I've folded this shape quite a few times, inspired by the work of Eric Demaine (Check out his work, he's brilliant!), among others. Folding this from a square without any other aids than your hands is a time consuming chore. This simple DXF cuts a square from an A3 size piece of paper and dashes the folding lines, making the process considerably less time consuming and a lot easier. BEWARE: The dashes I've used may not work with your CNC laser/software setup. If it doesn't, select all the lines except the edges and go to the "object properties" or similar in your CAD software menu. Choose "slashed" or a similar alternative and play around with different ones until you find one that works for you. To fold the shape, just zigzag the folds, starting with the outer edge. All the edges circumventing the square folds in the same direction. The next edge folds the opposite way. Squash the corners carefully along the diagonal lines. If you look at the pictures, you'll get the um... picture... It gets a bit harder as you get closer to the centre, but if you take it easy and start in the middle of each side, you'll get there in hardly any time at all. I love the way this object naturally takes it shape. It's mathematics, you know. And a dash of physics. If you love this shape as much as I do, you are very probably a nerd. There's nothing wrong with that. Nerds rule the world. Be proud.
Parabolic_shape_from_paper_quadrat.dxf |