Jigwin piece template

File Format
Name	Jigwin piece template
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics Jigwin piece template
Extension(s)	.asc
Released	2005

The Jigwin piece template is a file format used by the Jigsaws Galore program. It defines the shape of a "fun piece": a fancifully-shaped puzzle piece which can appear in jigsaw puzzles alongside normal-shaped pieces.

The "fun piece" feature was added in version 6 (2005), which comes with 22 pre-made Jigwin piece templates and explains the format in its help file. To be recognized by the program, a template file must have the asc extension and be placed in the Pieces/ subfolder.

The format

Jigwin piece template files are plaintext lists of vertex coordinates.

An example Jigwin piece template (square.asc, one of the default ones bundled with version 6) looks as follows:

Jigwin piece template version 1.0
Title: Square
Author: David P. Gray
Corners: 1,2,3,4
1, 0.0, 0.0
2, 1.0, 0.0
3, 1.0, 1.0
4, 0.0, 1.0

The format is pretty self-explanatory. Some notes:

• After the initial metadata, each row contains a point id number (integer), and x, y coordinates (floats or integers). Coordinates can be positive or negative, and given to any scale or precision; the program automatically resizes the piece to match the other jigsaw pieces.
• The Corners: line specifies the ids of the four points which are the corners of the piece, in the order: top-left, top-right, bottom-right, bottom-left.
• The piece templates bundled with the program sometimes have additional numbers after the coordinates, e.g. 1,0.330000,9.210000,0.000000,1. However, the help file clarifies that those extra numbers are ignored. (Perhaps they're the leftovers of some cut feature.)