The UV Shape tools allows you to flatten a 3d object. It uses the UV map. You can select "Use Active Map" to generate a flattened shape from a user-created UV map. You can also quickly generate a uv map automatically by simply  leaving this option off.

The "Rescale Islands" Option allows you to either use the scale of the uv map or rescale so the scale in 3d space is closer to the scale of the original shape of the 3d object.

The "Reset" button simply deletes shape key/s created by the tool.

The Surface Follow addon was the inspiration for Blender's new "Surface Deform" modifier. The tool allows an object to deform with the surface of another object. Selected objects will be bound to the surface of the active object when pressing the "Bind to surface" button.

Once bind data is generated the user can update the bound objects with "Update once."

If the "Scene Update" option is active the update will run continuously.

If the "Animation Update" is active it will update with each frame change.