Templates for prims?

I've been working on skinning a prim for a project I've been working on. However I never can get the texture to fit right. And up loading hit and miss style is rather expensive.

Is there any way to preview a texture on said prim?

Or is there any templates for prims out there?

Or a way I could make one for this prim?

If no, to the above... can anyone offer advice as to how to skin an object reminiscent on a compact disc?

I'd like to help, but I'm not sure what it is you're asking for. I'm not sure what you mean by "skinning a prim". My first thought is that when you say "skinning" what you're trying to say is texturing, but if that's the case, then I'm wondering why you're having trouble. All you need to do is apply the texture and then set the repeats and the offsets however you want. So, I now must wonder what is your definition of "prim" since it sounds like you may be talking about an object composed of more than one prim.

Can you post a picture of the object you're talking about, along with a more detailed description of the exact problem you're having?

In the example of a cd you make your "want to be seen" image in a circle.

Make the circle's outer edges touch the edges of the image, dont worry about the corners being transparent or anything.

Stick it on a round end of a flattened cylinder.(flattened from top to bottem)
If your picky hollow the prim out to make a hole

ps: i use free 3d software and the prims only sl can use to preview complex shapes-cuts

Make a 512x512 grid of variously coloured lines.
Upload it and apply it to various prims.
Take screenshots of the prims.

Now you have a good idea of how the lines deform and where the boundaries are.

Make sure all your textures are 512x512 and they'll fit the same way.

-WW

Any texture with the same aspect ratio (1:1) will fit the same way. Dimensions don't matter, except inasmuch as larger textures use more video memory.

good idea and good point

I wrote a 3D screensaver a while ago that maps textures to various shapes. Lately I have been using its preview mode to check the UV mapping of textures to spheres. It should also be useful for toroids, cylinders, and circles too. To bad SL has no Utah Teapot prim. It is called Spirex and you can find it at http://www.ozonehouse.com/Spirex/.

While you are there you might check out my more recent project, Context Free. It is an algorithmic art program that I have been using to make textures for SL.

Thanks, BamBam. ContextFree is going to be fun to play with.