Copyright ©1994-2006 by Robert J. Lang. All rights reserved.

What is TreeMaker?

TreeMaker is a tool for origami design. Simply put: you draw a stick figure on a square, assigning lengths to each of the sticks in the figure. Through a series of optimizations and calculations, TreeMaker computes a crease pattern in the square that folds up into that stick figure. Or more precisely, it folds into a shape --- called a base --- whose "shadow" is the given stick figure. In this way, you can use TreeMaker to design an origami base with flaps of precisely the same size, length, and connectivity as a desired subject. Along the way, TreeMaker provides many options for adjusting the crease pattern and/or the stick figure to meet various artistic and/or aesthetic constraints. For a full description of the program as well as several tutorials on how to use it, please see the documentation under the Help menu.

What's New

TreeMaker 5 is a substantial enhancement from its predecessor, TreeMaker 4.1. Compared to version 4.1, TreeMaker 5 adds the following capabilities:

But most importantly:

Furthermore, TreeMaker 5 is now open-source; you can download the source, modify it, port it to other platforms, subject (of course) to the license restrictions described below.

Where's the Documentation?

In previous versions, the documentation was a separate file (in fact, in version 4, because of some squirrelly licensing issues you had to read the docs to find out how to get the application). In version 5, the documentation is built into the application, in the Help menu. The Help command brings up a window containing a full description of the program, its windows and menus, and several tutorials and tips. Everything in the Help window can be printed (click on the printer icon) if you want a hard copy of the documentation for reference.

While anyone can use TreeMaker to construct a crease pattern for a base, using it effectively takes some practice and understanding of the process of origami design. I would suggest you start by working your way through the tutorials in the documentation, which will give you a feeling for the capabilities (and limitations) of TreeMaker. Of course, you can dive right in and experiment; you'll quickly get a feel for how it works.

Credits

Treemaker was written in C++ and developed on Macintosh using Metrowerks CodeWarrior and Apple XCode 2.2 for development and wxWidgets ( www.wxwidgets.org) for the GUI. Credits to:

Also thanks to Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Toshiyuki Meguro, Alex Bateman, Marshall Bern, Barry Hayes, Tom Hull, and Fumiaki Kawahata for algorithmic insight. Special thanks to Stefan Csomor for wxWidgets-wxMac support and the rest of the wxWidgets team. Thanks also to Will Naylor and Bill Chapman, authors of the wnlib library.

Terms of Usage

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program (in a file called LICENSE.txt); if not, go to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html or write to

Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

Full source code for this program and further description can be downloaded from my website: