off track again,

now that you 2 genii have started this monster,

IS there a function in Maya that will do a blanket pull?? ie instead of UV mapping all these edges etc etc etc you could say get a cup, split the inner from outer faces. Then 'grab' a nominated point and 'pull' the skin so to speak to a planar level?? or nominate said point and the 'skin' follows the contour (like liquid) until it lays on a plane?? get my drift?

cheers bullet