Hi everyone,

I am already sorry about the absence of my Maya knowledge and the kind of question I am asking: It is probably a bit off topic.
I am total Maya noob. I like to figure things out myself, but this software is too complex to do it in reasonable time I think. Please help!

I am a scientist. I have 3D reconstructed a biological structure with a scientific program. I can import it into Maya as vectors.
The object looks a bit like a grape. It’s a cloud of irregular “balls” that form an irregular tube that is bent. I added a picture of the structure from various angles.

Problem A: I would like to use Maya to straighten the tube artificially, but without changing the volume or shape of the balls. Also their relative position along the tube should stay conserved. Everything else could be variable. The tube could be approximated by a center axis.

Problem B: I would like to cut the straightened ball-tube open on one side and unroll it lengthwise.

Problem C: I would like to create a "2D" array, either of the straightened or the unrolled model. Is there a non-manual way to do it?

I uploaded an image that I hope illustrates what I mean. From left to right I sketched the original situation and my desired results of solving problems 1, 2 and 3.

Are these things even possible? I hope I don’t annoy anybody. Maybe knowing the name of the tools I would need to use would allow me to figure it out, or a recommendation for a good tutorial that deals with something related.

Thanks for reading!