Thanks to Hugo Mak's post here

http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=219315#p219315

I was hit with the idea for this:



It doesn't jumble but I'm not sure it can physically be built. I'm not sure how to keep the circle centers from rotating. Even so it would make a great Gelatin Brain's Applet.

Enjoy,
Carl

If it works like a normal crazy 3x3x3, then this wouldn't work because rotating a slice 45 degrees would also rotate the circles stopping it from being able to rotate again. Also shouldn't this be in puzzle building and modding because it is a concept, not a finished puzzle?

Arg!!! You're correct. And if you're correct about the second point as well could someone move this?

I think you could add 8 more cuts to each face center and edge and unbandage that but its not pretty. Oh well...

Carl

P.S. Did a bit more thinking, adding a finite number of more cuts doesn't help. The only way I see this could be a puzzle is if a 45 degree slice turn was tied to a 90 degree turn of the two opposite face circles (or maybe a 0 degree turn of one and a 90 degree turn of the other). That would allow you to think of the slice and those two circles behaving as a Gear Cube. Ok... maybe I should rename this thread the Mixup Circle Gear Cube idea. But what would control which face rotated by 90 degrees and which didn't rotate at all?

you could always make the circles not be connected to the slice like the normal mixup cube. This way the circle is always fixed instead.
You are trying to attach "pure" twistypuzzle pieces to slidey pieces, and you can't do that, they have to stay seperate.
how and can't you just fix the centers using the x-shaped center piece?

Free floating? Nah... that's too easy. I think the best way to do this is to remember the base puzzle is a 2x2x2 so it should work like a 2x2x2 circle cube. The core may even provide a means for this to work and the slice turns just slide over the core.

I believe all the faces appear locked relative to one corner on a circle 2x2x2. Is that correct?

I believe the term slidey pieces was just defined here recently unless someone was using it before me. I'm still not sure what they can and can't do. Besides... even if they can't... it's still fun to try and break the universe.

Centers and edges trade places... if you fixed the centers to the core you'd just have a 3x3x3 circle cube.

Carl

Atleast to me, any piece can have anything done to it. It doesn't matter if it slides or not.

I'll start a new thread with definitions so that things such as sliding can be agreed upon.

Also I like the idea of making it like a crazy 2x2x2. That would solve the problem and make it even harder to solve

Woah, I was just joking and never thought of somebody would ever mind it at all!
Good luck on building it! (And PLEASE make the circles cover the corners like the circle cube.)

Already have... in POV-Ray at least. Now if Shapeways would just take POV-Ray files.

Here is the non-shape changing version.


Let's take away a few pieces.


And a few more.


Here you can see how the face centers slide.


Here is the core. The red piece is one giant solid piece. So the core of this puzzle is the Fused Cube.


And here you can see the back of a face center and the mech that keeps them from rotating.


How is that for going from a spark of an idea to a finished design is less then 12 hours on a work day?



That would cut the face centers up into 9 pieces instead of the 5 seen here and make for some very tiny pieces. In principle it could be done but I figured this one was the place to start. If ANYONE wants to print one of these feel free. If you make any profit off this design please at least consider giving me a free puzzle.

Enjoy,
Carl

Nice design! What file types can POV export? Also if you wanted to really push the limits, make it void

I made it as a CSG... not a mesh. Here is the code if you want to play with it.

#include "colors.inc"

global_settings { assumed_gamma 2.2 }

camera {
location <7, 4, -8>*5
direction <0, 0, 1.2071>
look_at <0, -.05, 0>
angle 16
}

declare cut = .1;

global_settings {
radiosity {
pretrace_start 0.08
pretrace_end 0.01
count 35

nearest_count 5
error_bound 0.8
recursion_limit 3

low_error_factor 0.5
gray_threshold 0.0
minimum_reuse 0.015
brightness 1

adc_bailout 0.01/2
}
}

sky_sphere {
pigment {
gradient y
color_map {
[0 color Blue*.5+White*.5]
[1 color White*1]
}
scale 2
translate -1
rotate x*-145
rotate y*30
rotate z*180
}
}

declare core = union{
difference {
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.8}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.7}
intersection {
plane {<-1,0,0>,sqrt(2)-8*cut}
plane {<1,0,0>,sqrt(2)-8*cut}
}
intersection {
plane {<0,-1,0>,sqrt(2)-8*cut}
plane {<0,1,0>,sqrt(2)-8*cut}
}
intersection {
plane {<0,0,-1>,sqrt(2)-8*cut}
plane {<0,0,1>,sqrt(2)-8*cut}
}
}

