UnMesh is a command-line utility.  That means it must be run from a DOS prompt.   When I created this utility I never imagined that it would be used by so many people who were not familiar with the DOS prompt.  Running it from a DOS prompt is very easy.  These instructions attempt to give a brief explanation on how to run UnMesh from a DOS prompt.  It's not as bad as it looks.  There is a lot of "fluff" listed below to explain what is going on.

1. Use Explorer to locate the directory where you have unzipped unmesh.exe (e.g. "c:\download").  Make a note of the directory.

2. Use Explorer to locate the directory of the .COB file you with to extract the mesh from (e.g. "c:\tswork\hat.cob").   Make a note of the directory and filename.  Also, make a note of the directory and filename where you want the extracted mesh to be written to (e.g. "c:\tswork\hat.bmp").

3. Open a DOS prompt.  (note: I will use the directories and filenames from the previous examples to illustrate the commands.  Simply substitute in your own directories and filenames.)

4. Type "c:\download\unmesh /? | more" and press [ENTER].  This will display the command-line options for running UnMesh.  "more" allows the instructions to pause until you press a key.  This prevents them from scrolling out of view.  Browse through the instructions, but don't worry, you don't need to use them.  It's just nice to know they are there for further reference.

5. Now, to extract the mesh from "hat.cob" and convert it to a 2D bitmap called "hat.bmp" type the following command and press [ENTER]:

c:\download\unmesh /ic:\tswork\hat.cob /oc:\tswork\hat.bmp /w512 /h512

That's it!  "hat.bmp" can now be used as a guide to create a texture map which can be applied to "hat.cob".  These instructions are not specific to UnMesh.  The same approach can be used for runninng most any command-line utility.   Make friends with the command-line. It can be your friend. ;)   As someone once said, "GUI's are great.... until you have to do something more than once."

Have fun and let me know if you used UnMesh for anything cool.

- Mark Lengowski