Lotus: A curved folding design tool for Grasshopper

Curved-crease origami design is a novel area of research with applications in fields such as architecture, design, engineering, and fabrication ranging between micro and macro scales. However, the design of such models is still a difficult task which requires preserving isometry between the 3D form and 2D unfolded state. This paper introduces a new software tool for Rhino/Grasshopper for interactive computational curved-crease origami design. Using a rule-line based approach, this tool has two functions: rigid-ruling bending of a flat sheet, and a patch-by-patch additive construction method for cylindrical and conical surfaces along curved creases.