A method of machining and releasing closed forms from a transparent substrate comprising the following steps: providing a burst pulse laser system capable of generating a beam comprising a programmable train of pulses containing from 1 to 50 sub-pulses within the burst pulse envelope, the burst pulse laser system further being able to generate average power from 1 to 200 watts depending on the transparent substrate material utilized, providing a laser beam delivery system capable of focusing the laser beam onto the transparent substrate and enabling relative patterned movement between the laser beam and the transparent substrate; focusing the laser beam relative to the substrate to form a beam waist external to the transparent substrate, wherein the laser pulses incident on the surface of the substrate are focused such that sufficient energy density is maintained within the transparent substrate to form a continuous laser filament there through without causing optical breakdown, wherein the focusing is done by a distributed focusing element assembly comprising a plethora of generally known focusing elements commonly employed in the art such as aspheric plates, telecentric lenses, non-telecentric lenses, aspheric lenses, annularly faceted lenses, custom ground aberrated (non-perfect) lenses, a combination of positive and negative lenses or a series of corrective plates (phase shift masking), any optical element tilted with respect to the incident beam, and actively compensated optical elements capable of manipulating beam propagation as well as any number of optical elements that produce a significantly non-ideal, non-Gaussian beam intensity profile, the distributed focusing element assembly having a positive focusing effect in the aggregate being capable of producing a weakly convergent, multi foci spatial beam profile where the incident fluence at the target material is sufficient to cause Kerr-effect self-focusing and propagation, propagating an orifice about the filament that traverses completely or partially through the transparent substrate by photoacoustic compression; directing the laser filament in the transparent substrate creating a closed form pattern in the transparent substrate comprising a scribed line of spaced apart orifices drilled into the transparent substrate said scribed line creating a closed form bounded within said scribed line and a cullet outside said scribed line; and applying a heat source to the region of the closed form in the transparent substrate comprising the scribed line of spaced apart orifices drilled into the transparent substrate by heating said closed form bounded within said scribed line of said orifices of said transparent substrate and heating said transparent substrate outside of said closed form pattern until the closed form pattern releases from the transparent substrate. providing a burst pulse laser system capable of generating a beam comprising a programmable train of pulses containing from 1 to 50 sub-pulses within the burst pulse envelope, the burst pulse laser system further being able to generate average power from 1 to 200 watts depending on the transparent substrate material utilized, providing a laser beam delivery system capable of focusing the laser beam onto the transparent substrate and enabling relative patterned movement between the laser beam and the transparent substrate; focusing the laser beam relative to the substrate to form a beam waist external to the transparent substrate, wherein the laser pulses incident on the surface of the substrate are focused such that sufficient energy density is maintained within the transparent substrate to form a continuous laser filament there through without causing optical breakdown, wherein the focusing is done by a distributed focusing element assembly comprising a plethora of generally known focusing elements commonly employed in the art such as aspheric plates, telecentric lenses, non-telecentric lenses, aspheric lenses, annularly faceted lenses, custom ground aberrated (non-perfect) lenses, a combination of positive and negative lenses or a series of corrective plates (phase shift masking), any optical element tilted with respect to the incident beam, and actively compensated optical elements capable of manipulating beam propagation as well as any number of optical elements that produce a significantly non-ideal, non-Gaussian beam intensity profile, the distributed focusing element assembly having a positive focusing effect in the aggregate being capable of producing a weakly convergent, multi foci spatial beam profile where the incident fluence at the target material is sufficient to cause Kerr-effect self-focusing and propagation, propagating an orifice about the filament that traverses completely or partially through the transparent substrate by photoacoustic compression; directing the laser filament in the transparent substrate creating a closed form pattern in the transparent substrate comprising a scribed line of spaced apart orifices drilled into the transparent substrate said scribed line creating a closed form bounded within said scribed line and a cullet outside said scribed line; and applying a heat source to the region of the closed form in the transparent substrate comprising the scribed line of spaced apart orifices drilled into the transparent substrate by heating said closed form bounded within said scribed line of said orifices of said transparent substrate and heating said transparent substrate outside of said closed form pattern until the closed form pattern releases from the transparent substrate.