Here is a texture man I did to help me map things

[Synthercat]

UV mapping is one of my weak points... here is what I made to help me

PS I use mostly blender and some 3dmax
Am I wrong or the way to go with blender maps is by assigning seams and then by unwraping? Is there a more easy general way (ok I know this is now a blender forum but I am only interested in using Octane and not blender internal)

[matej]

Hm, I fail to see the question here... and the exact point of the picture. Could you clarify a little more what is the problem.

Seams can help you to create a cleaner UV grid when unwrapping complex meshes. So, they are usually needed, yes.

[Synthercat]

I just want to realise the workflow for blender->octane

would you say it's :
1) Model
2) Set seams
3) Unwrap
4) Export to Octane

[matej]

Ofcourse! (actually, theres no other way to do those steps )

When you unwrap, you should also load a diffuse color texture, to see the preview of your UV grid in the viewport (draw type: textured, and the image must be loaded in the UV/Image Editor, for the current object).

[jakchit]

Synthercat
go to blenderartists.org forums. there should be a few tutorials for UV unwrapping. It is quite easy in blender. Think of it as peeling a banana and trying to lay the peel flat on a table.

you could also try youtube for a tutorial.

[Synthercat]

Ofcourse! (actually, theres no other way to do those steps )

When you unwrap, you should also load a diffuse color texture, to see the preview of your UV grid in the viewport (draw type: textured, and the image must be loaded in the UV/Image Editor, for the current object).

That's my point! That what I created this simple pic for...