MappSmith — Jigsaw puzzle maps (Beta)
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Can I add names, the place and a saying?
Yes, under Words on the Puzzle card. Each line is optional and has its own font and size, and each can be engraved on the frame, made as a raised piece on the frame, or engraved on the map. A raised piece is cut from its own sheet with its letters joined by a strip along the bottom (the counters ... -
Can the pieces follow my shape instead of sitting in a frame?
Yes, and they do unless you ask for a frame: the pieces are cut right to the outline, a circle, a state, a heart, any shape. Tick "A frame round the pieces" for a band round them. With the frame on, the band is one piece round the puzzle; you set its width, the corners on a rectangle, its wood, a... -
How do I choose how many pieces?
Leave "From a piece size" ticked and set the piece size: the card works out the rows and columns from your board and suggests them. Untick it to set rows and columns yourself. Knob size sets how big the tabs are, Randomness how much each knob and corner wanders, and Shuffle the pieces gives a new... -
How do I turn a map into a jigsaw puzzle?
Two ways. Pick Jigsaw puzzle in the Product list. It starts a real puzzle (engraved, no frame, cut right to the edge) and offers the other ways beside it. Or tick Jigsaw on the Puzzle card under Product, on any map you already have: a city, a lake, a state shape, a heart, a clock. The puzzle is ... -
In HARD, what happens to tiny bits of road?
Each piece's roads are joined to the rim round that piece, so its top is one part to glue, not a handful of strips. Any bit the jigsaw would still cut off on its own, smaller than "Smallest bit" (30 mm² to start), is left off, and specks of waste between a road and the rim are filled in. Set Rim ... -
What are the ways to make one?
Engraved + cut (the default): one board, the map engraved and the whole board cut into pieces right to its edge. No frame: the outline is the outer cut, so every piece comes free and the edge pieces have straight sides. Layered (HARD): a real puzzle in two layers. The base is cut by the jigsaw, a... -
What do Kerf and Smallest piece do?
Kerf: a laser removes a line of material, so pieces cut from one shared line are loose by that much. One shared line cannot be moved to make both sides bigger, so instead each knob is made to lock: its neck is pinched and its head swollen by the kerf, so it cannot slide out of its socket. Set it ... -
It cut the board along the main roads as well as the jigsaw, so the pieces followed the streets. Layered (HARD) does the roads-matter version better: the roads stand up as their own layer and every piece keeps a puzzle shape. A design saved as Road-cut still opens and cuts as it did.
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Which sheets get the puzzle lines?
The top solid sheet by default (every solid sheet in Layered HARD). Choose "Every sheet" on the Puzzle card to cut or score every solid sheet the same way. Sheets of raised streets and frame rings are never cut into a puzzle. In the cut files the puzzle lines are their own PUZZLE layer: on the cu... -
Will LightBurn cut the shared edges twice?
No. Every edge two pieces share is drawn once, as part of one long line, so the laser runs it once. The pieces are found as the closed shapes those lines make, so every piece is closed, and the lines run a hair past the outline so no whisker of wood holds two pieces together. Our own tests check ...