How Do You Make A Pepakura File?
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Malechei
Active Member
Well, you start by drawing up a 3D model using one of the many modeling programs available. There are even a few available for free. Then, using Pepakura designer, you unfold the model and add tabs and fold lines to it so that it can be reconstructed from paper.
If any of that is above your head, you could also check to see if the file you want has already been requested in the Pepakura Requests thread, and if not, you can post there to ask one of our very talented modelers to pop one out for you.
Cheers, and good luck.
Mal
If any of that is above your head, you could also check to see if the file you want has already been requested in the Pepakura Requests thread, and if not, you can post there to ask one of our very talented modelers to pop one out for you.
Cheers, and good luck.
Mal
dung0beetle
Well-Known Member
Most 3d models need to be cleaned up or altered for pepakura since many are built up from primitive shapes squished together. Many times, the primitive shapes intersect with each other and must be edited so you can have a hollow object to work with. Start with low-poly models at first so you can get used to the process of choosing the ideal model for pepakura. Models with lots of organic shapes don't really work well.
DreadMullet
Well-Known Member
Google?
Blender 3d, a few of the modelers on here use it.
Blender 3d, a few of the modelers on here use it.
computergeek
Jr Member
Personally I recommend Softimage Mod Tool, formerly know as XSI. It does take getting used to, but it's great for modeling. It's free too
dungbeetle said:
If I had a nickel for every time I had to clean up a bloody sketchup model for pep use, I'd have a $#!Tload of nickels! For free modeling programs, most people like Blender (I can't for the life of me figure it out!). There's also Mesh Lab for editing, and TopMod3D for easy simple platonic shapes. There's also Google Sketchup but it's usually more trouble than it's worth, although there are a few here that can do some really nice work with it.
I would recommend going with a paid program though in order to get the most out of what you're trying to accomplish. There's Rhino 4.0 (the program that I use almost exclusively) and it has several other plugins for rendering, lighting, and animation. It's an excellent mid grade NURBS modeling program that's used mainly for jewelry and architecture, but can also be used for virtually anything provided that you have a talent with directly editing shapes.
There's also Solidworks and AutoCAD which are geared more towards industrial applications encompassing everything from 747s & go-karts to bicycles, buildings, and small parts.
The Autodesk suite is also very nice for modeling. Autodesk Inventor was my favorite back in 2002 (10th grade) and it's excellent for doing vehicles and so forth. Deep Flight II was designed on it. Autodesk Maya is Autodesk's version of NURBS and is geared more towards animation.
And the last ones which are more or less new on the scene and amazing are Claytools and ZBrush. Claytools comes with an arm interface for direct sculpting feedback whereas ZBrush can be used with a drawing pad like you would use in Photoshop. These are not only direct solid editing programs but printable texture editing programs as well. I have a friend at my college who used ZBrush to model a set of workable full scale animatronic steampunk wings that she could wear and printed them out in SLS. They looked exactly like bone when she got them back and worked awesomely when they were done!
You should be able to get all of these at a deep student discount at either CreationEngine.com or AcademicSuperstore.com, except for Claytools (SensAble Technologies) and ZBrush (Pixologic)
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woah u hav experience ,loling about the editing partBFDesigns said:
For free modeling programs, most people like Blender (I can't for the life of me figure it out!). There's also Mesh Lab for editing, and TopMod3D for easy simple platonic shapes. There's also Google Sketchup but it's usually more trouble than it's worth, although there are a few here that can do some really nice work with it.
I would recommend going with a paid program though in order to get the most out of what you're trying to accomplish. There's Rhino 4.0 (the program that I use almost exclusively) and it has several other plugins for rendering, lighting, and animation. It's an excellent mid grade NURBS modeling program that's used mainly for jewelry and architecture, but can also be used for virtually anything provided that you have a talent with directly editing shapes.
There's also Solidworks and AutoCAD which are geared more towards industrial applications encompassing everything from 747s & go-karts to bicycles, buildings, and small parts.
The Autodesk suite is also very nice for modeling. Autodesk Inventor was my favorite back in 2002 (10th grade) and it's excellent for doing vehicles and so forth. Deep Flight II was designed on it. Autodesk Maya is Autodesk's version of NURBS and is geared more towards animation.
And the last ones which are more or less new on the scene and amazing are Claytools and ZBrush. Claytools comes with an arm interface for direct sculpting feedback whereas ZBrush can be used with a drawing pad like you would use in Photoshop. These are not only direct solid editing programs but printable texture editing programs as well. I have a friend at my college who used ZBrush to model a set of workable full scale animatronic steampunk wings that she could wear and printed them out in SLS. They looked exactly like bone when she got them back and worked awesomely when they were done!
You should be able to get all of these at a deep student discount at either CreationEngine.com or AcademicSuperstore.com, except for Claytools (SensAble Technologies) and ZBrush (Pixologic)
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