The Origami Forum

I've been experimenting with treemaker, but no good results. I'm just wonderng who designs models using treemaker here.

I have used it for one or two things, but just to get ideas. It is extremely rare (pretty much never. really.) that you go with the base that treemaker gives you. You can strain edges and stuff, too, but still some slight alterations will probably be made to the treemaker base.

It is very good, though, for a quick visualization of an efficient circle packing. It is something to go off of for design ideas. Don't expect to get a gem out of treemaker every time, especially with simpler models.

Robert lang?

agreed. I can tell you treemaker is not that great. As Jonnycakes said If you can't think of a great circlepacking using it to get an efficient packing is a good tool but building creasepatterns from that is very rare. There is something about the design process that can not be mimicked through a computer. I find the few treemaker designs (elk, violinist) seem dead to me. I am not saying tree maker is bad but anything beyond circle packings seems (in my opinion) to create a lifeless model.

This topic might be of interest for you as well:
viewtopic.php?t=599

I have two diagrammed models where I've used Treemaker to help me with my design. In both cases I only took the Treemaker CP as a reference and invested a lot of time in rearranging the creases to give nice reference points and a comfortable folding sequence. In a second step I've added grafts to be able to create more details where needed.

The two models are the Griever and the Parrot, diagrams to be found on the Origami Austria homepage.