Introduction: Personalized QR Code Puzzle Gift With Fusion 360

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Over the years I made a lot of personalized puzzles for my girlfriend which led her to a gift. Even better if you make your own gift as well, but for now let's focus on the puzzle :)

I did a couple of puzzles in which solving the puzzle gave her a QR code which let her to the gift.

At some point, as a gift, I bought shoes for her. In search for a puzzle I came across the "dancing shoes".

In this instructable you will create your own personalized dancing shoes. If you have some experience with Fusion, the drawing will take you an hour. Printing with a 0.6mm nozzle and 0.4mm layer height will take around 4 hours on a Prusa MK4.

You can use any 3D modeling software you like which let you create extrudes from vectors but in this instructable I'm using Fusion 360.

I'll try to show all steps but it does help if you have some previous experience in Fusion. There are great instructables to get you started.

You can follow the steps below but I recommend watching the attached YouTube video of all the steps.

Nice to know: how does a QR code work

dancing shoes example

Supplies

  • Working Fusion 360 installation
  • 3d Printer
  • at least 2 contrasting colors of filament
  • glue

Step 1: QR Code

Create your QR code on https://www.qrcode-monkey.com

I choose the design as shown in the picture because round shapes are easier to print.

Take the "text" option and limit the number of characters to 14. This will result in a "Version 1" 21x21 QR code which is easiest to read by QR code scanners.

As an example, use the name of the location where you are hiding a gift like: garden shed.

You can try with more characters but I'm not sure it will work.

Save QR code as SVG file.

Step 2: Download and Import Vectors

  • Insert all 4 dxf files into your fusion project. As a sketch plane use the XY Plane in the origin.
  • Insert the QR code also on XY Plane. Rescale to 0.4 and add X and Y distance -63.5mm to center the QR code.
  • Hide all sketches.

Attachments

Step 3: Pieces

  • Unhide ds_pieces sketch
  • Extrude all 5 pieces from ds_pieces sketch 2.6mm
  • Hide the pieces sketch and all bodies.
  • Show the qr_code sketch
  • Start new extrude
  • Select all by dragging a selecting border around the QR code.
  • Deselect all elements which don't need to be extruded.
  • Unhide bodies
  • extrude 3.0mm. choose type "join" on the extrude.
  • hide QR code sketch
  • hide bodies
  • show margin sketch.
  • Start extrude
  • Select outside area of pieces.
  • Unhide bodies
  • extrude 3.2mm with type "cut"
  • hide margin sketch and show ds_top sketch
  • extrude top with offset of 2.6mm and distance 0.4mm with type "cut"

You end up with 5 pieces with the QR code on the pieces.

Step 4: Bottom

  • Hide the 5 bodies
  • hide all sketches except bottom
  • select all areas of bottom sketch and extrude -1.8mm
  • select border area of bottom sketch and extrude 3.4mm

Optional

  • create a new text area with a personal message
  • explode the text
  • extrude the text to -0.8mm

Step 5: Top

  • Hide all bodies and sketches
  • Create offset plane 3.2mm from XY Plane
  • Show ds_top sketch
  • extrude top 2.2mm from object and select the new offset plane as the object
  • hide new body and hide ds_top
  • show qr_code sketch
  • start extrude of 2.6mm from the offset plane and select relevant parts of the QR code which will end up on the top
  • show top body and select join.
  • hide top body and QR code sketch
  • show ds_top sketch
  • start extrude of 3.0mm from offset plane and select middle part.
  • show top body and choose cut

You should now have 7 bodies. 5 pieces, the top and the bottom with the QR code on the pieces and the top.

I added some colors to the bodies in the screenshot to make it easier to see the QR code but this is not necessary for the project.

Step 6: Export 3d Objects

Export all 7 bodies by right clicking them in the object tree and selecting save as mesh.

Step 7: Slicing and Printing

I use prusa slicer in the screenshots but the steps are similar in different slicers. I use a 0.6mm nozzle with a 0.4mm layer height and a 0.2mm first layer. (printing times with these settings) If you use a smaller nozzle I recommend to print with a 0.2mm layer height.

  • Bottom: add a color change at 1.4mm layer if you added an optional text to the bottom. 1h51m. 66gram.
  • Pieces: add a color change at 3.0mm layer. (You can use the prusa option which detects a logo or sign). 1h22m. 46gram.
  • Top: add a color change at 2.6mm layer. (You can use the prusa option which detects a logo or sign). 49m. 29gram.

Step 8: Putting Everything Together

Glue the top onto the bottom.

Test your puzzle and test the QR code scanning.

Done!