There is a free Blender plugin for papercraft, see demo https://matiasmorant.wordpress.com/2017/12/23/papercraft-wit...
Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
51–60 of 60 posts
Re: Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
#52After looking at the web page (wow, this is a nicely designed app!), I read a bunch of comments being annoyed at the price, so I went to check, expecting something ridiculous - and it’s $30, with a free trial‽
At least for people in the US this is, like, two meals at a fast casual restaurant. It’s four hours work even at the depressingly low federal minimum wage. The Mac to run it on cost a thousand dollars. It’s way less than someone into this hobby will spend on paper and glue if they’re making more than a couple of models.
Depresses me that people see so little value here.
I wouldn’t buy it at any price because I’m not, and don’t want to get, into papercraft, but it’s a fair price.
Re: Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
#53Just wanted to say: what a gorgeous icon, and such a Mac-ass app design.
Feels like the heyday of OS X, which for me was undoubtedly between 2006-2012. Delicious Library, Toast, Transmit. I could go on.
Congrats to the creator :)
Re: Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
#54I don't have an usecase, I don't own a printer even. But this is actually a good piece of software - it seems non-trivial from algorithmic point of view, UX is also well polished. Kudos to authors.
The usecase for Unfolder or Pepkura isn't 3D printing. They're targeted at paper crafting. You print the unfolded file onto paper, cut, fold, and glue to create a 3D object. Something like these samples https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=paper%20craft%20models&ia=i... >
> The usecase for Unfolder or Pepkura isn't 3D printing.
I'm assuming they meant a 2D printer, which you need to be able to use this.
Re: Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
#55After looking at the web page (wow, this is a nicely designed app!), I read a bunch of comments being annoyed at the price, so I went to check, expecting something ridiculous - and it’s $30, with a free trial‽ At least for people in the US this is, like, two meals at a fast casual restaurant. It’s four hours work even at the depressingly low federal minimum wage. The Mac to run it on cost a thousand dollars. It’s way…
Unfortunately the Apple App Store set an incredibly low floor of "free" or $0.99 when it launched. Whether companies were just trying to get customers or Apple was subsidizing things, the expectation is an "app" is cheap and disposable.
$30 is eminently reasonable for this kind of thing. And it isn't a subscription! But it costs more than a morning coffee so impulse is restrained and some people just don't like being restrained.
Re: Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
#56For a look at someone solving a harder version of this problem with stretchy fabric deformation, check out pandafold.app Admittedly an unconventional audience but its a curious problem space. Pepakura as mentioned here does this very well. The author of this software looks to be familiar with it
https://www.pandafold.app works but https://pandafold.app does not.
Re: Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
#57You can vibe code an app like this, relying on OBJ import (no editing apart from cutting/opening constraints), in possibly half a day. If you doubt me, take, me up on it. Sure, I have 35 years of experiences writing computer graphics code but I am certain I would just need to provide functional description input to Claude or Codex for this. Zero architecture or deep 3D know-how. The only challenge/interesting part is…
You should really try vibe coding a nontrivial 3D app before you die on this particular hill. LLMs are still really bad at spatial reasoning and coordinate systems. Like, painfully bad.
They're getting better, and are starting to be used in robotics: https://scenesmith.github.io/
Re: Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
#58Hmm couldn't find any pictures of actual results from using this?
Isn’t the screen shot of the app just below the fold good enough? Or would you like to see the finished product. The quality of that would significantly depend on the person making it (how well they can cut paper, how well they can glue) and their commitment to quality (how hard they’re trying), so I think it would either oversell the product by showing something the average user cannot produce or undersell it.
Re: Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
#59For a look at someone solving a harder version of this problem with stretchy fabric deformation, check out pandafold.app Admittedly an unconventional audience but its a curious problem space. Pepakura as mentioned here does this very well. The author of this software looks to be familiar with it
That site would do well to show an image of an actual physical thing you can make with it instead of the same images over and over of a cartoonish dog/wolf head.
Re: Unfolder for Mac – A 3D model unfolding tool for creating papercraft
#60This is lovely and very slick, but you can get equivalent results for $0 with Blender and Export Paper Model. That has the benefit of letting you create/edit/export the model in a single application instance in a single workflow that is easy with practice.
I will explore your suggestion, and I love Blender. But that "easy with practice." does a lot of lifting here. Though that practice-with-Blender then opens up so many possibilities in the 3D space it is ridiculous. Take the time to learn Blender people!
It's a load-bearing qualifier for sure!