Some help needed - how to force afternoons to be ocupied

[nelsonjrgomes]

Hi,

First of all, many thanks for this software - this is the first time using it (I've been making schedules for a School, were my colleagues are old school and insisted doing it by hand - 3 weeks of my life down the drain every July). I'm hoping to skip this (bad) routine this year, using this software.

I have most of the time constrains figured out, but there are two or three problems that I can't overcome:

In my school, from 5th to 8th grade, the kids must have classes in the afternoon (mandatory), 5 times per week; in the block from 12:05 and the 13:35 (2x 45 minutes) they will necessarily have some free time (a larger lunch break) - some days they end classes at 12:05, some at 12:50, and some at 13:35. But, when I define that the students must not have gaps in their schedule, FET uses all of this blocks, and some days in the afternoon are free. Of course I can manually define what times from monday to friday, from 12:05 to 13:35 should be free, but that adds constraints that can block a "pretty" overall schedule. How can I define this?

For some reason, when I dont specifficaly define a prefered room for a class, it leaves the activity without assigned room. We don't have a room assigned for each class - the older kids use the vacant rooms when their colleagues go to PE, computer rooms, labs, and so. How can FET assing a free room when there is no specific room defined?

Best regards,

Nelson Gomes

[Liviu Lalescu]

Hello, Nelson Gomes,

I hope you will solve your problem using FET with satisfaction!

In my school, from 5th to 8th grade, the kids must have classes in the afternoon (mandatory), 5 times per week; in the block from 12:05 and the 13:35 (2x 45 minutes) they will necessarily have some free time (a larger lunch break) - some days they end classes at 12:05, some at 12:50, and some at 13:35. But, when I define that the students must not have gaps in their schedule, FET uses all of this blocks, and some days in the afternoon are free. Of course I can manually define what times from monday to friday, from 12:05 to 13:35 should be free, but that adds constraints that can block a "pretty" overall schedule. How can I define this?

To ensure that students have activities in some slots, you can use a constraint activities occupy min time slots from selection (or an inverted occupy max). Add all the activities of this students set, select with X (red, if you use colors) the afternoon, and select the min number of occupied slots.

For adding a variable break, you could add a dummy activity split into 5, 100% 1 days between, preferred times in 12:05 to 13:35. Another option would be to add 5 (n_days) constraints of type activities occupy max time slots from selection for each students set, for each day all the activities of that students set, max occupied = 3, selected with X = the 3 possible slots, and you need to allow more gaps for students, as necessary to allow this gap. But this second solution is more difficult to implement.

For some reason, when I dont specifficaly define a prefered room for a class, it leaves the activity without assigned room. We don't have a room assigned for each class - the older kids use the vacant rooms when their colleagues go to PE, computer rooms, labs, and so. How can FET assing a free room when there is no specific room defined?

You need to add space constraints to assign rooms. Either students set home rooms (only applicable if the activity has a single students set), and add all the rooms, or activity tag preferred rooms, and add all the rooms, and add this tag to all the activities.

If you want, you could attach your file or send it by email to me if it is private, so I can have a look.

Please let me know.

[nelsonjrgomes]

Thank you for your quick reply!

I tried your suggestion to set min ocupation in the afternoon to 10 blocks out of 10 available, as well as to set the ocupation in the morning to 100%, only leaving between 12:05 and 13:35 with not 100% occupation. However, I couldn't get FET to solve this problem, as no 100% timetable was presented - could it be because FET "sees" the vacant times as gaps, as they are not allowed?

A workaround was to set the discipline "no class" and to set the condition to only occupy the time between 12:05 and 13:35 - this way I can get timetables, but I have to assign them to fictitional rooms.

[Liviu Lalescu]

Yes, they are gaps.

If you use that workaround, OK, but maybe simpler is with students min hours daily (and much more efficient) .

I don't understand why you need to add rooms to dummy activities.

I might get a better idea if I saw your file, but only if you agree, of course.