This tutorial demonstrates the concepts of unfolding an object described in the unfold polys tutorial.
Create a box object in MAX. Right click on it and select 'Convert To Editable Mesh' (may be in a different place in MAX 2.5)
| Note: The arrow and side numbers are purely to aid orientation. |
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A |
| Select the box, then on the right-hand side of MAX, in the 'Modify' rollout choose 'Sub-Object Polygon' |
B |
| Select a side or poly to be detached, in this case side #2. Note here I've turned on 'Shade Selected Faces' in my viewport configuration so that you can see the selected poly easier.
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C |
| Click the 'Detach' button lower down on the 'Editable Mesh' rollout. Click 'OK' to the new object name dialog.
You have now detached side #2 and should have two objects in your scene.
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D |
| Select the box and repeat the
process for the top poly, #3.
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E |
| Rotate the scene and detach side #4. You should now have 4 objects in your scene; the original box with 3 sides missing plus those three detached sides.
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F |
| Now we want to re-attach the 3 three detached sides. Select the box then click the 'Attach' button then select the remaining 3 separate objects one at a time.
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G |
| When you've attached all three polys to the box, de-select the 'Attach' button. You should now have one object only in your scene.
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H |
| Select the box and choose 'Sub-Object Vertex' in the right-hand rollout. You should see the vertices as blue dots in each corner of the box. Note that although there may seem to be only one vertex at each corner, in actual fact there will be more than one, they are just in exactly the same position. See the unfold polys tutorial if necessary for a better understanding of how many vertices and where.
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I |
| Select all the vertices at each corner of poly 1.
On the right-hand panel watch the '# vertices selected' text to ensure that you select all the vertices at each corner. You should end up with 10 vertices selected, 2 bottom left, 2 bottom right, 3 top left and 3 top right.
| Note: The easiest way is to turn off the 'Ignore Backfacing' checkbox' and rotate the box so that you can drag a selection rectangle around all the required vertices. |
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J |
Now either use the 'Weld Selected' button on MAX's right-hand rollout or
click  on ChilliSkinner.
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K |
Come out of 'Sub-Object Vertex' level and click
 on ChilliSkinner.
If all went well you should see the flattened box in the Top viewport. If ChilliSkinner reports 'Unable to unfold' you need to go back and check if you missed some vertices whilst welding.
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L |
| You ask: 'OK so it works well on simple objects like boxes... Is it useful for real models?'
Chilli says 'Yep! sure is!, check out some examples of 'Unfold Polys' on actual game models here and in the Gallery.
If you think this tutorial could be better or you spot a mistake please drop me a quick email with your comments.
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