After 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.
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.
I like the clean design of the landing page. I downloaded it and started the app and it needs an OBJ file to even do anything, so I wasn't able to play with it at all.
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.
The way I tested was search Thingiverse for "angular" and download an STL, then convert it online to an OBJ on the first search result for "stl to obj"
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.
So weird for me to see this popup now on HN as I happened to dig through an old downloads folder a few minutes ago and saw an install file for Pepakura (13/11/2014), and wondered where that sort of thing had ended up... .
For 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.
Just a suggestion: have an example obj object, or several, loaded up. It will sound nuts to you, but I probably won't find one and will just unload the app when I need space.
I wrote something like this for windows 20 years ago, a friend of mine used it to make some cutout models for an art exhibition.
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.
I found the idea very interesting but put off a little bit by the various details such as face normals etc (have limited knowledge of the topic). Here are few ideas to increase adoption:
- 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.
I 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.
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.
The app reminds me of the boom of (IMO) cool Mac apps around 2010. It's a great idea as well, I wish I had thought of it. The price is out of reach for me though...
You 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 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.
58 comments
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.
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.
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?
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
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.