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Step 1: Design a Puzzle
==Step 1: Design a Puzzle==
To create our design, we raster an image into a sheet of MDF. You can create a design from scratch using Inkscape, however, for this example we are using an image found online. Recall that the laser cutter rasters shapes which are the color black. Understanding this, all we need to do is transform our bitmap image into a black and white image. Luckily for us, Inkscape's “Trace Bitmap“ command will do exactly that. After selecting the image you want to use, open it in Inkscape. Now, click to select the image and from the top toolbar select Path > Trace Bitmap… This will bring up the Trace Bitmap menu. Notice that there are several trace modes (Brightness cutoff, edge detection, color quantization, etc). These are all slightly different and some modes may work better for different images. For now let’s select “brightness cutoff” which will turn pixels black that are between a certain brightness range. Click “Live Preview” at the bottom to examine the changes you are making. Now, toy around with the threshold values until you get something you are happy with. Click “OK” to apply the changes.<br />
