Hey Xmassloth,

Thanks for your idea. I considered it a possibilty.

The permutation in your second image is 1,4,2,3,5,6. Coming from 1,2,3,4,5,6. 18 rows per 3 = 6 parts.

I recreated your transposition on the Z408 using the first 18 rows and then ran a cycle score check on all 720 possible permutations of 6 parts. Here follows a small part of the output, the test found the highest score at 1,4,2,3,5,6. Second highest was 1,4,2,3,6,5 with 2673.81. So the test found the correct transposition/permutation.

Permutations for 6 parts: 720
---------------------------------------
1,2,3,4,5,6: 2301.69
2,1,3,4,5,6: 2137.49
3,1,2,4,5,6: 2083.65
1,3,2,4,5,6: 2052.49
2,3,1,4,5,6: 2556.53
3,2,1,4,5,6: 2354.73
4,2,1,3,5,6: 2356.18
2,4,1,3,5,6: 2253.24
1,4,2,3,5,6: 2823.21 <--
4,1,2,3,5,6: 2460.45
2,1,4,3,5,6: 2485.58
1,2,4,3,5,6: 2243.64
1,3,4,2,5,6: 2106.18

For the Z340 the highest was the original order of 1,2,3,4,5,6 with the second highest being 4,3,1,2,5,6:

Permutations for 6 parts: 720
---------------------------------------
1,2,3,4,5,6: 1958.23 <--
2,1,3,4,5,6: 1599.86
3,1,2,4,5,6: 1840.65
1,3,2,4,5,6: 1603.87
2,3,1,4,5,6: 1892.70
3,2,1,4,5,6: 1770.24
4,2,1,3,5,6: 1471.60
2,4,1,3,5,6: 1440.88
1,4,2,3,5,6: 1710.74
4,1,2,3,5,6: 1830.13
2,1,4,3,5,6: 1563.96
1,2,4,3,5,6: 1689.29
1,3,4,2,5,6: 1635.37
3,1,4,2,5,6: 1801.97
4,1,3,2,5,6: 1707.87
1,4,3,2,5,6: 1799.30
3,4,1,2,5,6: 1891.21
4,3,1,2,5,6: 1957.92 <--
4,3,2,1,5,6: 1821.11
3,4,2,1,5,6: 1710.90
2,4,3,1,5,6: 1754.55
4,2,3,1,5,6: 1897.52

I think that rules out a strict interpretation of your idea.