Oh there totally is a method for it!
I'll link the site here, it's great, then I'll write some instructions for how to use it:
Trangium's Batch Solver
okay, this site is amazing for generating algorithms and it has some amazing features:
1. it generates more than one algorithm per case and sorts them according to what it thinks is best. you can tell it with what metric to write. the default is MCC which is a system designed to track where the fingers are and what you can do to rank algorithms. I recommend using MCC as the main sorting and SQTM for the secondary metric (the default is none), since it also gives you a nice perspective. you can check out MCC for algorithms here:
Trangium's MCC calculator
2. it auto generates the images for the cases for you, so you don't have to work as hard, and you can simply click "export" after you finish generating all of the cases and save it as an excel file. you can choose masks for the images, meaning you get to tell the software what each sticker should look like (use single letters like w for white, d for dark and s for silver. you write it in the mask section for the images. mess around with it, it allows you to control each individual sticker. it's quite intuitive). you can also choose how the image looks like (from the top, from the sides, a 4x4 and what not).
3. it allows you to generate for more puzzles than just 3x3, and even better, since it's so general, you can even define your own puzzles!
4. it generates a bunch of algorithms in one go, which is nice.
okay now for the tutorial:
there's the Puzzle section (default is 3x3) where you can see all the moves it supports and you can change it to custom to add your own moves. I used it to make a trigger based TSLE alg sheet.
Unique Orientations & Equivalences: this tells the solver what is considered solved. it took me a while to understand, but it's rather simple.
everything not mentioned there will be solved regularly.
if you put pieces in curly braces (no commas), you tell the solver that their positions are interchangeable, meaning, it ignores their orientation. for example, if you wish to generate OLLs, you don't care about the permutation of the LL. meaning, you'll write there: {UBL UBR UFL UFR} {UF UB UL UR} (notice that the edges only need 2 letters and the corners need 3. also notice how I separated the corners and edges. if you don't do that, an error will happen and it won't generate anything).
there's another, "1:". the symbol "1:" tells you to ignore the orientation of the pieces mentioned. for example, if you are generating EOFRB algorithms (like I did for JB), you don't care about CO. that means I'll put all of the corners after the "1:", like this - 1: UBL UBR UFL UFR. but, since I also don't care about CP, I can also use curly braces, writing 1: {UBL UBR UFL UFR}.
examples:
PLL - leave empty
OLL - {UBL UBR UFL UFR} {UF UB UL UR}
EOFRB - {UL UR} 1: {UBL UBR UFL UFR} (since I want to do phasing, UF and UB must be opposite to each other, meaning I care about their permutation)
ZOLL - {UBL UBR UFL UFR} {UF UB UL UR FR}
BLE - {{UF UB UL UR}}
there's a lot more examples I can give, but I think this is general enough to get the idea.
now, you get to choose how it'll try to solve the cube:
Prune - decides how many moves deep (or how many positions, but I haven't messed with this yet) from a solved state the solver pre generates before doing anything for faster times. more Prune -> longer time to start generating, faster generation per case after the first, more memory consumption (meaning your pc will hate you if you put a prune too high. I have a pretty strong pc and I use around 8, but generally speaking I recommend 6 or 7 (please don't make that joke).
Search - this is how many moves from the scrambled state the solver does to reach a state in the states generated by the prune. more search -> longer time per case. it doesn't require much more memory, but it can consume a lot of time.
Subgroup - the moves you allow the solver to use to solve. for example, for OLL you can have one subgroup of R U r M and another of R U D and another of R U F. yes, you can have multiple (press the '+' button).
for each subgroup you can define it's own prune and search.
the maximum amount of moves an algorithm can have is Prune + Search = total moves (a move can be a trigger if defined as a move in the custom puzzle).
that means, for algorithms of maximum 16 moves, you'll probably want Prune = 8 and Search = 8 or Prune = 7 and Search = 9. the algorithm will only use moves from the subgroup it currently generates with, so you cannot have R U D F algorithms if one subgroup is R U D and another is R U F.
now, for the Scramble tab.
ironically, the easiest way to use it (just writing the scrambles you want to solve there, separated by a comma) is something I don't ever use.
