This is one of several user guides on specific topics. The directory for all user guides is here.
You may be reading this because you clicked on the “32 & 64 Special” link in the “Number of Deals” area of the bridge deal generator. This post explains a feature related to those specific numbers of deals.
Other posts describe how you can vary dealer and vulnerability when generating more than one deal at a time. You use the “Rotate” option to assign dealer and vulnerability in the order defined on the standard duplicate bridge scoresheet.
Since there are four possible dealers and four possible vulnerabilities, the number of unique combinations of those two settings is 16.
Therefore, if you have a shaper or a recipe and you want to see it in all possible permutations of dealer and vulnerability, then you set dealer and vulnerability to “Rotate,” set Number of Deals to 16, and generate deals from that shaper or recipe.
If you want 16 deals with a particular N-S and W-E shaper or recipe configuration, followed by 16 more of the mirror-image of that configuration (that is, North and South swapped, and West and East swapped), then set Number of Deals to 32 before generating from a shaper or a recipe. The generator will generate the first 16 deals based on the initial shaper or recipe definition; then it will swap North with South and West with East and generate 16 more deals. You can also do this manually by generating 16 deals at a time and performing the swap or rotation yourself, but then you will have two sets of 16 deals in two files instead of one set numbered from 1 to 32 in one file.
If you want 16 deals with a particular N-S and W-E shaper or recipe configuration, followed by 16 more with each seat shifted one spot clockwise, followed by 16 more with another clockwise shift, followed by 16 more with another clockwise shift—thus yielding four sets of 16 with the original configuration repeated from each seat’s point of view, then set Number of Deals to 64 before generating from a shaper or a recipe. You can also do this manually by generating 16 deals four times, but saving off each set of 16 deals and then rotating the seats clockwise via the swurvy-curvy button before generating the next 16, but then you will have four sets of 16 deals in four files instead of one set numbered from 1 to 64 in one file.
This swapping or rotation magic only happens with deals generated from a shaper or from a recipe, and then only with 32 or 64 deals. It does not happen when generating deals randomly, or with any number of deals other than 32 or 64.