  We introduce an algorithm to remesh meshes representing developable surfaces
to planar quad dominant meshes. The output of our algorithm consists of planar
quadrilateral (PQ) strips aligned to principal curvature directions and closely
approximating the curved parts of the input developable, along with planar
polygons representing the flat parts of the input. Such developable PQ-strip
meshes are useful in many areas of shape modeling thanks to the simplicity of
fabrication from flat sheet material. However, they are difficult to use in the
modeling phase due to their restrictive combinatorics and locking issues. Other
representations of developable surfaces, such as arbitrary triangle or quad
meshes, are more suitable for interactive freeform modeling but generally have
non-planar faces or are not aligned to principal curvature. Our method enables
one to leverage the modeling flexibility of non-ruling based representations of
developable surfaces but still obtain developable, curvature-aligned PQ-strip
meshes. Our algorithm optimizes a scalar function on the input mesh, such that
its level sets are straight and align well to the locally estimated ruling
directions. The condition that guarantees straight level sets is nonlinear of
high order and numerically difficult to enforce in a straightforward manner. We
devise a dedicated optimization method that makes our problem tractable and
practical to compute. Our method works automatically on any developable input,
including multiple patches and curved folds, without explicit domain
decomposition. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on a variety of
developable surfaces and show how our remeshing can be used alongside handle
based interactive freeform modeling of developable shapes.
