How to export UV map to scale

[Anonymous]

Hi all,
Is it possible with Maya to export a mesh UV map to full scale (using world units)? I find myself wanting to convert meshes that I've made into papercraft printouts or sewing patterns, which I've previously done using Blender and a few free plugins.

This sounds like something 3DS Max would be more capable of, so I wouldn't mind if the proper solution is sending the mesh over to it. However, if it's possible to do so in Maya, I would like to know the steps.

Please pardon me if my understanding of UV maps is incorrect or lacking.

[_sebastian_f · Accepted solution]

i remember reading about an app which is doing exactly that, but don´t remember the name atm.

i think in maya (or uv´s in general) there is just an indirect real world measurement relationship.

texel density defines how many pixel per unit (default cm) are covered by a certain geometry. with some math you can rescale your uv snapshot based on that. or - depending on how your object uv´s look- it´s maybe more easy if you create an additional plane of lets say 10*10cm unwrap it with the same texel density as your mesh and rescale your uv snapshot until the planes uv´s are 10*10 cm in your document. if done correctly your object uv´s should have real world scale.