Fractal Letter Puzzle - T

[joe]

Now that I got The Email, I realized I need to actually make some of the designs that have been rattling around. This gives me a chance to learn Inkscape better, too.

So this is a play on the Fractal Puzzles. Examples:

Laser Fractal Puzzle

Anyone seen this insane thing yet? Gizmodo just showed it to me.

Fractal puzzle

I could see this be something that a laser such as glowforge could easily cut and make. http://nerdist.com/this-fractal-puzzle-makes-large-pieces-disappear/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dailydot​

My friend saw a video about these on Facebook and made a comment awhile back that he thought they looked really cool, so I decided to make him one, but with a twist. His name starts with a T, so I decided to make the puzzle in the shape of a T.

So I looked into how Fractal puzzles were made. And thus I decided to learn L-systems and how to use the L-System extension in Inkscape. Its really cool actually. Its located under Extensions → Render (see image below).

I decided to go with a Hilbert II Curve for my design.
Axiom: X
Rules: X=XFYFX+F+YFXFY-F-XFYFX;Y=YFXFY-F-XFYFX+F+YFXFY

I connected nodes to make the shape of the T, then deleted the rest of the curve. I added in some extra segments to break it up more and make the puzzle pieces. So, here it is! (Right click and save as to get the SVG).

Thoughts, comments, vicious mockeries?
I really enjoyed making this! I think I might make the whole alphabet!

[gernreich]

Hilbert rocks! I used his curve to minecraft dig

[marmak3261]

Darn! I just started a long print otherwise I would have thrown this one in the GFUI. Great work on this. Thanks for taking the time to get it so exact and show how it was done. Hope you get a Glowforge soon to do this for yourself!

[bdm]

Great post, thank you

[3d_g33k]

Thanks for sharing!!

[gernreich]

Hilbert I seems "wonky"

is it because pixels are not square?

[joe]

Did you do this in inkscape? Did you use A and B for variables? That could be the problem. I think inkscape adds a forward movement to some of the variables. You should change them to X and Y.

Try this. Let me know if this works, I don’t have my computer with me to check.
Axiom: X
Rules: X=-YF+XFX+FY-;+XF-YFY-FX+

[gernreich]

BAM!

[joe]

Woooooooooooooooooooo!

This took me awhile to figure out.

[gernreich]

Thank you!

[joshnmary484]

I got to the point of the L system but cannot for the life of me see how you made this. It’s amazing. I must learn. Is there a tutorial somewhere?

[joe]

Sorry, I haven’t made any tutorials. But, I did explain my process a little more here:

Fractal Letter Puzzle - E

Thanks! I have the Letter T, if you didn’t see it. Fractal Letter Puzzle - T And the final product for the T puzzle. Brought to you by the Letter "T" A few tips. I put blue painters tape over the pieces before I took it out of the Glowforge. This let me hold them all together while removing the pieces to glue the backing on. Paint the backside of the pieces (I actually just used a black sharpie). It will make the puzzle slightly more forgiving if you can’t accidentally put it in upside down. …

Let me know if this helps.

[joshnmary484]

@joe

I connected nodes to make the shape of the T,

How does one connect the nodes? I traced it to bitmap and tried editing paths by node, then selected two nodes and clicked “join selected nodes” and nothing happens. Can I get a play by play with screenshots of just this process? I think I would understand the whole process after that.

[joe]

You don’t want to trace it into a bitmap, you want to leave it as paths. If you turn it into a bitmap you won’t be able to select the nodes after that and the bitmap will hide the paths.

Also, I wouldn’t recommend using Join Selected Nodes. You want to use the add and delete segment tool.

Sorry, with a 15month-old running around, I don’t have much time to create a play by play tutorial. I can try to answer any specific questions you have, but I did most of this through trial and error and googling.