Wrap images around a cup

In SW 2005 the only way to achieve this would be using a decal in PhotoWorks. SW 2006 will support decals on curved surfaces in models.

Giorgis wrote:

unwrap

George,

This is an interesting request, but I don't know of any CAD tool that can do what you want. First, CAD tools that can wrap and unwrap text or an image tend to eliminate the distortion during the unwrap process. In other words, the result will be identical to the original image. This is because the unwrap is a reversal of the wrap operation. Furthermore, to produce the result you want would require detailed knowledge of the printing process being used. The result may vary between printing processes. I'm also curious if reviewing the unwrapped image would be very informative. Don't you want to characterize the distortion of the resulting image on the curved surface as compared to the ideal/perfect wrapped image? Since an unwrapped version will never exist on your part, what do you wish to learn?

I realize I'm not offering any particularly useful input, but I am interested in this problem and how you proceed with solving it.

"anamorphosis" is the process that you describe. How you achieve this, I don't know.

HIH JM

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This isn't going to be much help for you, but I did look into this sometime ago. I searched on "distortion printing" and came up with a few places that do this. in particular, I was looking at printing images on plastic that would then be vacu-formed into shape. The printing had to be pre-distorted such that it was correct on part. There is software that will do this for you. It may be possible to do this with a polygon mesh of your part (this is UV in the 3D mesh world. You "flatten" your model, apply the image, then reassemble back into your original model). Sorry couldn't be more help...

MT

I don't know about Solidworks, but check out Rhino. I believe it can do this kind of stuff.

Manny

as general ideas....

One way of estimating your distortion would be to project a regular grid of split lines onto the surface and measure the approx varied distances on the surface and then use these as a guide to stretch the image appropriately in dices- probably give you a near enough map although slightly lumpy and I guess dependant on the dpi of the image for resizing the bits accurately. Having made a warp pattern this way you would need to make a new image in a dwg program with clean line work.

another possibility - probably too off beat for most folks Blender(free)

is capable of mapping to surfaces like this but for a newbie it takes a bit to find your way around the program.... You would need to export your model as VRML to Blender with high SW image quality and unwrap your mesh for a UV map. really this is intended for rendering purposes but you should be able to get a good idea of the shape reqd. I guess it depends on how complex the 3d shape and the image are as to the quality of the result- you might end up messing around in Photoshop or Gimp quite a lot. this video tut (46mb) might help you decide if that could be worthwhile pursuit however in your case the shape is probably much less rounded.

maybe this helps some

The reason I need this is that we make foam cups. So our customer has given us some art work. On the other hand, we will outsource the making of the foam cup to a company that can print to the cup. This company has supplied us with a sector shape template. This sector when wrapped around a cup will meet square at the ends.

Now how do I map a flat logo that will go around the cup, I am not sure.

Now that I think of it, what if I get a font editor and put the logo in a font.

The reason I wonder about using all those image pakages, I am sure they fake it. They only need to fool the eye. On the other hand if I am off by 1mm, it will show on a cup.

I will keep trying, I think the Rhino option may be the only way to go.

Kind thanks for your help G