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Here is the version 4 of my program. The zip file has 3 files, the application and two new dll for .net MFC c++ applications from Microsoft.  Unzip them in a folder and run the application. Click the red R icon in the tool bar to run the hand generation application.

Click the zip file to download it.  ptcbridgeversion4057.zip. This is the second version for trail using the newest .net studio from Microsoft.

The default condition of a new file will get all the hands for a random deal.  So after you unzip the file in a folder and run the application, you can just click the red R in the tool bar and it will randomly generate bridge deals.

There are many parameters you can change and it is very easy to forget what you have done. Start with a new file or restart the application if you get lost.

Main menu

File    New uses a new copy of file with default conditions (select all hands). This is an easy way to get out if you forget what you have changed. Open allows you to open a saved file. Close close the current file. Save/ Save As allow you to save most of your current settings. Print/Print Preview/Print Setup are standard printer stuff for windows. There is a problem with fonts.  I use a special font and that gets clobbered sometimes when I save stuff. You must restart the program if you run into this problem. There is a copy of the display saved in ptcbridge.txt and you can always load that file into your text editor for printing.

Single hand conditions    There are two screens or dialog screens or pages for each hand. Most of the time you do not need to use the second one. The first hand condition screen has 4 inclusive and 4 exclusive conditions. Each condition allows you to specify the range of HCP and 8 more situations. There is a paralleled page in this section call Hand Condition 1 which has a complete description of all the situations you can input. Ignore the special point count input.  That is for me to test different hand evaluation systems. All the situations are logical AND together. e.g. if you enter 11 22 for the HCP range and 4004 , 5004 you will get all the hands between 11 to 22 HCP and has 4 spades and 4 hearts. Exclusive conditions has higher priority over inclusive conditions. If a hand satisfy both inclusive and exclusive conditions it will be excluded. e.g. you want to get all the 1C opening hand with a range of 15 to 17 1NT and 20 to 21 2NT openings excluded, you put in 11 22 5 for the inclusive condition and use 2 exclusive conditions 15 17 1 and 20 21 1. If you want to further required the 1C opening to have >= 12 HCL then the inclusive condition becomes 5 1512. Actually you can change the HCP range to 9 22  and use 5 1512. Hands with 7 clubs and 9 HCP will be include because it also has 12 HCL points.  If you need to have more then 8 situations for your inclusive condition you can set a checkbox in the 1st option dialog screen and the system will assume you want only 2 inclusive conditions each with 16 situations.  The second screen has 3 radio button on the top left. The default is select no more hands. You can change it to select all remaining hands which will select all the hands. Or use the condition of this screen to select more hands. This screen was a carry over from the old days and most likely you do not need to use it.

Enter specific cards You can enter any specific cards for each hand. Remember if you want to specify a lot of or all 13 cards for a hand, you should do that for the first hand (north) Always use north for the conditions that are hardest to find. Remember to uncheck the box that say DO not select any if you want to use this screen. That check box is default to be checked and thus no cards are selected from this screen.

NS/EW hand conditions This allows you to specify the conditions for NS combined. So it is very easy if you want to say look at all hands with 8 spades combined between the NS hands. Just enter 0 40 for HCP range and 4008 for exactly 8 spades. Or if you want to see all hands with a combined 12 losing trick count you can enter 0 40 for HCP range and 212.

Option First of all ignore the two that handles the display and printer fonts. sometimes they fail and when that happen you have to reload the application. If there is one area I am not an expert in that is fonts programming using C++. The first option screen is system parameter for statistic only. The default for number of first hand requested is 1 million. You can change it to a larger number if you want to. The default for number of trys to generate each first hand is 100. You do not need to change this parameter. The default for number of deals saved in the pbn file is 10 and you can change that to a larger number if you want to. The filename is default to ptcbridge (.txt and .pbn) and you do not need to change this parameter. Here is where you find the check box to use 2 inclusive conditions instead of 4. That will let you use 16 situations for each inclusive conditions. This has no effect on the exclusive conditions. All other parameters are for the file utilities and double dummy analysis which I am not going to explain. I am sure someone eventually will be able to figure it out. The only function I hide from the menu is the fast binary double dummy database analysis tool which I just finished coding last month. I am going to save that for my book.