Overview
A tool for designing paper mechanisms that really work — parametric, scissors-leaning, and aimed home/independent-first (a student or hobbyist working solo, with the classroom as a compatible secondary context). It’s the physical-output sibling to Cardstock: where Cardstock authors interactive screens, FoldWorks authors printable mechanisms.
The Risk It Retires
Phase 1 exists to answer one real question cheaply, before building the fancy composition editor: can a parametric paper mechanism reliably go from browser → printed → cut → assembled → actually functioning, across imperfect human builds — including a kid with scissors and no teacher on hand? The bar is deliberately high: a non-expert building solo hitting ≥ 7 of 10 working builds per mechanism on the scissors baseline.
How It Works
Three parametric mechanisms expose tunable parameters with sane ranges. A Net model carries semantic line types (panels, fold/cut/score lines, tabs, punches, slits, registration marks, annotations). A cutStrategy flag switches between scissors (the canonical design) and cutter (the same module regenerated at higher fidelity). Export is dual: PDF for scissors, plus layered SVG as universal interchange (a documented color/layer convention you import into whatever machine software you own). A calibration system characterizes a printer + cardstock + cutter combo once, and a schematic animated preview shows the kinematics.
Current Status
Build-ready base with the 6th-grade baseline locked. Phase 2 — the snap-together composition editor — is the next step; the physical-engineering risk was deliberately sequenced first.