lasering puzzles from pictures

[Lynn Kull]

Hi gang, I had someone ask me about being able to laser cut a puzzle from a picture. I have a couple of questions, is there software out there that anyone has used for making puzzle pieces in corel draw that can be used for cutting such as a hairline red outline of the puzzle?

Also what makes the best backer, mount board or a thin wood?

thanks Lynn

[Aaron Koehl]

Hi gang, I had someone ask me about being able to laser cut a puzzle from a picture. I have a couple of questions, is there software out there that anyone has used for making puzzle pieces in corel draw that can be used for cutting such as a hairline red outline of the puzzle?

Also what makes the best backer, mount board or a thin wood?

thanks Lynn
Lynn,

I've been looking into this for quite sometime. I'm looking to create a CorelDraw utility that will overlay a vector-line jigsaw puzzle based on the parameters you specify. I know there are for-purchase plugins and other software, but I prefer to create my own. The only problem is, after dozens of Google searches and seemingly hundreds of websites, I can't seem to find a Jigsaw Puzzle algorithm anywhere.

I consider myself an expert Google searcher, but I've missed this one. Perhaps someone out there knows of an algorithm I can look into? I'm interested primarily in the interlocking, non-repeating puzzle variety (like one might buy in stores).

[Jerry Allen]

Sorry, don't have a place for code unless you can reverse engineer the GMS from Oberon.

The Oberon puzzle creator is a pretty good macro for Draw. If you really use it, I guess it's worth $39.
http://www.oberonplace.com/products/jigsaw/index.htm

[Kate Raap]

I somewhere picked up a Jigsaw puzzle program for Corel Draw. Where? I don't remember. How to use it I'm not sure. But I'd be happy to post the zip file for you to download and look at if you like. And if someone could point me in the direction of how to use it I'd so appreciate it! Just let me know if you'd like to have it posted. As I said I have no idea where I got it from so if you could tell me that too!
Thanks

Nevermind I have just found it is the oberon creator. You can run a trial I guess for 7 days?

[Shaddy Dedmore]

I haven't looked at it yet, but a member of Engraving Etc forum has one on his website. Not sure how advanced it is.

Click Here (http://www.engravingetc.org/forum/messages.php?msg=938.1) for the link to read the thread. Click Here (http://www.engravingetc.org/forum/?msg=938.15) to go right to his post within the thread.

You probably have to be signed in as a member to get there.

[Kate Raap]

I am a member of Engraving Etc. and I will say that those people usually have the best of the best for anyone interested!

[Aaron Koehl]

Sorry, don't have a place for code unless you can reverse engineer the GMS from Oberon.

The Oberon puzzle creator is a pretty good macro for Draw. If you really use it, I guess it's worth $39.
http://www.oberonplace.com/products/jigsaw/index.htm
Yeah, I've looked at Oberon and a few others, which all in all look to be pretty good. I do see a couple of what appear to be repeating pieces in the mix. I would still like to find an algorithm for strictly academic pursuits..

This does give me an idea for a circular, anamorphic, interlocking jigsaw puzzle algorithm for CorelDraw. I'll post a picture of what I mean as soon as I create one...

[Rodne Gold]

The oberon script is a mission for lasering , it takes the image and powerclips it into outlined containers and if you laser cut these (even using a blank image) they double cut. If you spread the pieces apart then you use a huge amount more material as the interlocking lobe type pieces interfere if you jog em along , Or if you select the single line cut only option , the individual pieces are very difficult to split up if larger than your table. We recently used this to make 2 ginormous 2m x 2m puzzles with 279 pieces each. The image was digitally printed and die cut (my printer is a cutter too) and applied to pieces of 3mm while laser cut pex.
We actually tried to laser thru both the printed section and the pex , but we used PVC based vinyl and overlams and the pvc was discolouring. So we vinyl cut and then applied by hand.
We had to split the thing up and it took a real long time to do it as the way the macro constructs the lines means that corel cant really work well with them, eventually I had to import into acad and work on it there and then export back to Corel after really having to work hard to get it to do what I wanted.
One of the problems we also had was HUGE file sizes , probably not an issue with the laser and smaller images , but we already had a huge graphic of approx 40 megs that was being powerclipped into 279 pieces!!!!!!!! (you can extract the FULL image from EACH piece) I think we were in the gigabyte territory and things were going real real slow.
The script does not EVER generate the same puzzle even if you give it exactly the same parameters. So you can never repeat the design of the last puzzle on something else (unless you just keep one and then overlay it on an image and resize it by stretching etc)
At the end of it all , its available for trial , I used it but would probably have done better by designing it myself but I wouldnt buy it. For smaller puzzles without using any image , I think it might be fine.
It's a great application if you can get it right , lots of corporate opportunities like team building excercises where ppl complete a puzzle , as invites to corporate events , as promo items like coasters etc etc. Also a nice line to introduce to craft type shops. If cutting very thick paper or board , we often use nitrogen in our air assist so as to stop charring. We havent had huge success cuting printed stuff of any considerable thickness without traces of edge damage.
Regards

