A Design Method for 3D Origami Based on Rotational Sweep

AbstractIn this paper, a method for designing origami in which shape is based on the 3D geometry generated by the rotational sweep that is commonly used in CG and CAD systems is proposed. The target shape is designed by rotating a two-dimensional polyline around an axis by a unit of 360/N degrees (N > 2). To make a shape with a single sheet of paper, appropriate flaps are placed in between the constituent polygonal faces that constitute the elements of the target shape. The proposed method generates a crease pattern, i.e. a specification document consisting of mountain/valley fold lines, for folding the origami. Because the shape becomes smoother if we set the input polyline to be finer and N larger, this method can also produce approximate designs for three-dimensional curved origami. This paper describes two principal types of rotational shape origami construction; cylindrical and conical. The origami are folded from a rectangle and a regular N-gon sheet of paper, respectively. The proposed method was i...