Configuring Slicings in MagicTile
(for power users)

The first thing you'll want to do is copy one of the existing puzzle files from the config/puzzles directory to 'config/user'.  Grab one for a tiling/coloring that you like.  That way you can just edit a couple fields without altering puzzles in the standard menu.  Puzzle files added to the user directory will show up in a new section of the menu when the program starts.  Be sure to change the 'ClassID' near the top of the file to something new and unique.

These files are xml.  I recommend using an xml editing program, but even notepad can work fine.  Towards the end of the file, there is an element called "SlicingCircles", with four elements below it.  For example, here is the section of interest from a puzzle that is face, edge, and vertex turning.

   <SlicingCircles>
      <EdgeCentered>
         <Distance>1:0:0:0</Distance>
      </EdgeCentered>
      <FaceCentered>
         <Distance>-1:0:1:0</Distance>
      </FaceCentered>
      <Thickness>0.01</Thickness>
      <VertexCentered>
         <Distance>1:0:0:0</Distance>
      </VertexCentered>
   </SlicingCircles>

This example has all twist types, but say you don't want a particular kind of twist.  You can just delete the relevant "Distance" element.  I leave in the "BlahCentered" elements myself, though they don't have to be there.

Say you want to make a twisting circle bigger or smaller.  You do that with the Distance element, and here is the meaning of that.  It is 4 real numbers (may have decimals), separated by colons.  Call these P:Q:R:D

• P is the number of half edge lengths.
• Q is the number of incircles.
• R is the number of circumcircles (hypotenuse of fundamental triangle)
• D is just an absolute distance, in the tiling geometry

The labels correspond to the sides of the fundamental triangle for the tiling. P is the side opposite the pi/p angle, Q the side opposite the pi/q angle, and R the side opposite the pi/2 angle.

The final slicing circle radius is set to the sum of all these.  In the example above, the radius for the face centered twists is equal to 1 circumcircle - 1/2 edge, making it tangent to the vertex circles.

You can change the slice thickness too, and that value is just an absolute distance.  I've found .01 a nice default, but have made them a little bigger at times.  This thickness applies to all twist types.

Tips

• Use the existing puzzles to guide your understanding.  Again, you can copy an existing config to the config/user directory to get you started.  Be sure to change the 'ClassID' to something new and unique if you do this.
• When making edits to config files, you can press F5 in MagicTile to get it to reload configurations.  That way you don't have to close/reopen the program while experimenting.
• You can have multiple Distance elements for a given twist type.

If you make any cool puzzles and think they would be nice in the standard distribution, please share!

Roice