timetable for 53 teachers and 550 students-success

[silvia]

hi all,
tomorrow we are starting the school year with the timetables generated with FET 5.6.2 (I didn't use the last version because I didn't want to show the not-available crosses -x-

The timetables have come up 100% normative compliant and 98% teachers' wishes respected. It was a very difficult timetable with many subjects with different teachers and groups, and space constraints, etc

Thanks very much for your work and for sharing it.

[Volker Dirr]

didn't use the last version because I didn't want to show the not-available crosses -x-

You can use newer version if you want. Just open the html file with an editor and replace -x- by ---. (i am not sure about the english terms. i think it is "find & replace".)

I will think about a better solution. (maybe move this signs into the css file. disadvantage will be if a user forget to copy the css file he will see nothing.)

[Liviu Lalescu]

hi all,
tomorrow we are starting the school year with the timetables generated with FET 5.6.2 (I didn't use the last version because I didn't want to show the not-available crosses -x-

The timetables have come up 100% normative compliant and 98% teachers' wishes respected. It was a very difficult timetable with many subjects with different teachers and groups, and space constraints, etc

Thanks very much for your work and for sharing it.

Thank you for letting us know, silvia!

Maybe you would like to add an entry also in the guestbook (because more people might read your feed-back there) and also this way I can add it in the FET distribution.

Also, please send me your input file (on forum or by e-mail), I'll keep it private if necessary or put else it into FET if you agree. I need as many files as possible, to test FET.

[silvia]

sure I will leave a comment, as soon as I discover how to  

I will send you the fet file, too, with plasure. Just let me delete the surnames of the teachers if you don't mind, as there is a private data policy in my country and I can't share that information. Will you need further explanation to understand the timetables? how do you usually deal with those files?

[silvia]

never mind about the guest book. I have found it and posted  

[Liviu Lalescu]

sure I will leave a comment, as soon as I discover how to  

I will send you the fet file, too, with plasure. Just let me delete the surnames of the teachers if you don't mind, as there is a private data policy in my country and I can't share that information. Will you need further explanation to understand the timetables? how do you usually deal with those files?

No, I don't need further information. I just generate a timetable and see it. I write down the generation time and take care that if I modify something in FET, the time should remain approximately the same.

You mean I may include your modified file into FET?

[silvia]

yes, I mean you can include it if you please, as long as I don't leave any personal information in the file. I don't know if you need it. But I'll send it to you anyway. All the timetable is blocked. is that a problem?

[Liviu Lalescu]

In the past, samples were critical (very important) for FET. FET would not solve now if I would not have some critical samples. For instance, from 5.4.18 to 5.5.0, I was about to release new version, but I got 2 samples which showed me 2 bugs in new code, and FET 5.5.0 could not solve these samples, but 5.4.18 could. So I modified and now it is OK.

I prefer to get the unlocked timetable. Also you can send me the locked one.

Anyway, I can unlock it fast, if you cannot do that. You can also use a shortcut: open with a text editor the .fet file and see the last time constraints and space constraints. The activities are locked in order, from 1 to n, and locking constraints are at the end of sections. Or open the constraint activity preferred starting time constraints and the last constraints are locking (from 1 to n id of activity). Position yourself to last constraint and keep Enter pressed on remove, but careful not to remove more than necessary.

[silvia]

ok, I'm removing the constraints. You'll see it as it came out, without all activities with a room, so you'll see what I mean. I had to add the rooms by hand. As soo as I have it ready I'll send it.

[Liviu Lalescu]

ok, I'm removing the constraints. You'll see it as it came out, without all activities with a room, so you'll see what I mean. I had to add the rooms by hand. As soo as I have it ready I'll send it.

I am sorry that you needed to add rooms by hand. But I suggested you to add a dummy room "R1+R2+R3" and constrain the activities with T1+T2+T3+S1+S2+S3 to be in this room, by constraint activity preferred room. Or maybe use the other space constraints (add some activity tag for this activity, or other solutions). The rest of the data should remain untouched. Why don't you think that this can be applied to your dataset?

