Pixyz Studio 2022.1 introduces the ability to create UVs directly from CAD surfaces!
<aside> 📖 To bring realism and quality to a 3D model in a Real-Time 3D experience, textures are often used in the materials applied to the 3D model. To define how these 2D textures are wrapped around the 3D model’s meshes, texture coordinates, also called UVs, are required.
More information about UVs can be found in the documentation here.
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CAD models come from CAD software where texturing and UVing is generally not required, because realism is not a key aspect. But for customers willing to leverage their CAD data to create realistic content for real-time experiences, a correct texturing becomes a necessity, and an issue!
Originally a CAD model, transformed into a mesh with UVs to correctly display textures
When it comes to dress CAD models with textured materials, basic UV projection is used most of the time, because it’s fast, can be automated and does not require much expertise.
For repeatable textures, basic projection gives acceptable results when perfectly aligned repeatable textures are not required, but does give limited result when quality is required (see image below 👇), which can only be reached with manual unwrapping.
Basic projection gives limited result when quality is required
For lightmaps, UVs can also be obtained by basic projection plus a UV repack, which gives acceptable results, but potentially unoptimized for baking (small and stretched islands).
Pixyz Studio 2022.1 offers the possibility to generate UVs based on the CAD data, which can then be made continuous for repeatable textures, or repacked for lightmaps.
Here is an example of a brushed aluminum material applied on a model for which continuous UVs were created using the new method:
