Geographical jigsaw

[xavier.vanvaerenbergh]

Hello!

I am trying to cut a wooden jigsaw where each piece represents a country. In the end, everything should be easy to assemble while not leaving spaces between the countries.

What I did: 

- draw the outline of the countries in Photoshop, then vectorize my drawing in Illustrator => save in SVG

- import that SVG in Fusion 360, extrude each country individually

- separate the countries in order to have enough space between them for the bit to move without touching another country.

- CAM every contour with 2D contouring

My first attempt results in beautiful pieces, very detailed but which are impossible to assemble. I didn't leave any space for imperfections, which are inevitable with a 1/16 bit cutting all the way through 6mm plywood.

Instead of cutting outside the contour, I wonder whether I should cut slightly inside (0.5mm for example) in order to get some clearance allowing the pieces to assemble easier. But I don't now how to do that in CAM, and I don't even know if it would solve the problem. The exact shape of the countries can be altered very slightly, but I would like to keep that detailed aspect which makes it different from commercial puzzles.

I am still quite a newbie as far as Fusion 360 is concerned, so it might very well be that I missed a better option. Any solution that works will be most welcome, as long as it's milling (I don't have the equipment to laser cut).

Many thanks to you all for helping me out!

[GeorgeRoberts]

Hello,

Thanks for posting! You could use the 'stock to leave' option to cut more material away... However, I don't believe this will give you the results you are looking for.

The best way i can think of would be to do this in the Model environment. The countries should be modeled so that they can be cut using your tool and still fit together

[xavier.vanvaerenbergh]

Hello!

I have been playing with this issue, trying out some options.

My main problem comes from the fact that at a certain point, my bit gets too big to carve out some small recesses. The CNC has no trouble cutting out the positive shapes of course, but the recesses are problematic.

So it seems like the only viable option is to just redraw all the contours and limit the smallest recesses to something the bit can carve out. A bit of a hassle, especially since Fusion apparently doesn't automatically highlight the places that won't be cut out by the selected bit, but the only solution anyway.

Many thanks for your answer. I still need to figure out how to precisely edit a SVG in Fusion. If there exists some resource out there explaining precisely how to use Fusion to edit an imported SVG, I would be happy to study it 🙂

For now, I'll just restart the whole process from scratch – drawing - Illustrator - Inkscape - Fusion