[silvia]

oh, don't worry, those timetables were finished and handed by september 9th. I don't hink this can apply to my timetables because if students get dummy classroom R1+R2+R3 it's ok, but if teacher get the same classroom in their timetables, they won't know to which classroom they have to attend. Many years ago I used a timetables software which dealt with classroom quite easely.

it assigned as many rooms as you wanted to one activity, and you were able to change/add the room or the teacher o the students by right clicking. besides, a side dialog showed you the rooms that were free at that time of the day. I suppose this would be impossible or very difficult to do with FET. Am I right?

I have the fet file ready. where can I send it?

[silvia]

sorry, I forgot to give you more detailed info about the rooms issue. if I assign R1+R2+R3 to an activity, rooms R1, R2 and R3 will still be available for other activities, so they might be assigned, which would give me 2 groups in the same classroom on the first day of class. PANIC  

besides, I would prefer that the program assigns the home rooms + any other free classroom, so I don't have to think where can I put those tudents.

In my high school we have 19 groups, which sometimes are more than that because they have optional subjects (each group divided by 4 or 5 teachers), they have divided classes for several subjects (half class is doing maths, the other half is doing English), and things like that. It's not easy, I know, but I've been able to manage very well with FET.

[Liviu Lalescu]

oh, don't worry, those timetables were finished and handed by september 9th. I don't hink this can apply to my timetables because if students get dummy classroom R1+R2+R3 it's ok, but if teacher get the same classroom in their timetables, they won't know to which classroom they have to attend. Many years ago I used a timetables software which dealt with classroom quite easely.

it assigned as many rooms as you wanted to one activity, and you were able to change/add the room or the teacher o the students by right clicking. besides, a side dialog showed you the rooms that were free at that time of the day. I suppose this would be impossible or very difficult to do with FET. Am I right?

I have the fet file ready. where can I send it?

You can send the file to my e-mail or better attach it here on the forum, in the right section (Development - Contribute input file for testing

It is trivial to show free rooms, just that I considered the algorithm of generation much more important than this. And I hate interface and making facilities into it (that's why the interface is ugly :-)

To have the exact rooms, I think you may try to split your years according to categories. You can divide according to 3 categories or use a trick to divide by 4 categories (consider years: 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B... and divide them by 3 categories). Please read docs. about that, test a bit and come back with more questions in the Help section of forum.

[Liviu Lalescu]

sorry, I forgot to give you more detailed info about the rooms issue. if I assign R1+R2+R3 to an activity, rooms R1, R2 and R3 will still be available for other activities, so they might be assigned, which would give me 2 groups in the same classroom on the first day of class. PANIC  

besides, I would prefer that the program assigns the home rooms + any other free classroom, so I don't have to think where can I put those tudents.

In my high school we have 19 groups, which sometimes are more than that because they have optional subjects (each group divided by 4 or 5 teachers), they have divided classes for several subjects (half class is doing maths, the other half is doing English), and things like that. It's not easy, I know, but I've been able to manage very well with FET.

If you had 4 optional subjects (categories), you could use facility of FET "divide years automatically" with the trick I told previously. But if you have 5 optional subjects, you need to manually add the groups and subgroups. It is possible, but difficult.

To occupy R1 when "R1+R2+R3" is occupied by A, add dummy activity A' -> then preferred room of A' to R1, then constraint activities same starting times, A with A'. Please remove redundant constraints min n days between activities. This is difficult.

Anything is possible, I just thought that the main feature is to generate a timetable. I was not interested into making a nice looking program :-)

Yes, it is possible to make a very nice structure of students, but if categories are greater than 4 you cannot directly, you have to do it by hand. I thought no school has more than 3 (or even 4) categories.

Please try to see how to define categories in FET and let me know what do you think about this facility. You can define optional subjects this way.

Hmm, I am not sure if dividing the students sets is enough. You might need to add some constraints activities same starting times if you need the lessons of Math at the same time, and again remove redundant min n days between activities. But this way each teacher will get a particular preferred or home room.

[silvia]

ok, when all this fuss of the beginning of the school year is over, I will try all these suggestions. This way I will anticipate the work for next september