Six Seven 3

Sixes and Sevens is a series of 3D Symmetry Puzzles that I designed myself. Each puzzle consists of a 6-unit piece and a 7-unit piece, your challenge is to make symmetric shape out of these two.

Again by replacing 1 piece from Six Seven 2, we got Six Seven 3. I rated it hardest in the series. There are, you guessed it right, 3 solutions. Can you find them all?

The pieces in the photos are made using Lego-like (actually LiveCube-like) bricks, which looks good but is a pain in ass to print. The actual 3D model is made by OpenSCAD+Puzzlecad with standard burr-piece look instead. One of the pieces need support to print, which is fine in this case - Symmetry puzzles are friendly in dimentional accuracy compared to other mechnical puzzles.

Happy Printing & Happy Puzzling Forever!

What is Symmetry Puzzle

Symmetry Puzzle is somewhat similar to Tangram. But contrary to Tangram which dates back to hundreds of years ago, the first symmetry puzzle occurs just in this century. The goal of a Symmetry Puzzle is to arrange all the pieces to form a symmetric shape, any shape is accepted as long as it has symmetry. The solution is often bizarre and hard to find, sometimes you don't even know you get the right shape by failing to recognize its symmetry.

I like Symmetry Puzzles, I especially like 3D printing them. Symmetry Puzzles don't require a packing tray or board (which usually consumes more filaments than pieces), and usually consist of only a few pieces, which makes them very efficient to print. Considering relatively long solving time, Symmetry Puzzles definitely worth printing.

• Symmetry Puzzles are hard, the more the pieces the harder the puzzle become. It's common to take a long time to fully solve a 3-Piece Symmetry Puzzle, and even 2 pieces can make a good puzzle.

  • And yes, there's even 1-piece Symmetry Puzzle that is available to print for yourself. Your task is to determine whether that piece has symmetry, and in case it has, explain what symmetry?

• No packing tray not only save filament cost, it also get rid of worry about tolerance. Tolerance is crucial for most other mechanical puzzles, but tolerance varies for everybody. More often than not when I 3D print a puzzle with packing box or tray, it's either too tight that pieces can't fit in or too loose that I thought I solved it but what I found actually can't work if tolerance is right.

  • No tolerance worry also give you freedom to scale a Symmetry Puzzle to any size,  be it last meter saver or big ornament…

• Some Symmetry Puzzles have multiple challenges / solutions, so print once and enjoy multiple aha moments. In this situation, some challenges are often less difficult, while finding all solutions remain a big challenge. These puzzles are suitable for every player of any puzzle skill level.

If you are interested in Symmetry Puzzles, please visit my collection of all Symmetry Puzzles on this site - I wish there are more but that's all I found. If I missed any please let me know.

Happy Printing & Happy Puzzling Forever!