difference {
union {
difference {
box {<-sqrt(2)-2+cut,-sqrt(2)-2+cut,-sqrt(2)-2+cut>,<sqrt(2)+2-cut,sqrt(2)+2-cut,sqrt(2)+2-cut>}
intersection {
plane {<-1,0,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<1,0,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
}
intersection {
plane {<0,-1,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<0,1,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
}
intersection {
plane {<0,0,-1>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<0,0,1>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
}
}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.3}
}

difference {
plane {<1,0,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<1,0,0>,sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2)}
}
difference {
plane {<0,1,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<0,1,0>,sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2)}
}
difference {
plane {<0,0,1>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<0,0,1>,sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2)}
}

difference {
plane {<-1,0,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<-1,0,0>,sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2)}
}
difference {
plane {<0,-1,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<0,-1,0>,sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2)}
}
difference {
plane {<0,0,-1>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<0,0,-1>,sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2)}
}

cylinder {<-10,0,0>,<10,0,0>, sqrt(2)-cut}
cylinder {<0,-10,0>,<0,10,0>, sqrt(2)-cut}
cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,10>, sqrt(2)-cut}
}

pigment { color red 0 green 0 blue 1 }
finish {
ambient 0.0
diffuse 0.8
phong 1
}

}

declare core1 = union {
difference {
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.801}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.699}

plane {<1,0,0>,sqrt(2)-8.001*cut}

plane {<0,1,0>,sqrt(2)-8.001*cut}

plane {<0,0,1>,sqrt(2)-8.001*cut}

}
intersection {
cylinder {<-10,0,0>,<10,0,0>, sqrt(2)-2*cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.302}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<-10,0,0>,<10,0,0>, cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.55}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<-10,.75,0>,<10,.751,0>, cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.55}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<-10,-.75,0>,<10,-.75,0>, cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.55}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<0,-10,0>,<0,10,0>, sqrt(2)-2*cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.302}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<0,-10,0>,<0,10,0>, cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.55}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<0,-10,.75>,<0,10,.75>, cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.55}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<0,-10,-.75>,<0,10,-.75>, cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.55}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,10>, sqrt(2)-2*cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.302}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,10>, cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.55}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<.75,0,-10>,<.75,0,10>, cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.55}
}
intersection {
cylinder {<-.75,0,-10>,<-.75,0,10>, cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.55}
}
difference {
union {
difference {
box {<-sqrt(2)-2.001+cut,-sqrt(2)-2.001+cut,-sqrt(2)-2.001+cut>,<sqrt(2)+2.001-cut,sqrt(2)+2.001-cut,sqrt(2)+2.001-cut>}
intersection {
plane {<-1,0,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<1,0,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
}
intersection {
plane {<0,-1,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<0,1,0>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
}
intersection {
plane {<0,0,-1>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
plane {<0,0,1>,sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)}
}
}
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.301}
}


plane {<1,0,0>,-sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)-.001}
plane {<0,1,0>,-sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)-.001}
plane {<0,0,1>,-sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2)-.001}
}


pigment { color red 1 green 0 blue 0 }
finish {
ambient 0.0
diffuse 0.8
phong 1
}

}

declare piece = union {
difference{
box {<sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2),sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2),-sqrt(2)-2+cut>,<-sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2),-sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2),0>}
sphere {<0,0,0>,sqrt(2)+1.95}

cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,10>, .85+2+cut/sqrt(2) translate <0,2*sqrt(2)+1,0>}
cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,10>, .85+2+cut/sqrt(2) translate <0,-2*sqrt(2)-1,0>}
cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,10>, .85+2+cut/sqrt(2) translate <2*sqrt(2)+1,0,0>}
cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,10>, .85+2+cut/sqrt(2) translate <-2*sqrt(2)-1,0,>}

}

difference {
union{
intersection {
difference {
cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,0>,sqrt(2)-3.5*cut}
sphere {<0,0,0>,sqrt(2)+1.3+cut}
}
sphere {<0,0,0>,sqrt(2)+1.7-cut}
}
difference {
cylinder {<0,0,-sqrt(2)-2+cut+.001>,<0,0,0>,.6}
sphere {<0,0,0>,sqrt(2)+1.3+cut+.001}
}
}
intersection {
sphere {<0,0,0>, sqrt(2)+1.56}
union {
box {<-10,-cut-.001,-10>,<10,+cut+.001,10>}
box {<-10,.75-cut-.001,-10>,<10,.75+cut+.001,10>}
box {<-10,-.75-cut-.001,-10>,<10,-.75+cut+.001,10>}
box {<-cut-.001,-10,-10>,<+cut+.001,10,10>}
box {<.75-cut-.001,-10,-10>,<.75+cut+.001,10,10>}
box {<-.75-cut-.001,-10,-10>,<-.75+cut+.001,10,10>}
}
}
}

