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 what happens with non-planar polygons (>3 vertices). I.e. deciding if they can be unrolled (approximated with a cylindrical or conical surface enough to 'work' when cut from paper that does not stretch).
You can alleviate this problem completely by always triangulating befor calculating any unfolding solution ofc (and get zero curved surfaces in the resulting paper model thusly).
The rest is rather trivial.
I'm not saying this isn't great, I just don't understand how you could ask people to pay for it, in early 2026.
Given your confidence and the seemingly small amount of time you think it will take, this seems like something you should be proving rather than expecting others to do so.
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.
$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.
It would be cool if it included sample OBJ files to entice me to find my own later. Otherwise I feel like I just hit a wall immediately in the app will probably not try it again.
Specifically I tried this rook from this chess set. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5994219/files
Sadly, some of the crenelations on top of it are just cubes with 2 sides missing that would be impossible to attach to the folded up rook. I imagine there is a ton of loss between a file for a 3D printer, a random convert to Obj with no settings, and this net maker, so I'm not unsympathetic to the problem. It's just that this is a printout that would not be foldable into something useful.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1078513/files
or this army tank...
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4618182/files
(n.b. under the main image viewer click the "files" tab to explore individual files/extensions)
This one is called Unfolder, it's a different app, made by a different person, etc...
More than one app per category can exist, and that's good!
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 :)
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 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.
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 an interesting problem to try to solve. Anything but the simplest model requires more than one cutout, which you then (in my app at least) have to position by hand onto sheets of paper for printing. Performing the unfold to minimise the number of separate sections was not something I even attempted.
- Sample files
- A video of end-to-end process of creating a basic model (perhaps something more complex than a cube) from 3d design to finished artefact.
- Support for STL
- Built-in option to adjust (reduce) face counts
Do you need cardstock and a cricut machine? Or a laser cutter?
How do you align artwork on the object?
I'm assuming they meant a 2D printer, which you need to be able to use this.
As someone who is not into papercraft I'm intrigued, but it feels like it's not for me. If the app was advertised as having a small selection of simple models to get started with, people in my position might be more interested in trying it out.
You’d get STL, Alembic, USD, PLY support in addition to the OBJ.
You'd make a 3D model from 3-views then use something like this to unfold it