that is because I prefer to use generators.
generators simply tell it to "define each case reachable with any combination of the generators as a scramble to solve". don't worry, it can detect multiples and remove them, insuring you'll almost always (there might be bugs? I haven't tested it all) get the minimum amount of algorithms needed.
generators are written like this: <sequence 1, sequence 2, sequence 3, ...>. you can also write moves before the generators or after and it will add them to all the scrambles.
for example, when generating BLE algorithms, you want to be able to get all of the CO options and have FR out, so you'll write:
<R U R' U R U2 R', U> R' U' R' U' R U R U R
and bam! all of the 27 BLE cases will jump out, since you generated all of the possible CO LL combinations and just got the FR edge to the top layer.
useful sequences I keep in mind:
<R U R' U R U2 R', U> - generates every possible LL CO.
<R U R D R' U' R D' R2, U> - generates every possible L4C scramble (so CO and CP but doesn't effect EP).
<R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' F', U, M2 U M U2 M' U M2> - generates every possible LL permutation
<U, M2 U M U2 M' U M2> - generates every possible LL edges permutation
some useful triggers:
R' U' R' U' R U R U R - inserts the edge on UL to FR and gets the FR edge to UR. doesn't effect CP or CO or EO.
S R2 S' R2 - does a 3 cycle on the DR UR and UL edges, preserving CP, CO and EO. useful to get DR out of DR.
R2 U2 R2 U' R2 U' R2 - inserts UBL to DFR and gets DFR to UFR. technically preserves CP since the cube is in the same R U orbit, preserves CO and EO.
Pre-Adjust and Post-Adjust: by default, its U, so you get free pre and post AUF. you can also add D for ADF and more, as much as you want for each (be careful though, it can be problematic if done incorrectly).
I haven't tested it yet, but if you define Post-Adjust to R U you can have algorithms that put the corners into an R U orbit without actually having it solve them. the Unique Orientations & Equivalences would look like this: 1: DBR DFR UFR UFL UBL UBR {UB UR UF UL FR BR DR}. anyway, this is a nice idea if you're into 2gen reduction.
case sorting - you can have the solver sort the cases by qualities, like permutations or orientations of certain pieces or permutations or orientations on certain places on the cube. very useful for clean and readable algsheets. again, you can have it sort by multiple parameters. if you have a few pieces of the same type where you check the same quality for them and none of them is more important then the rest, you can simply put them together. (do that by clicking Set priority and then writing the pieces at the text box).
okay, then there's the Options part which I recommend you to not touch, besides changing the "show top x solutions for each case" and "show ending adjustments". here you can also change the metric which it sorts algorithms by (default : MCC. recommended by me: MCC) and the secondary metric (default : None. recommended by me : SQTM).
in the image options you can choose what kind of image (3x3, 2x2, 3x3 top and so on) will be displayed, from what angle, and how large the picture will (the default 150 is pretty good, same for the X and Y rotations).
here you can also do the masking I described earlier.
you may check the Show preview box to make sure your masking and everything else is on point (it'll show you how a solved cube looks like with your settings).
then, after everything is said and done, click start search and it will start generating. in the statistics you can see things such as how fast it is generating, how many cases it generated out of how many cases there are overall, average MCC scores, average STM score, average SQTM score and average ESQ score (not sure what ESQ is).
then, you click export output to save it as an excel file on you pc and you can press "clear output" to clear the output of the software, deleting all of the algorithms you generated and haven't saved on your pc. when generating multiple algsets, please do press that button after each one is saved.
and that's it! you can now generate as many algorithms as you want and be pretty sure they'll also be fast and organized for you!
you can ask me any questions you might have and really just mess around with it, things will happen.
last important note: this software hasn't been written by me. it was written by Trangium who's a genius and deserves a lot of respect and love for this contributions. in my opinion, besides a custom IDA* search with custom or downloaded MCC scoring (yeah, scary Computer Science big words that make me sound smart even if I don't know anything... scaryyyyyyy nah jk these really are useful), it doesn't get much better than this!
hope you have an amazing time generating algorithms, inventing methods and cubing, and you may ask me anything you might need and talk about your ideas if you have them.
