Suggestions - not break if before lunchtime

nelsonjrgomes · January 18, 2023, 04:22:11 PM

Hello,

I'd like do give a suggestion for a future feature, that would come in handy.

In my school, and in most of the cases, teachers have classes before and after lunchtime - as well as the students. If the teacher has a gap before lunchtime, that doesn't count as a gap in his timetable, but as a larger lunch break. This can also apply to the students - they can't have gaps in their timetables in the middle of the morning, but if a gap is before lunchtime, that doesn't count as such.

The lunchtime is from 13:35 till 14:45. There are two immediate classes, from 12:05-12:50 and from 12:50-13:35. If a teacher has no activity from 12:50-13:35, this doesn't count as a gap, but as a larger lunch break.

If this could be implemented in a future version of the software, would come in handy!

Best regards!

Volker Dirr · January 18, 2023, 04:30:25 PM

hmmm... It is like this if you use the MA version.

Liviu Lalescu · January 18, 2023, 04:53:48 PM

Indeed, as Volker said, you might be able to use the Mornings-Afternoons mode. Read the help of this mode, for Morocco and Algeria.

If you cannot use this mode, we'll talk some more. Please let us know.

nelsonjrgomes · January 18, 2023, 06:48:55 PM

Hi!

Thank you both for your quick reply!

I've read the help mode of the Mornings Afternoons you suggested, and if I understood it correctly, I should define 10 working days, to separate mornings and afternoons (our classes are from monday to friday). However, at least in my school, mornings and afternoons don't have the same working hours - in the morning there are 6x 45' classes, and in the afternoon there is only 2x 45' classes (or 3x45', in 10th and 11th grade). I believe this is a setback to use MA mode, right, as the "working days" should all have the same classes, right?

Thanks in advance!

Liviu Lalescu · January 18, 2023, 06:53:05 PM

Hello,

Simple solution: add constraints students set not available, selecting MA-day-2 - disallow last 4 or 3 hours. The same for MA-day-4, etc. I suppose the number of hours per MA-day is 6.

nelsonjrgomes · January 18, 2023, 07:28:00 PM

Thank you once again.

One last question - as I mentioned earlier, the only way that the gaps are not counted as such is if they appear in one (or two) of the last classes before lunch, not the others. The standard school schedule is this:

- 8:25-9:10
- 9:10-9:55
----break
- 10:20-11:05
- 11:05-11:50
----break
- 12:05-12:50
- 12:50-13:35
--lunchtime--
- 14:45-15:30
- 15:30-16:15

This mode, MA, may permit that a gap before lunchtime is not treated as such. But it could give me timetables in which a teacher only works from 8:25 to 9:55, and then again in the afternoon, after lunchtime. Effectively, those would be gaps in the timetable - only in the red slots those gaps are not treated as such. Is there a way to guarantee that it wouldn't happen?

Liviu Lalescu · January 18, 2023, 07:50:36 PM

Hmm... I cannot think for now of other possibility than that of a custom version for your case. Using the Official mode, and implementing the facility that teachers' and students' gaps in hours 5 and 6 are not counted.

I'll think some more if there are some tricks possible with the official version of FET and I'll let you know if so.

nelsonjrgomes · January 18, 2023, 08:01:10 PM

In hour 6 gap is not counted; if hour 6 is not occupied, then gap in hour 5 is not counted - this is the idea behind it.

In the meantime, if you think in some kind of workaround that gives the same output, great!

Thank you once again for your patience.

Liviu Lalescu · January 18, 2023, 08:15:13 PM

Yes, I think your need -- of hour 6 not counted as a gap and hour 5 not counted as a gap if hour 6 is free -- is possible to be implemented as a customization, if you are interested. I cannot implement this change of code as an official FET feature -- at least for now -- because it is not universally describable and because it might not be implemented perfectly considering the other constraints.

You are welcome!

Liviu Lalescu · January 18, 2023, 10:40:15 PM

It just crossed my mind: in the Mornings-Afternoons mode you have constraints teachers/students max gaps per real day. So you can say max 2 + allowed gaps in your case (max gaps between morning and afternoon, plus the gaps in the morning plus the gaps in the afternoon).

You have also max gaps for the half-days. You can combine them, it might arrive something hopefully good enough.

Let me know what you think about this.

nelsonjrgomes · January 19, 2023, 08:24:46 PM

Hi,

I managed to play around a bit, and I believe with your solution I can solve the problem with gaps at the end of the morning schedule. I had this problem with teachers schedule, as well as students schedule, as there is a optional discipline that must be at the end of the morning, and there was no easy way to set it. This is an early study for next school year schedules (only in July I'll be working seriously in the timetables). If I find any shortcomings, I'll get back to you.

Another question (that has nothing to do with the previous): If there is a discipline that has classes 3x per week, and I don't want them in three consecutive days, how should I set them? There is no problem in having Monday, Tuesday and Thursday (two of them in consecutive days), but not on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thank you once again!

Liviu Lalescu · January 19, 2023, 08:37:29 PM

Quote from: nelsonjrgomes on January 19, 2023, 08:24:46 PMHi,

I managed to play around a bit, and I believe with your solution I can solve the problem with gaps at the end of the morning schedule. I had this problem with teachers schedule, as well as students schedule, as there is a optional discipline that must be at the end of the morning, and there was no easy way to set it. This is an early study for next school year schedules (only in July I'll be working seriously in the timetables). If I find any shortcomings, I'll get back to you.

For this optional discipline -- as I am not sure your problem is solved, from what I understand -- you might be able to use constraints activities end students/teachers day, or divide properly the students by categories, one set will have this optional and one set won't, and max gaps = 0 will force this optional to begin or end the students day.

QuoteAnother question (that has nothing to do with the previous): If there is a discipline that has classes 3x per week, and I don't want them in three consecutive days, how should I set them? There is no problem in having Monday, Tuesday and Thursday (two of them in consecutive days), but not on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thank you once again!

If you go to Advanced > Spread the activities evenly over the week, it will show you how we solved this problem in FET. You can use this advanced option or add manually, for each A1, A2, A3, min 1 days between them, and min 2 days between A1 and A2 and min 2 days between A1 and A3 (or other permutation).

You're welcome!