Macro Unfold Box

Description
The macro allows to unfold the surfaces of a box of any shape and to draw them on a page.



Installation
Available in Add-on manager.

Cf Macro for unfolding box surfaces

Options

 * 1) Scale manual or automatic
 * 2) Page format: a3/a4, cartridge (cf FreeCAD templates)
 * 3) Group drawings in the same page as possible.
 * 4) Sew or not the edges of the pieces.



Instruction for use

 * 1) Select a box made with Part::Loft tool for example.
 * 2) Explode it (cf Draft menu) into plan pieces
 * 3) Select the surfaces
 * 4) Execute the macro

The unfolding algorithm will place the faces on the xy-plane, however it seldom does the unfolding correctly. Thus some manual post-processing is needed to get to desired result, as shown in the picture below.



Starting point is a box like the upper left picture.


 * 1) Select all faces and run the macro
 * 2) Orient to Top View
 * 3) Toggle visibilty on the created set of faces, the individual clones are to be visible, not the compound
 * 4) Use Draft/Move and Draft/Rotate to reposition the folded cloned faces (a handfull of clicks per face when snapping is used)
 * 5) The drawing updates automatically to the new positions

The finished result is shown in the lower right picture above.

Script
ToolBar icon

Macro_unfoldBox.FCMacro