Question on unwrapping/unrolling geometry

[colkai]

Is there a better way to say unwrap a cylinder with geometry on each segment other than manually moving and rotating the geometry whilst slowly reducing the selection?

I'm thinking there should be something that enables you to do similar to the way you UV map something but which creates a morph map. Or some sort of spline facility which allows manipulation of the selected geometry.

I can see in my minds eye how it would work but don't know if such a plugin / feature exists.

for example, imagine a cylinder where every other segment has been bevelled to make gear teeth. Now I want to take that and "unroll" it so I have a flat section with the gear teeth which mirrors my cylinder.

Is this asking too much of LW? Or am I missing something simple?
:help:

[Rabbitpenny]

Is it possible, for what you need, to make the rack first then the pinion? See attached. In which case bend tool works well.

[hrgiger]

Have you tried using the same geometry so they match? Create a flat section with the teeth and then copy and paste that and then use the bend tool to roll the pasted flat section into a cylinder. Merge the ends together. Then you can create the top and bottom of the new cylinder manually. Not sure though, the bend modifier might alter the shaping of the teeth undesirably.

[colkai]

Yeah, I admit, for the example I gave, bending the flat would do, but I was also thinking of more complex situations where an "unroll" would be useful.
I know there is the splineTransform in Layout, just wondered if such a facility had a partner in modeller.
It would make something I'm thinking of much easier. :)

I had thought of the bend warping the teeth too, that's why I thought some sort of spline control would be neat.

[pdp editor]

I think you could try using Morphs if the end shape is not that difficult.

[biliousfrog]

Would this work? - http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/

[colkai]

Not really as it wouldn't be the whole thing that would be flat.