Do you know if there is any software to evaluate scrambles?

[GRVigo]

I was thinking that it would be very interesting to have a software for evaluating scrambles, to know previously how hard it will be the solve.
A software like this could be used to give scrambles of similar difficulty to all participants in a competition.

Do you know a program that already does this?

Taking advantage of the code that I'm developing for my solver, I think it would be possible to implement a feature like this, what do you think?

 

[ruffleduck]

You would only be able to influence the difficulty of the first step of a method

 

[GRVigo]

You would only be able to influence the difficulty of the first step of a method

You're right, but I think it's the most determinant part of the solves in most of the methods.

 

[ruffleduck]

You could provide an option for adjusting max movecount depth for the first step

 

[GRVigo]

You could provide an option for adjusting max movecount depth for the first step

I'm thinking about to evaluate how hard is to find common structures (cross & xcross for CFOP, 2x2x2 block for Petrus, 3x2x1 block for Roux, EO for ZZ and some others) in 6, 7 or even 8 movements.

 

[White KB]

I'm thinking about to evaluate how hard is to find common structures (cross & xcross for CFOP, 2x2x2 block for Petrus, 3x2x1 block for Roux, EO for ZZ and some others) in 6, 7 or even 8 movements.

If you go to csTimer and click on "Tools" then "Solvers", then you can figure out how to solve all of those and it gives you movecounts... Unfortunately it doesn't always find the best solution for influencing later steps. (E.g. I inputted my PB scramble for which I was able to find a 7-move xxcross, but the best it could find was an 8-move xcross.) I think it's mostly useful though.

 

[abunickabhi]

I was thinking that it would be very interesting to have a software for evaluating scrambles, to know previously how hard it will be the solve.
A software like this could be used to give scrambles of similar difficulty to all participants in a competition.

Do you know a program that already does this?

Taking advantage of the code that I'm developing for my solver, I think it would be possible to implement a feature like this, what do you think?

This is interesting. I guess we can only go ahead with evaluation if we have a quick solver, that can find several solutions and give a value to them, so that evaluation metric can be formed, S L' S' U S' U' S2 L S'.