pigment {Gray}
finish {
ambient 0.0
diffuse 0.8
phong 1
}
}

declare piece2 = difference{
union {
intersection {
sphere {<0,0,0>,sqrt(2)+1.94}
plane {<-1,1,0>,-1.5*cut}
plane {<-1,-1,0>,-1.5*cut}
}
intersection {
box {<sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2),sqrt(2)-cut/sqrt(2),-sqrt(2)-2+cut>,<-sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2),-sqrt(2)+cut/sqrt(2),0>}
cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,10>, .85+2-.05 translate <2*sqrt(2)+1,0,0>}
}
}
sphere {<0,0,0>,sqrt(2)+1.86}
cylinder {<0,0,-10>,<0,0,10>, .61}
plane {<-1,0,0>,0 rotate -y*22.2}

pigment {Green}
finish {
ambient -0.2
diffuse 0.8
phong 1
}
}

declare face = union {
object {piece}
object {piece2}
object {piece2 rotate z*90}
object {piece2 rotate z*-90}
object {piece2 rotate z*180}
}

object {core}
object {core1}
object {face}
object {face rotate x*45}
object {face rotate x*90}
object {face rotate x*135}
object {face rotate x*180}
object {face rotate x*225}
object {face rotate x*270}
object {face rotate x*315}

object {face rotate y*45}
object {face rotate y*90}
object {face rotate y*135}
object {face rotate y*225}
object {face rotate y*270}
object {face rotate y*315}

object {face rotate x*90 rotate z*45}
object {face rotate x*90 rotate z*135}
object {face rotate x*90 rotate z*225}
object {face rotate x*90 rotate z*315}

light_source { <-10, 3, -20> color red .1 green .1 blue .1 }
light_source { <10, 3, -20> color red .5 green .5 blue .1 }

I think I found a problem with your mech

When rotating the red piece, the 3 centers around it would rotate with the cube.

If you rotate a face with the red piece the oposite face center will rotate with it. As was intened. The pieces around the equator will slide over the core as they have groves cut to allow the 3 fingers on each face to pass under them.

Carl

I like the grove idea but unless the red piece is a different color, it will make this cube kind of like the nightmare cube. Only half of the 6 axis would act crazy.

Isn't that how the circle 2x2x2 works? If the faces are stickered it should be easy to figure out which corner is attached to the core so you should aways know what a move does. If you live in the USA just make it the red, white, and blue corner.

Carl

I only own a crazy 4x4x4 so I'm not sure.

If you live in a country with red, green, and yellow on the flag, you could make the red, green, and yellow corner the special one

Ok... I took a few short cuts on Friday to make the pretty picture above. I went back to clean things up knowing I'd have to fix a few things but I found it easier to start over. Above I started from the outside and worked my way in. I used cylindrical cuts where I should have used conical cuts. I made the core too big so the layers near the surface are FAR too thin. And the puzzle above has no chance of turning. The 22.5 degree angle face and edge meet at means those surfaces need to be Olzed to rotate smoothly. Also the green pieces above don't allow the circle rotations as the green pieces that should rotate run into the green pieces that shouldn't. All that has been fixed now and I built this puzzle from the inside out now and have double checked everything. I made all the spherical shells inside this puzzle the same thickness and all my cylindrical cuts that should have been conical cuts are now just that.

Here is what the puzzle looks like.


And here is a pic taken mid rotation with many of the pieces missing to give you an idea what goes on... on the inside.


Anyone wanting to try and make a printable puzzle of this DON'T use the POV-Ray code above that I shared. It won't work.
I do have code that I believe will NOW work but to get it that way I had to do a fair bit more math then I expected to. If you are interested in helping me turn this into something I can put on Shapeways let me know and I'll share the code with you.

Enjoy,
Carl

Here are a couple more pics showing the redesigned insides...

These are the pieces which rotate with a face turn containing the red corner:


And just another general pic:


Enjoy,
Carl

Here are a few more pictures:

Mid-Turn from the solved state:


Mid-Turn from a scrambled state:


Maybe this should be called the Thorny Cube.

Enjoy,
Carl

I don't know what blows my mind more; that you came up with a design like this, or that you did it using POV-Ray

I'm speechless and am still trying to get my head around how this puzzle works. It makes my most complex design (which hopefully will show its face soon enough) look like child's play.

Sorry for the +month bump, but I cannot believe I missed out this topic!
(well... being at that time in the middle of some huge puzzle event may give me some excuses!)

