3ds max: Convert the sphere and the spiral (or helix) to nurbs. Do a vector projection of the spiral onto the sphere. Only irritating thing is that 3ds max breaks apart the helix to segments when converting it to a nurbs, so you have to join them together manually.

cool trick...

Thanks, a-f.

Also, I heard, from my friend, a tip of 'Rhino'.
There is, in Rhino, UV tool, which converts any surfaces into a flat surface. That's easy.

Anyway, thanks for your adivce, metamechanic.

don't know exactly what you want, but rhino's 'project' command will work on solids as well as planes

i hope you guys are charging a lot for these skills because i sit here here and say, "wwowowow, what's that? my god, i know nothing."

And when you actually put a finished, real world project together, we sit back and say the same about you.

What a nice comment!