How to work with the "Best Virtual Rubik's Cube" program:
Manual, help, instruction, guidance.
Getting Started.
Run the program by double-clicking on the icon  "BestRubiksCube.exe".
Click "Start" button to the right on the menu.
After that, begin to rotate randomly selected layers of virtual Rubik's Cube.
Now your task - to solve virtual Rubik's Cube.
Basic techniques for working with the program.
Rotation of the scene.
You can rotate the scene with Virtual Rubik's Cube using mouse or keyboard.
Rotation of the scene with the mouse.
To make a rotation about an arbitrary axis using the mouse:
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Set your mouse cursor on the Rubik's Cube, or somewhere near to it.
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Press the left mouse button (press only, do not click!).
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Keep the left mouse button pressed, move the cursor in the direction of rotation, perpendicularly to the axis of rotation.
With the mouse, you can also rotate the scene about an imaginary axis, perpendicular to the plane of the monitor screen. To do it:
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Set the mouse cursor somewhere in the vicinity of the Cube, but outside the circle, in which the
Virtual Rubik's Cube entered.
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When you see a ring of green arrow, press the left mouse button (press it only, do not click!).
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Keeping the left mouse button pressed, move the cursor in the direction of rotation, along these arrows.
Rotation of the scene using the keyboard.
Use the 
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"Up Arrow" and "Down Arrow" keys to rotate the scene
with Virtual Rubik's Cube about an imaginary horizontal axis.
Use the 
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"Left Arrow" è "Right Arrow" keys to rotate the scene about an imaginary vertical axis.
To rotate the scene about an axis perpendicular to the plane of the screen,
use the "Home" key (to rotate counter-clockwise) and "End" key (for clockwise rotation).
Rotation of layers (slices) of the Virtual Rubik's Cube.
You can rotate layers of the Virtual Rubik's Cube in an arbitrary direction at 90 or 180 degrees.
The choice of the rotation angle.
Set the mouse cursor anywhere on the window's client area and click the right mouse button.
In the pop-up menu, select the option: 90° or 180°.
Rotation of one layer of the Virtual Rubik's Cube.
To rotate a selected layer, follow these steps:
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Set the mouse cursor over one of the small cubes of layer (slice) that you have decided to turn.
Above this small cube will appear cross of four yellow arrows, and four lines on the diagonals.
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Move your mouse over the small cube, while a ring of red, yellow and green arrows won't appear.
Green end of arrows indicate the direction of rotation.
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Click the left mouse button.
Note that the colors - red, yellow and green - are chosen by analogy with traffic lights.
If you have any problems with distinguishing colors or you just do not like the proposed colors
you can change all the color settings to your liking.
See below Changing colors section.
Rotation of several layers (slices) of the Virtual Rubik's Cube.
You can rotate several layers (slices) Virtual Rubik's Cube,
if these layers are arranged next to each other. To do so, before clicking the left mouse button,
press one of the following keys:
2 key – for the rotation of two layers
3 key – for the rotation of three layers
4 key – for the rotation of four layers
5 key – for the rotation of five layers
6 key – for the rotation of six layers
7 key – for the rotation of seven layers
8 key – for the rotation of eight layers
9 key – for the rotation of nine layers
1 key – for the rotation of ten layers
F1 key – for the rotation of eleven layers
F2 key – for the rotation of twelve layers
F3 key – for the rotation of thirteen layers
F4 key – for the rotation of fourteen layers
F5 key – for the rotation of fifteen layers
F6 key – for the rotation of sixteen layers
F7 key – for the rotation of seventeen layers
F8 key – for the rotation of eighteen layers
F9 key – for the rotation of nineteen layers
0 key – for the rotation of twenty layers
F11 key – for the rotation of twenty-one layers
F12 key – for the rotation of twenty-two layers
What layers will be rotated, depending of the position of the mouse cursor.
Suppose the cursor is in the zone 3L or 3R (see picture) and you decided to turn five layers,
i.e., you hold down the "5" key, then, after you click the left mouse button will be turned
the top layer, and four layers behind him.
(Of course will be turned five layers only if the dimension Virtual Rubik's Cube is not less than 5x5x5).
If the cursor is within 2L (or 2R) area, then in addition to the selected layer
will be rotated four layers at the left (or right), provided that, of course, if
left (right) has a four layers. Otherwise, will be turned a less number of layers.
If the cursor is in the area 1L (or 1R) and the number of layers that you
want to turn odd, then the left and right of the selected layer
will be rotated the same number of layers. For example, if you want to turn five layers, in this case
left and right of the selected layer will be turned two if,
once again, the left and right there are at least two layers.
Finally, if the cursor is in the area 1L (or 1R) and the number of layers that you
decided to turn even, to the left of the selected layer will be rotated number of layers
greater (or less) than the right. For example, when you turn the six layers at a time,
in the first case the left of the selected layer will be rotated three layers and two on the right, in the second case, on the contrary,
to the left of the selected layer will be turned two layers, and the right three layers.
The following figure shows which layers will be rotated for a given position the cursor and hold down 3 key:
Undo - Redo of the rotations.
You may cansel series of rotations or execute cancelled rotations again.