When the name "Mixup Cube" was mentioned recently, I thought, where did this name come from?
And after a quick search I ended up on this terrific post.

I just want to say that I love the concept and the way it may be implemented mechanically.
Thorn mechanism it is!




Pantazis

I sure don't mind.

The link to this thread was posted just 4 posts above the post you link to. I wasn't trying to make it hard to find.

Thanks. I hope to be able to get it printed someday when I have more time and money. I'd love to offer it on Shapeways.

Carl

This is a 8 day bump, but it's worth it, because we will soon have a Mixup Gear Cube!!!!!!!!!!

- Greg

This is more like a flowery/curvy Gear cube.

It does have the same moves a a mixup cube though, look at the second last picture

And read the description btw: it is a mixup gear cube!!!

- Greg

Woooooooo! This was my idea a while back (or at least I was one of the people with the idea) and I'm so glad it may be made!!! Thanks Oskar!

WOW!!! Great puzzle. One I've been asking about and hoping for as well. However I'm not sure this is the best thread to talk about it in. Talking about the Mixup Gear Cube in a thread about the Mixup Circle Cube is bound to create some confusion. Take this post for example...



Are we talking about Oskar's Mixup Gear cube? He didn't call it a Mixup Circle Cube.

Carl

My bad: mixup gear cube indeed lol

- Greg

An update...

I've been working with Steryne via Skype for several hours over several weekends and we now have the basic geometry into mesh form. We still need to hollow the pieces, add fillets, and add tolerances/gaps between pieces. But the Mixup Circle Cube is much much closer to being printable.

If you know how to play with 3D pfd files check out this:

http://www.wwwmwww.com/Puzzle/MixupCircleCube/MCC_11-7-10.pdf

You start with a view like this:


But since this is a 3D pdf you can hide any part you like, rotate it to look at it from any angle, isolate individual pieces to look at them in detail etc. Here is an example of a view you can make.


Enjoy,
Carl

I'm not sure Olzed was the correct word here but I was talking about the needed (or so I thought) gap seen at the surface between the green circle pieces. I now see how to remove this gap from the surface but to do so I need to modify the face centers, the edges, the corners, the core, and all 3 types of circle pieces. All the new surfaces are seen in yellow here:



Here is a larger version if it helps:
http://wwwmwww.com/Puzzle/MixupCircleCube/Final99L.png

If you add some tolerance to the cuts that opening opens up more then the others as the circle pieces just touch at an edge at the surface. The two planar surfaces of these neighboring pieces actually meet at 45 degrees so any tolerance or filleting does open up this gap a bit.



Here is a 3D pdf with no tolerance added to most of the surfaces but there are fillets. So I think we are just about ready to print version 2 of the Thorny Cube. Any of you puzzle printing experts want to take a peak at this and let me know if you see any issues you'd deal with differently?
http://wwwmwww.com/Puzzle/MixupCircleCube/fs_3.13.11.pdf

Thanks,
Carl

This is an awesome looking puzzle Carl. If it ever reaches shapeways, ill have to buy one.

- Pierce

I've been asked to go into what I did here to DeOlze this puzzle in a bit more detail to help someone else understand what I did so they can apply it to their designs.

By DeOlzing I simply mean to remove the openings at the surface of the puzzle which I thought were necessary initially.

Let's start by looking at this picture.



Here I'm using the simplier Mixup Cube as an example and I've also removed the mech needed to hold the puzzle together to keep the focus on this DeOlzing process. First the core of the puzzle is a sphere cut with conical cuts. Here you see a gap between adjacent slidey pieces. This gap is needed to allow smooth rotation. Without this gap the center of the slidey pieces would be wider then the opening between 2 adjacent corners. Its this gap what you see in the early versions of my Thorny Cube above. However this gap doesn't need to be propogated all the way to the surface. Outside the spherical core are the cubies of the Mixup Cube. They are cut with planar cuts. Looking at the face center cubie there are planar cuts which make a 45 degree angle with the outer face. This allows the line at the edge to meet flush with a line on the edge cubie and to close this opening. In this example I didn't apply a fillet to these lines as that opens up the space between the face centers and the edges and I wanted to show how to close that space.

Applying a fillet to those lines is one of the current issues with the Thorny Cube. It makes the thorns near the face centers looser then I'd like. I have ideas on how to fix that and there will be a version 3 of the Thorny Cube at somepoint.

Anyways here is the 3D PDF file I used to make the above picture:

http://wwwmwww.com/Puzzle/DeOlzing.PDF

You can click on an hide parts to make a view like the above. You can also rotate things and look at it from any angle at any size you like. I hope this help. If there are any questions let me know.

Thanks,
Carl