The structures of many revolutionary technologies, such as aircraft wings, antennas, wind turbine blades, and dies for polymer extrusion, have remained largely unchanged for decades. In the 21st Century, researchers have started to investigate using planar morphing mechanisms to increase the flexibility and real time performance of such systems. A synthesis approach for rigid-body 1-degree-of-freedom morphing mechanisms has previously been developed. This approach is rather limited, though, in that only one actuator may be used, only particular topologies are allowed, and the target profiles must have the same arc length. This work extends this approach by overcoming all of these limitations. A genetic algorithm framework is presented that allows for 1- or multi-degree-of-freedom mechanisms to be generated and for different actuator coordination strategies to be implemented. These methods are further expanded to allow for the simultaneous optimization of both topology and dimension of morphing mechanisms with any number of degrees of freedom. The consideration of all possible topologies assists in the mechanization of morphing chains that match target profiles with varying arc lengths, since the previous methods cannot always be used in such cases. This work shows that considering all possible topologies and allowing for multi-degree-of-freedom solutions allows for more, higher performing options to be found, ultimately enabling better consideration of engineering tradeoffs. Work in using these morphing mechanisms as morphing dies in polymer extrusion is then presented. Parts made via polymer extrusion are currently limited to a constant cross section. Additionally, the process is very difficult to control, often leading to the final part dimensions being controlled in a manual trial-and-error manner. This work seeks to increase the capability of polymer extrusion by using iterative learning control to control the final width of a rectangular part whose width can change via a simple morphing die. Both simulations and the first known experimental results show that parts with gross shape change can be made via polymer extrusion and have their final dimension controlled autonomously.