[Linda Tetreault]

Look at scrollsaws.com, Rick has a puzzle layout that's downloadable, he also has lots of projects in cdr files, a real interesting site.

Linda

[Aaron Koehl]

Rodne,

Thanks for the info. Powerclipping is definitely a hog. I think I would overlay the vector lines, but instead of powerclipping, I'd translate the bitmap into bounded regions with transparencies for the overlapping areas of the puzzle pieces--this is better on memory, and would give better flexibility for adding the pieces.

I was thinking of a method for fine tuning, too. A script that would allow you to go through and click on any area of a vector to turn it into an instantly interlocking 2D joint.

[Shaddy Dedmore]

I'm not following the need for powerclipping and overlaying... Looks like that way would be intended to create each piece of the puzzle separately, maybe even on different stock. Wouldn't it be acceptable to just put vector cutting lines accross an image? So you'd raster an image then cut it into pieces. Or take a sublimated or other image source and just laser cut it.

I would me more interested in a script that could just make wavy vector lines with the inputs of: Bounding rectangle/shape dimensions, Column amount, Row amount. Then maybe different complexities. And it wouldn't do anything to the image, it would just create criss-crossed vector lines.

hmmmm. Or maybe it would have too much of a gap this way and the pieces would be too loose. Is that the problem?

I know some VBA in regards to VB and Excel. But I've done very little in Corel (just my cribbage board, resizing selected circles). But now i'm starting to get the bug to investigate this farther. See what you did Aaron?

[Rodne Gold]

The powerclipping is cos the program makes "containers" out of every piece and takes the whole graphic and powerclips it into each container so you have discrete pieces you can work with. Overlaying will work , but if you want to extract one piece you are in for some work (I mean a piece WITH the graphic inside it)
The program DOES make a cut only file which you could overlay on the graphic which is fine for lasering , but that only really works if you dont want to break it up. (IE the puzzle is smaller than your laser table)
The way the pieces fit depend on your spot size and kerf width (cutting width)
If you want a very close tolerance fit on thicker stuff , you have to make sure your beam is perfectly aligned vertically , IE you can cut without sloping sides.

[Aaron Koehl]

The program DOES make a cut only file which you could overlay on the graphic which is fine for lasering , but that only really works if you dont want to break it up. (IE the puzzle is smaller than your laser table)



See what you did Aaron?

I know.. it's addictive!

Powerclipping actually duplicates the entire bitmap for each piece, which is why it's such a memory hog. Powerclipping is powerful, but it's only a "visual" crop, rather than physically cropping the image. (On the upside, powerclipping allows you to reposition the bitmap inside each crop vector, because the "cropped" areas of the bitmap aren't lost). I plan on duplicating the functionality of the powerclip, with the added idea that the bitmap will be physically cropped for each piece, which means there's only one real copy of the bitmap in memory--great for large files.

[Shaddy Dedmore]

I think that would work... if for some reason the image needs to be repositioned, I doubt it would be in just one piece. So i don't really see the need for powerclipping in this case. You'd just have to change your image then start the macro over.

If the pieces were containers (each one a closed shape with an inage inside), you'd still have the double cutting, but the final step could be a Weld maybe. But up until the weld step you'd be able to break them up for images that are too large for your machine like Rodne was talking about.

Too bad I'm not smarter :)

[Lynn Kull]

Thanks for the info guys, I have tested the Oberon product and I think it will fit my needs. I just created a box the size I wanted the puzzle created and it made the puzzle that size and allows you a few different puzzle patterns and lets you determine # of pieces. thanks Lynn