The slot-break rule — showing "on top" in a one-piece cut

kerfmaster pin list · The spec — what we build to

rulingA decision by Aristide or Jordan. True because it was decided; it can be superseded, but it cannot be stale.

Content last changed 2026-08-09 — computed from the item itself, not typed.

Promoted to the generic record 2026-08-09 (from the MVT teaching solution, where it lived quarantined in [[mvt-preview]]; the round-2 blind agent could not know it and flattened the union). Where one shape passes over another and both are cut from ONE piece, the covered ("buried") edge is shown by cutting a narrow gap (a slot) along the buried run, broken by ligaments that keep the plate in one piece:

• The slot exists only where the edge is buried in the other shape’s metal — walk the covered edge and keep the runs that lie inside the covering shape.
• Break the slot at the run ends that face an INTERIOR VOID, never at the ends where the edge emerges into open air: the emergence points are where "this shape is on top" is actually read, so a ligament there destroys the read.
• The ligament width is not a free parameter — it is set by how the covering shape’s edge crosses the buried one; it cannot be widened by moving the slot.
• Flattening the union is the FALLBACK (no slot, the buried edge simply vanishes), offered with the read-cost stated in plain words ("the sign reads flat where the shapes cross").