Use for this corresponding item from pop-up menu or hot keys
U - for cancelling of rotations and R - for reexecution of cancelled rotations.
Working with the program without a mouse.
In fact, when you working with the program, you can easily do all without the mouse, using a keyboard only.
Moving the cursor.
To move the cursor, use the following keyboard shortcuts:
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or
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"Alt"("Ctrl")+"Left Arrow" keys – to move the cursor to the left;
+
or
+
"Alt"("Ctrl")+"Right Arrow" keys – to move the cursor to the right;
+
or
+
"Alt"("Ctrl")+"Down Arrow" keys – to move the cursor down;
+
or
+
"Alt"("Ctrl")+"Up Arrow" keys – to move the cursor up.
Rotation a selected layer(-s).
Once the mouse cursor will be fixed in the right place,
you can give the command to start the rotation by pressing the "Enter" key.
Working with the menu. Changing the settings.
Menu "File".
Saving and opening files.
If you do not have time to solve Virtual Rubik's Cube in one session, you can save current
Rubik's Cube in the file and continue to build Virtual Rubik's Cube in another time.
Virtual Rubik's Cube files have CRF extension and icon  .
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To open a saved Virtual Rubik's Cube in the File menu, select Open - Saved Rubik's Cube item.
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If the current Rubik's Cube was opened from a file, then after you click Save item in the File menu,
file will be overwritten. If the current Cube was not opened from a file, then will be appeared dialog panel with
propose to save the current Rubik's Cube in the file .
- To run a saved Rubik's Cube script without loading it into Script Editor,
choose Open - Script for Rubik's Cube item from the File menu.
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To save a opened file to another file, click Save As item from the File menu.
To close program, click Exit item from the File menu.
Command New Cube, Save and Exit are duplicated in the floating pop-up menu which
you can open by right-clicking anywhere on the window's client area of the program.
Menu "Edit".
Changing the dimensions of Virtual Rubik's Cube.
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Select in the Edit menu Dimensionality of Cube item, to open the dialog "New Rubik's Cube".
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Enter in the field Number of layers the new number that determines the dimension of the Virtual Rubik's Cube.
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Close the dialog panel by clicking the «OK» button.
If you select "Save Current Rubik's Cube", then when you click on the button «OK»
the dialog box with a proposal to save the current file to the Rubik's Cube will appeared
(If you have opened the Rubik's Cube from a file, the file will be overwritten).
Otherwise, will be immediately generated a new Rubik's Cube without saving the old one.
Changing options.
You can control the display of the scene and the quality of the animation by using "Options" panel.
To open "Options" panel, click Options item in the Edit menu.
Animation quality control.
To speed up the rotation of the scene and layers rotation,
move to the right "Scene rotation" and "Slices rotation" trackbar's sliders to one or more tick mark.
After that, all the rotation will be faster, but the animation quality will get worse.
If you have the most modern CPU, you can improve the quality of the animation by moving the
trackbar's sliders to the left.
"Enable PostRotation" option.
If this option is selected, the scene with a Virtual Rubik's Cube will continue to rotate in a given direction
for as long as you press the left mouse button, even if the mouse cursor will remain stationary.
If this option is not selected, the scene will rotate while moving the mouse cursor only.
By default, Post Rotation is enabled.
The option "Enable axes XYZ".
This option enables / disables rendering of the coordinate axes. The coordinate axes you might need if you
decide to write the script for the Virtual Rubik's Cube.
By default display of the coordinate axes is disabled.
"Enable panoramic ring" option.
This option enables / disables rendering of the panoramic ring.
The panoramic ring help you to orientate when you rotate the scene.
By default, panoramic ring is enabled.
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The figure: scene with panoramic rings (left) and without (right).
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Changing the range of vision.
You can change the range of vision the scene.
Range of vision may changes from 5° to 45°.
By default range of vision is 25 degrees.
Scramble length - the number of rotations that occur when you click on the "Start" button.
By default, when you click "Start" button, will be carried out 21 random rotations layers of
Virtual Rubik's Cube. You can define any different number of rotations, provided that this number
not less than 12.
Changing of the appearance of Rubik's Cube.
If you move "Smoothing" trackbar's slider to the right
then the edges and corners cubes will be more rounded, if the move this slider to the left, the cubes will become more angular.
Figure: Left - the minimum smoothing, right - the maximum in the center - the average smoothing (by default - the average).
Changing colors settings.
You can modify all colors used in the program.
Open the "Colors" dialog panel where you can choosing colors, by selected Colors item
in the Edit menu.
Option "Use background and inner material from ROSSPROGRAMMPRODUCT ®" recommended to disable
if your CPU is slow.
Background pattern will cease to change, if you select "Static background" option.
Description of the "Rubik's Cube" Script Editor, see in the document
How to write scripts for the program "Best Virtual Rubik's Cube"
Scripts for the Virtual Rubik's Cube it is Really Fun!
But not only fun. It is very enhances the power of your brain and thinking, improves your spatial imagination.
This article was translated from Russian into English with Google translator. Sorry for possible mistakes.
Copyright © ROSSPROGRAMMPRODUCT ®.
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