec9639d8>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "~/blender-2.80-1ae6aaad43ad-linux-glibc224-x86_64/2.80/scripts/addons/io_export_paper_model_28.py", line 202, in __del__
self.mesh.delete_uvmap()
File "~/blender-2.80-1ae6aaad43ad-linux-glibc224-x86_64/2.80/scripts/addons/io_export_paper_model_28.py", line 309, in delete_uvmap
self.data.loops.layers.uv.remove(self.looptex) if self.looptex else None
ReferenceError: BMesh data of type BMesh has been removed
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "~/blender-2.80-1ae6aaad43ad-linux-glibc224-x86_64/2.80/scripts/addons/io_export_paper_model_28.py", line 2075, in invoke
self.unfolder.prepare(cage_size, scale=sce.unit_settings.scale_length/self.scale)
File "~/blender-2.80-1ae6aaad43ad-linux-glibc224-x86_64/2.80/scripts/addons/io_export_paper_model_28.py", line 206, in prepare
self.mesh.generate_cuts(cage_size / scale if cage_size else None, priority_effect)
File "~/blender-2.80-1ae6aaad43ad-linux-glibc224-x86_64/2.80/scripts/addons/io_export_paper_model_28.py", line 364, in generate_cuts
old_island = join(edge_a, edge_b, size_limit=page_size)
File "~/blender-2.80-1ae6aaad43ad-linux-glibc224-x86_64/2.80/scripts/addons/io_export_paper_model_28.py", line 1041, in join
uvedge.va = phantoms.get(uvedge.va, uvedge.va)
AttributeError: 'BMLoop' object has no attribute 'va'
I know this tool is designed for “Paper Model” but I’m really interested in using it for other materials like sheet metal. The scale is much larger than an A4 sheet of paper but the concept is the same and it can be CNC or laser or plasma cut.
I looked at the source code - 2500 lines pretty impressive piece of code. I noticed in the header one of the comment says:
“During the unfold process, the mesh is mirrored into a 2D structure: UVFace, UVEdge, UVVertex.”
How difficult would it be to have an “unwrap” option that instead of exporting a PDF or SVG file it just unwraps the 3D mesh into a 2D mesh (maybe mirrored version so not destructive)?
Almost all the CNC and laser cutting machine software accepts DXF files and being able to arrange the plates to minimize material waste (nesting) is done before sending the file to be cut.
Suggesting to add DXF export support isn’t really necessary because blender can export DXF files (extension included with blender).
The process might be something like this:
Unwrap 3D mesh into 2D mesh (without tabs or numbers) into new 2D unwrapped object (copy of original mesh)
User could manually separate some of the 2D faces in as needed into separate objects that can be manually rearranged (rotate and move from top view) as needed to “nest” the plates so they fit onto a standard size of material for example 4 foot X 8 foot sheet (1220mmx2440mm in metric is a standard sheet size for plywood)
the end result (after manual nesting) might look something like this:
Hi,
use the Unfold operator. It can save the UV layout, and you can then pack these nets by hand and export them as a vector image.
I have a plan that the script could export the CNC drawing along with the PDF – but in fact, I have quite too many plans and this one is rather difficult. So please, try if the manual export fits your needs.
try to export your sheet metal using the unwrapped mesh with uvmap and take a side as reference to scale up in a CAD program
Try to export your sheet metal, using the unwrapped mesh with uvmap and take a side as reference to scale up in a CAD program. It’s works well.
Have you had any luck with fixing the textures and materials for export in 2.80?
I did some fixing recently. Bake should certainly work for PDF, and also probably for SVG. It’s in the blender28 branch.
