A puzzle cut file that is
cut once and fits together
Two pieces that touch share one line, drawn one time — so a laser cuts it one time, and the knob on one side is exactly the socket on the other. Everything is millimeters on a real sheet. È gratis. Davvero.
- Cut once, not twice.
- The joint between two pieces is one line in the file. Export the pieces separately and every interior line is cut twice — so the tool writes the shared cut by default and says which is which.
- Seven ways to cut a joint.
- The classic interlocking knob, a round-headed one, a straight-line dovetail, a triangular dart, a wave, a zigzag, or nothing at all. Size, undercut and randomness are yours.
- Seven ways to divide a board.
- A square grid, a brick course, rhombi, triangles, hexagons, rings and sectors, or an irregular Voronoi where no two pieces are alike.
- Any outline.
- A rectangle, a circle, a heart, a star, an arch — or an SVG you drop on it. Pieces are cut to the shape, not stopped at the nearest grid line.
- Nothing is uploaded.
- The picture, the drawing and the file all stay in the browser. There is no account and no server.
- The same puzzle twice.
- One seed decides every knob. Keep it and the cut comes back exactly as it was; change it and shuffle.
What it does
A sheet, and five decisions about it
How big, how it is divided, how the joints are cut, what shape it is, and what is printed on it.
The sheet
- A4, A3, A2, Letter, square, or a size of your own
- A margin the puzzle is held off the edge by
- The puzzle its own size in millimeters, not a share of the sheet
- Everything in millimeters, out at that size
How it is cut up
- Square, brick, diamond, triangle or hexagon
- Rings and sectors, with one disc in the middle
- Voronoi, for pieces no two of which are alike
- Columns and rows, or rings and sectors, as figures
What a joint looks like
- The classic knob: a neck narrower than the head
- Round, dovetail, dart, wave, zigzag or straight
- Knob size, undercut, wobble and where it sits
- A share of joints left plain, to mix it up
The shape of the whole thing
- Rectangle, rounded, circle, ellipse, hexagon
- Heart, star, arch, cloud, diamond, triangle
- Or your own SVG, dropped on it and set to any size
- Pieces cut to the shape, kept whole, or dropped
Features
Everything the tool holds
Written out, because a file that is going to a laser is one you should be able to decide about.
The sheet
Where the puzzle sits.
- A4, A3, A2, Letter, square and the 12″ cutter bed
- Any size of your own, turned with one press
- A margin, and the puzzle its own width and height
- Millimeters throughout, in and out
Lattices
How the board is divided.
- Square, brick with an adjustable offset, diamond
- Triangles, and hexagons stretched to the board
- Rings and sectors, with a disc in the middle
- Voronoi, with scatter and Lloyd relaxation
Joints
What is cut between two pieces.
- Classic, round, dovetail, dart, wave, zigzag, straight
- Knob size as a per cent of the joint it sits on
- Undercut, from a firm lock to none at all
- Shape wobble, and how far the knob slides along
- Knobs out, in, alternating or at random
- A share of joints cut plain
The outline
The shape of the puzzle.
- Eleven silhouettes, or a drawing you drop on it
- Your own shape at any size, its proportions kept or stretched
- A corner radius, and a star with any number of points
- Edge pieces cut to the shape, kept whole, or dropped
- The outer line on or off
The picture
For a puzzle that is printed.
- PNG, JPEG or WebP, read in the browser
- Cover, contain or stretch, with scale and offset
- Embedded once and clipped to every piece
- Left out of the file if it is only for looking at
Look and output
What is drawn and what leaves.
- Line color and weight, and a ground or none
- Pieces pushed apart, to see them separately
- Numbers on the pieces, counted or by row and column
- SVG, PDF, DXF and PNG
- The shared cut, or the pieces one by one
How it works
From a blank sheet to a cut file
Four steps, and none of them leaves the page.
Set the sheet
A4, A3 or a size of your own, and how far the puzzle is held off the edge.
Divide it
A lattice and a piece count. The figure over the drawing says what it came to.
Cut the joints
A knob family, its size and how much it wobbles. Or a wave, if it is not meant to lock.
Save it
SVG or PDF for a die, DXF for a laser, PNG to look at. The shared cut, or the pieces.
Who it is for
What people cut with it
The jobs it was built around.
Laser-cut puzzles
A DXF on a CUT and a BORDER layer, at the size of the ply on the bed. Every joint is one line, so every joint is one pass.
Printed puzzles
Your photograph, fitted to the board, with the cut over it. Print, mount, and cut by hand or with a plotter.
Shaped promotional pieces
A puzzle cut to a logo you drop on it as SVG — a mailer that is the brand mark rather than a rectangle with it printed on.
Die lines for board puzzles
A PDF in millimeters with the cut and the outline on named layers, ready to hand to a die maker.
Teaching and therapy sets
Big pieces, numbered on the back, in a shape a child will pick up. Two rows by three, and a dovetail that holds.
Trying an idea out
Change the seed and it is a different puzzle with the same settings. Change the lattice and it is a different kind of puzzle.
FAQ
Good to know
Is anything uploaded?
No. The puzzle is generated, the picture is read and the file is written in your browser. There is no account and no server.
What is the difference between the shared cut and the pieces?
The shared cut has each joint in it once — two pieces that touch have one line between them, so a laser cuts it one time. Exporting the pieces gives every piece its own closed loop, which is what you want for clipping a picture or for a per-piece look, and which cuts every interior line twice if you send it to a machine.
Do I need to allow for the kerf?
No, and you should not. The kerf is the clearance: the knob and the socket are the same line, so whatever the beam takes out becomes the gap between them. Offsetting each piece inward would give you twice the gap you wanted.
Which of the joints actually hold together?
Classic, round and dovetail — all three have a head wider than the neck it has to come back through, which is what locking is. Dart, wave and zigzag do not, and are for a puzzle that is mounted or cut from card. The undercut setting takes any of the first three down to no lock at all.
Why do the pieces round the edge of a circle look different?
They have been cut to the outline, so their outer edge is the circle rather than a grid line, and that part of them is written as a fine polygon rather than as a curve. Everything the outline does not touch keeps its curves. If you would rather not have partial pieces, set edge pieces to be kept whole or dropped.
Can I use my own shape?
Yes — drop an SVG on the Shape tab and its outline becomes the puzzle. Paths, rectangles, circles, ellipses and polygons are read; strokes, text and embedded pictures have no outline to take, so a file with none of the first kind comes back as an error rather than as a guess.
How many pieces can it do?
Hundreds comfortably. Past about twelve hundred the preview starts to think between keystrokes, and the tool says so rather than letting you wonder.
Is it free?
Yes. Every service here is free and needs no account.
Cut a puzzle
A sheet, a piece count and a shape. The file is in millimeters and the joints fit.