I wish to present to your attention 3x3x3 Circle Cube. It is the second joint project with Dave Litwin. First was 2x2x2 Circle Cube.
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8445&p=86308#p86308
I hope you will like it.

Thank you very much, Dave, for help to bring this puzzle to life!
Video: http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=T0biKTiYhjc

*Makes lots of silly noises that probably only small children make.* WOAH.

This is one of the most amazing puzzles!

That is amazing!

Can you show us some internals or is that top secret?
I'm so intrigued!

,

I was wondering what Aleh was working on, it had been a while...

Thanks for the mention Aleh! My part in this was minor, mostly some laser cut acrylic and stickers.

It is even prettier in person

Although it may not look it, this is not a small puzzle (80mm edge length). Aleh has large hands so you can't really tell from the video.

Dave

Wow, really amazing! What mech? I guess void, i dont even know if that makes sence...

I have an idea on how to make this out of a regular 3x3 but I do not know if it will work

It is simply fantastic. Amazing. Don't know what else to say. I'm speechless.

Thomas

.....and another puzzle gets added to my Wish List. Excellent job!

This puzzle is essentially a Pyraminx Ultimate or a 3x3x5 with all faces modified and then cut down.

However saying "essentially" is underplaying the fantastic workmanship of this great puzzle.

Outstanding! I love it! I'm always impressed with new mechanisms and innovative thinking.
Well done!

For anyone not seeing it, its a 5x5. Rounded centers.

I bet that theoretically this is possible with a void cube and a normal rubik's cube core... although I believe the circular edge pieces would have to be 3D printed. Altogether, fantastic puzzle!

It looks perfect!

I don't anticipate Aleh will want to reveal the mechanism (in the near term at least) but I have to say look at the video, as well as how the 2x2x2 circle cube moves. It is a very hard puzzle to solve because of the way the face turns to not turn the face centers.

This isn't a 3x3x3 mod and it is not nearly as simple as rounding 5x5x5 centers (which I don't think will even work like rounding the centers of a Rubik's 4x4x4).

Dave

Wow, quite astounding. Great job as always.

I think Jin nailed the mechanism here. If not, it must be pretty elaborate internally

Great work Aleh!

Aleh, that is just amazing. I love all your work.
I thought the faces were like trimmed 3x3x5 at first, but they dont turn when their face turns. Must be a very clever mech.

Very clever indeed; nice work!

Hmm.. Clearly I wasn't paying close enough attention to the pictures and didn't watch the video. I will revise my theory and say that the puzzle is...

Well actually I don't have an idea quite just yet. Fantastic work.

Those were my thoughts too. The mechanism seems to be a novel one!




Pantazis

I think there is an East Sheen 4x4x4 inside.

Thomas

It looks like it bears a relation to a 3x3x3cube, except the centre axis are completely fixed and don't even rotate. The edges look like they're composed of 3 pieces, one like a 3x3 edge with two circular sections, and the corners likewise but with 3 circular sections. The fixed axis stop the circular edge parts and circular corner parts rotating when a face is rotated, and allow the outer "cube" parts to rotate as normal, but I can't quite figure how the circular parts are held in.

Is that something like it?

Sorry, more to the point... Wow! what a beauty!

The cream of puzzle design.
Before I saw the video I was thinking it would be difficult to turn the centres, but I see the centres are fixed.

wow great disign.!

Could we see internal pieces?

I disagree, but I would love to be proven wrong. I have theories in my head as to how it works. It involved locked centers. I'll explain more if need be, but I'm waiting to hear more from Aleh and Dave.

I wish I would have the opportunity to try out this puzzle. It seems like it would be a moderately challenging solve.

Noah, if you look, you will notice that slice moves allow for center rotation! SOOO, it is in fact only partially locked. So how is it done?!!

I agree with noah on the locked centers theory.

The slice moves are practically rotations of the top and bottom layers for instance and both centers remained stationary in reference to the said top and bottom layers.

Wow! Incredible design and execution. Unbelievable

centers like 5x5 then 3x3 solve?

Not quite.

It seems like the puzzle is, in terms of solving, a 5x5x5 where one can only move the middle 3 slices. I'll have to play around with this at some point on my 5x5x5 and see if this is poses any significant problems...

I'm guessing the circles don't extend down as a cylinder, at least not very far, otherwise the corners would be cut off. I kind of follow Jin's 3x3x5 idea, but I'm not sure how to keep the centers locked.

I think it is a fixed center and a circular void with little pieces to fill in the gaps.

Very Cool.

Credit to Fractangle for coming the closest so far!

Aleh will post some pictures of the internals in the future and has given me the nod to talk about the mechanism a bit. This is probably best done in the Puzzle Building forum, and I'll add a link here when that post is created.

In the mean time, here is a teaser:

It is built on a VCube 5x5x5. Each turn of the Circle Cube 3x3x3 face moves to the inner V5 slice so when you rotate it the centers of the adjoining face do not move.

The V5 corners and V5 outside edges are rounded and hidden in the puzzle. The outside Circle cube 3x3x3 pieces aren't connected to the inner puzzle at all, they are held in by the rounded extensions of the inner V5 center pieces.

So while you can solve the inner circle pieces with the same moves as solving the inner centers of a 5x5x5, doing this while also solving the outer 3x3x3 will require an other set of considerations.

Dave

Oh I get it! Wow, as a puzzle I think this is just about the best cubic one I've seen yet! I love solving the 5x5x5 centers, but I hate the 5x5 edges, maybe Aleh has designed a puzzle that I can enjoy all around! Great job, I gotta buy one sometime if they'll be up for sale.

I'm seeing a 4x4 and 5x5 circle cube coming, man, a 5x5 circle cube would be a monster!

Very interesting. When I saw it, I thought it had a solid core holding the centers fixed in place, and then the outer 3x3x3 pieces moved freely. This gives me some interesting ideas...

You can find details on the mechanism of Aleh's 3x3x3 Circle Cube here, as well as any answers to questions posted here outside the scope of New Puzzles.

Dave

rediculously awesome, cant wait to see pics o the mech

Puzzle of the year? Quite possibly.

There are ALOT of puzzles of the year this year...

I vote that 2008 should be at least three years!

I just realized something. Could you use a similar method to make a 3x3 babyface out of a V-Cube 5?

just build it up from the circle

haha "just"

Isn't a babyface just that thing where the pieces are connected directly to the centers of a rubik's cube and you try to match the colors on all sides, like dominoes? Why would you need a 5x5 for that?

ok, got it, I love centers so, 3x3 babyface sounds like a good idea!