mark writes
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p7a Cube in a cube U2 F2 R2 U3 L2 D1 (B1 R3) ^3 + D3 L2 U1 (15 q+h, 20 q)
for what it's worth, on may 19, 1992, i gave the maneuver
L1 F1 L1 D3 B1 D1 L2 F2 D3 F3 R1 U3 R3 F2 D1 (15f, 18q)
which is minimal in both the face turn and the quarter turn metric.
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Or if we want something more symmetric, there is Mike Reid's...
p7b Symmetric Maneuver (R3 U1 F2 U3 F3 L1 F2 L3 F1 R1 C_X ) ^ 2 (20 q+h , 24q)
i think this maneuver is well-known, so it shouldn't be attributed
to me. at least it seems to be a "standard" way of producing the
cube in a cube pattern.
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Mike, have you tried using the pattern generated by the first half
under your Kociemba algorithm for q turns??
do you mean the position generated by R3 U1 F2 U3 F3 L1 F2 L3 F1 R1
(which is just a three cycle of corner-edge pairs) ? this maneuver
is minimal in both metrics.
back in the days before i did computer-cubing, i found an interesting
maneuver for "cube in a cube" that only turns three faces. what's the
shortest such maneuver that you know?
mike