Folding pattern software/plugins/analysis?

I’ve relatively recently found an interest in folded structures and surfaces. I’m not sure where this interest is headed but nonetheless I was wondering if there’s some utility or tool that could analyse folding patterns and angles from a surface model for instance? Straight and curved creases.
MIT has apparently experimented with this but I’m probably not far off guessing their mad scientists have coded something very custom on their Watson.
Any feedback appreciated!

Might not be exactly what you’re after, but there is a piece of software called Pepakura that is for turning 3D models into papercraft patterns. But it also works in a general sense to unfold any faceted model.

I have no idea what I’m after but that’s interesting! Pretty amazing work in the gallery of their website…
I was inspired by a milk carton design that had a really cool curved crease corner. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of it. I just find it really interesting how faceted surfaces work and how they make surprisingly rigid structures if folded appropriately. And also the economy of making so little material work so effectively.
I’m surprised there’s so few resources to be found about it. Most searches end up in origami but it would be interesting to see how to go about designing patterns to make a certain shape, and the folding techniques for different materials and material combinations.

Creo has a decent ability to flatten surface models. Getting bend lines on a surface model is different story.

Both SW and Creo will flatten bent sheet metal models (you could set your material thickness to match paper, if you liked). They will provide flat patterns and bend lines but they will be limited to bent shapes.

Curved creases will be pretty much beyond the ability of standard CAD packages. You can approximate things with lots of small bends but from a modeling side it would be tedious and cumbersome.

Have you got this book yet?

Maybe the exact flat plugin is what you are looking for. If you are to start with initial shape in 3D, you can extract and flatten the surfaces, similar to a pattern making process.

A bit late to the party …

Have you looked at Lamina Design ? A stand alone software that reads .obj and Rhino v4 .3dm files.