Why?

Cropping is an essential part of creating a puzzle. What you choose to include vs discard plays a big role in how easy, fun, difficult, or engaging a puzzle can be.

Why is cropping so important? Here are two reasons why:

• Framing
  • Cropping is how you “frame” a 3D model, similar to how you’d frame a photo. You get to choose what you’re including in the puzzle and what you’re not.
• Smooth edges
  • As most jigsaw puzzles go, the border of the puzzle should be smooth and straight.
  • What you shouldn’t do is simply delete polygons (which produce jagged edges) but rather boolean/remesh so that edges are straight.

Simplest Tool - MeshMixer

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to import a model into Meshmixer and use the plane tool to crop away the watertight polygons created from a photogrammetry model in RealityCapture:

1. Open Meshmixer and drag & drop the 3d model you’d like to edit.
   1. Meshmixer supports .stl and .obj file formats.
2. Once your model is imported, you can use the mouse to rotate, pan, and zoom in on the model to get a better view.
3. To crop away the watertight polygons using the plane tool, click on "Edit" in the top menu bar and select "Plane Cut" from the dropdown menu.
4. A plane will appear on the model. You can adjust the position and angle of the plane by dragging the handles on the sides and corners of the plane.
5. Once you have positioned the plane where you want to crop the model, click on the "Accept" button in the "Plane Cut" menu.
6. The model will now be cropped along the plane you created, and the watertight polygons will be removed.
7. You can now export the cropped model by clicking on "Export" in the top menu bar and selecting the desired file format.

And that's it! You've successfully imported your model into Meshmixer and used the plane tool to crop away the watertight polygons created from a photogrammetry model in RealityCapture.

Advanced Tool - Blender

Blender is a better tool for advanced 3D cropping than Meshmixer because it allows for more complex shapes to be used in the Boolean operation (amongst many, many other things). Blender can use cylinders, cubes, and more complicated shapes, which can be created using Bezier curves.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use Blender to crop a 3D model using a cylinder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9hiExKqdIU

1. Open Blender and import your 3D model by clicking on "File" > "Import" and selecting the file type of your scan.