Why I Believe Papercraft Models are Important to CAD Modelers

[3D Puzzle Creator]

I Must First Thank Dave for Making this Section for CAD Related Discussion.

Now On to The Subject of the title.

I Can't Speak for ALL CAD Modelers, But I Can Speak for My Self as a CAD Modeler & 3D Puzzle Creator.

CAD Modelers Often Use 2D Outlined Pictures to Help Create 3D Models.
and the Papercraft Designs Fit That Need Perfectly.
We Need a Good Side View, Top View, and a Front & Back View, and if Possible A Bottom View.

Size is Really Up to the Creator, as there is No Real Limit to Size in a CAD Program.
So, it is Up to Us to Decide What Size to Make the Models.

We Can Import As Many Pictures as Needed for the Task at hand.     
There is a Couple Different Ways to Start Modeling an Object.

We Can Just Look at the Picture and Create A Part that Looks Like the Part in the Picture.
Or, We Can Trace Lines/Vector Over the Original Picture, and Then When they are A Closed Loop, as I will Call it for Now, The Picture Can be Cut Out as a Solid Face, With The Colors and Textures Included.
Such as I Do with Papercraft for Most of My Papercraft Models.
and, As Dave (and Some Others) Provides The Original Vector Lines in the pdf Files, They Will Import with the Pictures in Position.
and Make it a Lot Easier for us to Cut Out Exactly What it Needed, Saving us Lots of Time Not Having to Trace over an Image.

Once All the Parts are Solid Flat Parts, we Position Them As the Model.
Group the 2D Face and Outside Edges, Vector Lines together to Make a Part.
and Then They Can Be Extruded as Much as Needed, While Keeping the Textures in Place.
or Kept and Used as the 2D Face. 
the Front and Back of the Part Looks Exactly Like the Picture, But the Sides Do Not.
as it is Actually using the Pixels of the Edges of the Face.
and That Does Not Look Good. So Something Else Will be Needed on those Edges if Used on the Model.
it is Easy to Just Cut Out, (Lets Say) The Part of the Picture that has the Matching Color Needed for the Edges.
and Stretch The Face to the Size Needed, Or Save it as a Color or Texture, and Apply it That Way.
We Can Even Intersect 2 Or More Parts at A Desired Location, to Achieve The Connecting of Any Faces Needed.
Like the Top of a Fender and the Side of the Same Fender for a Car.
Then Group the Parts to Be 1 Part.

What's Interesting is We Really Only Need to Model One 1/2 Side of a Car.
The Parts can Easily be Duplicated or Mirrored Exactly, For the Other Side.
and also Be Made as a Parent Part, Then All The Copies of that Parent Part Will be the Children and What Ever You Do to the Parent Part, The Same Will Happen to it's Child.

I Only Need to Make 1 Wheel, the Other 3 or More, Will React The Same as the Parent.
even if I Move it. if Saved inside A Parent Group.
This Alone Save A Lot of Time When Modeling.

and So We Move On to Creating All the parts Needed for the Model.
it's Not Hard to Move parts into the Correct Position, Exactly.

The Ends of the Vector Lines are Called Nodes, and Those Nodes Can Hold Information for that Vector Line.
if the Lines are Curved The Node Keeps that Info and Keep the Curvature of that Line.
This is the Same When Drawing Lines In Photo Programs Such as Inkcape, Just to name One.
You May Already Know this, As You Are Masters of paper.

That's Kind-a The basics to Building a Model in CAD.

and Now You can Get an idea Why I Believe Using Papercraft is Important To CAD Modelers.

This Concludes My Basic Input About the Subject.
Thank You for Reading it.
     
 
   

   
 
 



       

[Dave Winfield]

CAD (computer aided design) has been used in paper model design since the internet began,
and probably earlier than that.
Just using a computer to do some artwork on, is a form of computer aided design.

But obviously you speak of formal CAD such as what architects use,
and now for what is called 3D Modeling and rendering.

I design in my mind. I envision a model or it's parts in my head.
But rather than draw those parts on paper, I draw all my paper ideas in Coreldraw.
Corel is a vector based art and design software.
You wouldn't initially call it CAD, but the computer aids me in creating my artwork, so it is computer aided design.

Creating 3D models, such as aircraft, in paper, has been around long before computers and CAD existed.
Paper model designers figured out how to create these types of models on their own, and did a good job of it.
In fact there are still designers today that don't need CAD.
Yes, to save me some time, I have commissioned other designers who do work in CAD, to create some basic aircraft forms which I then modified and accessorized,
but I personally do not work with 3D modeling software for paper model design.

All the positives you listed of CAD are already available and in use by traditional paper model designers.
I use 2D pictures to help create my models.
I literally draw my own top, side and bottom view reference.
Final size is not a concern when designing, and any size is possible for me.
I can use as many images and reference material as I need when I'm working.
I can look at a picture and create any part.
I can trace vector lines over any image in Corel or by hand with paper and pencil.
I often produce solid flat parts and assemble them with paper to see how things work.
I only need to produce one side, and then flip it to produce the other side.
I usually duplicate, copy, flip and clone multiple parts, why draw them multiple times?
I only need to make one wheel...
Working in Corel and producing a model in vector format is the best,
but models can be (and were) created in the same way on paper, with pencil, long before computer aided design came along.

While I agree that CAD has been a a big step ahead in the world of design, it really is the lazy way to do things.
In many ways we can call it "cheating" to avoid doing something manually.
Humans continue to forget how to do manual things with our brains. Consider math and calculators as an example.

The largest percentage of paper model designers today have no idea how to create a 3D model.
They only know how to ask a CAD program to create the model on a screen.

Cheating is the way of the future, it is sad to say.
And while I'm all for cheating when it's necessary to complete a project properly, or beat a time deadline,
it's sad that many kids today will never know the limits of human physical creativity,
they will only know the limits of their computer tech.

Computer advancements have made the world a better place, and are the bane of existence.
Wow, wasn't it me that said leave the philosophy on reddit? LOL sorry, not sorry.