Shape Information

When using the main menu entry Status a window (Figure WindowStatus) like the one above opens and displays all kinds of information about all the shapes available inside the puzzle. The table columns have the following meanings:

Figure: The Status window

Units Normal

Contains the number of voxels inside the shape that have the state fixed.

Units Variable

Contains the number of voxel inside the shape that have the state variable.

Units Total

Contains the number of voxels inside the shape that are either fixed or variable.

Identical

If the shape is identical to another shape with smaller number, the first such number is displayed; so if shape 3, 4, and 5 are identical, shape 4 and 5 will point to shape 3 but shape 3 will show no indication.

Identical Mirror

A previous shape is cited, if the shapes can somehow be transformed into the other including the mirror transformation.

Identical Shape

A previous shape is cited, if the shapes are identical without mirroring.

Identical Complete

In this case shapes must be completely identical including colours and not only the appearance of the shape.

Connectivity

This part of the table shows if the shape is completely connected, i.e. doesn't contain any separate voxels.

Connectivity Face

This part is marked with an X when all parts of the shape are connected via the faces of the voxels. A face is a surface of a voxel. Cubes have 6 such faces, the triangular voxels have 5, and spheres have 12 faces.

Connectivity Edge

This part is marked with an X when all parts of the shape are connected via an edge or a face of the voxel. An edge is the connection between 2 corners of a voxel. A cube has 12 edges and the triangular voxel have 9. Spheres have no edges.

Connectivity Corner

This part is marked with an X when all parts of the shape are connected via a corner, an edge, or a face. A corner is the end of an edge. Cubes have 8 corners, the triangular voxel have 6 corners, and spheres have none.

Holes

This part of the table contains information about possible holes inside the shapes.

Holes 2D

A 2D hole is a hole in a 2-dimensional shape. So the o-octomino has a 2D hole.

Holes 3D

A 3D hole is a completely surrounded region inside a shape.

Sym

This is a column that is mainly there for my help. BURRTOOLS needs to know about all kinds of symmetries a shape can have. If a shape turns up that has a kind of symmetry yet unknown to the program it cannot solve puzzles with this shape. So here is a tool to check beforehand and without the need to create a problem. If you ever see a coloured mark in the last column send me the shapes where it turns up. As long as this last column contains only numbers without a coloured mark everything is fine.

Because calculating all this information can take a considerable amount of time, BURRTOOLS pops up a window when it is working on accumulating this table. The window contains a progress bar to guess how much longer it will take. There is also a Cancel button at the bottom that lets you abort this calculation and view the results already gathered.