What's the best way to do a UV map on a prototype car?

I'm looking to do up a new portfolio piece of a fictional prototype car and I'll have to UV map the bodywork to give it a nice paint scheme. I'm going to model it in Solidworks and render it in Keyshot, but neither program has a comprehensive UV mapping solution.

What's the best way to go about doing this? What's the best program(s) to use for UV mapping? Any time-saving tips? Any offers to do the mapping for me? ( )

I'm still a great ways off from getting to that stage (haven't even really begun the design phase yet, let alone the modelling phase) but I don't want to get stuck part way through the process.

Thanks!

why start at solidworks if you are going for a presentation model?

Well Blender is good at modelling, can uv unwrap and what not and of course is open source.

How? well there are some tutorials online. (I gues for example lfs uv unwrap can be done by the option "project from view" can cause problems with intakes (look at the FBM) but I guess that would be the easiest way to do it) Probably depends on what type of car you are going for. Just post some screen shots of the car? (best would be with wireframes).

(Not pro on it eighter:shy

the easiest way is using planar mapping from the top, the front, the back and the sides or you can unwrap the modell manualy, but unwrap needs a bit of skill and patience

here is a tutorial for the first one, it is for max, but i'm sure you can use it for solidworks

I have no idea how to do it in SolidWorks, but in 3ds Max, there's something called "Unwrap UVW" modifier in the modifications list. There are plenty of tutorials on how to do that on YouTube.

Now that I think about it, you could export it from Solidworks to 3ds Max in some format that both of the programs can read, do the mapping there and then render it in Keyshot.


E: the previous post is about the same thing, oops

Quote from JJ72 :

why start at solidworks if you are going for a presentation model?

Because it's the only modelling software I can remember how to use now
I've been using it for about 7 years now, become quite proficient in it, too. I never really did much with 3DS and the only other modelling I ever got used to was Zmodeller, years and years ago. I know the modelling would be easier in another (read, non-Solid CAD) program but it's what I know and I don't have the time to learn a whole new modelling software unfortunately. Hell, I don't really even have time for this project as it is! :P

Quote from hp999 :

I have no idea how to do it in SolidWorks, but in 3ds Max, there's something called "Unwrap UVW" modifier in the modifications list. There are plenty of tutorials on how to do that on YouTube.

Solidworks has no UV mapping at all, which is why I'm looking for another program to do it in. I guess that's the downside to a CAD package.

Quote :

Now that I think about it, you could export it from Solidworks to 3ds Max in some format that both of the programs can read, do the mapping there and then render it in Keyshot.

That's the plan right now, I think. There's a variety of formats I can use to cross between the programs; one source recommended STL for this kind of transfer as you can directly influence the fidelity of the mesh whereas with some other formats you can't (like IGES, for instance, I don't think you can increase the mesh resolution on when importing into 3DS IIRC).

Thanks for the input guys. I'll have a look through those tutorials. It'll be months before I ever hope to get to the UV stage, but I'll get there... one day...