Want to make flat cover for 3D object. Sheet Metal?

[DaveGadgeteer]

I have a 3D printed puzzle with frame.

I want to make a paper surface that I can glue to it, to print on and/or paint.

I wonder if the sheet metal tools might make this easy?

How can I make surfaces of this puzzle into flattenable shapes that I can print/paint?

The usual explanations of sheet metal seem to assume designing the project in sheet metal, not taking solid model surfaces and making them into sheet metal.

How can I do this? Is it practical? Any suggestions for better approaches?

[mavigogun]

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@DaveGadgeteer wrote:

I want to make a paper surface that I can glue to it, to print on and/or paint.

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There's a whole world of papercraft CAD software- some are free, such as Pepakura.   Pepakura's specialty is producing flat patterns with imagery aligned to facets- check it out:

https://tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/

[DaveGadgeteer]

Thanks for the suggestion.

However, I want to use the shape info that defines the bodies in my puzzle.

I wonder if I could make drawings with views projected onto a 45 degree plane, and do one for each of the 4 sides.