The Origami Forum

So...I know that the logistics of crease patterns has been covered in other threads, a FAQ, and several tutorials on-line that are referenced in other threads in the forum, so I know I'm taking a bit of a risk here in starting yet another thread on the subject, but as a neophyte to crease patterns, I have a question that I haven't seen adequately addressed elsewhere, and it stems from my attempt to replicate Kamiya's Archaeopteryx model from Origami Tanteidan Magazine 69.

I've worked out that the bulk of the CP is a 40 x 40 grid, and most of the diagonals are pretty easy to work out, too. However, the 40 x 40 grid are not contiguous -- that is, many of the lines end against other lines, but pick up again farther along in the model; the same is true of some of the diagonals. In particular, there's a relatively crease-free area just right of center in the model (in the published CP) that "interrupts" many of the 40ths creases. I understand perfectly well that the creases are not present in that area so that the finished model looks "cleaner" by not having extraneous creases in areas where they don't serve a purpose in the finished model, but I also know that people have a tendency to make CPs that only show the immediately relevant creases (and I understand why).

So my question is this: in tackling a model like this, it seems like it would be a lot easier to just fold a full 40 x 40 grid and go from there. Is that how most of you CP-fluent folders do this kind of thing? Or do you precrease only the creases shown and attempt to collapse and fold the model from those? For the most part, I'm attempting the latter, but it has taken me several hours to work out (drawing on copies of the CP) where the creases start and stop than it would have taken to just make a 40 x 40 grid! So I"m curious as to how most of you work on a CP such as this, just to better gauge myself! Thanks for any pointers anyone has!

For me I would just fold the grid and start from there but I usually just print of the cp and fold from there!

If you're folding from really nice paper/trying to make a clean, high quality piece, try not to fold the whole grid. This doesn't mean you can't fold some of the gridlines a little longer than they are in the CP. Check which regions will show up when it's all folded. Anything that will show you may want to keep crease-free. Don't worry about getting extra creases on say the inner layers of legs. But do try to keep them off the outer layers.