Post by jonjel on Sept 2, 2013 11:43:47 GMT 1
Here is a puzzle for those who are bored, or bright!
Over the weekend I have been moving tonnage of old natural stone slabs in preparation in the construction of a small ‘patio’ where I can sit and have a glass or two in evening sunshine. They are the old floor of my cottage which were dug up and retrieved during the rebuilding process. Unfortunately unlike standard concrete slabs from the garden centres these are random sizes. They vary from little 30cm squares which are light and easy to perhaps 45cm x 60cm x maybe 6cm thick ball breakers. Very few are exactly the same size. I have perhaps 60 of them in various sizes.
And here is the problem. I don’t want, nor do I have the energy to shuffle these around so I get a nice aesthetic fit with reasonably even gaps. Nor do I want to do an inordinate amount of cutting. I have done that before and even with the right kit it takes forever.
I could mark the stones with chalk 1-60, measure them then add a margin for the gaps following which I could cut out lots of scaled paper squares and set about creating a jig-saw puzzle, which is plan ‘A’
But I was wondering, is there a nice easy to use and download pc programme which, if I enter the correct data (sizes) and the dimensions of the area I wish to cover will crunch those figures into something usable?
Your thoughts gentlemen, and ladies.