Hello! It's me again, hoping for some more help with something that I haven't quite been able to sort out.
My school has a two-week repeating timetable. In FET, I've simply set up a 10-day week, with Monday1, Tuesday1, ..., Monday2, Tuesday2, etc. Many activities are split into 8 class meetings. I would like to ask FET to schedule 4 of those 8 meetings during the first week of the timetable and 4 during the second week. Is there a way to do that? I can think of several ways to ALMOST do it, but I'm not sure of the best way. I have experimented with "spread activities evenly" but that doesn't quite work.
Thanks!
I think you can add 8 constraints subactivities preferred starting times (or time slots). Split indexes from 1 to 8, respectively. Selected time slots first week, respectively second week.
Hi Liviu, thanks for your help. I had hoped for a "big picture" way to do it instead of going in and manually editing all 800 of my subactivities, but it turned out not to take that long after I got in a rhythm. All done for now, thanks again.
Quote from: ChicagoPianoTuner on March 03, 2015, 04:37:07 PM
Hi Liviu, thanks for your help. I had hoped for a "big picture" way to do it instead of going in and manually editing all 800 of my subactivities, but it turned out not to take that long after I got in a rhythm. All done for now, thanks again.
Oh no! I didn't make myself clear. I was meaning that you should add only 8 constraints, not 800.
See the constraint
subactivities preferred time slots. You can specify the teacher/subject/activity tag/students set, and the split index. I was meaning that you add 4 constraints (split indexes 1, 2, 3, and respectively 4), time slots first week, and other 4 constraints (split indexes 5, 6, 7, and respectively 8 ), time slots second week.
If all the activities are split into 8 per week, you can add in total 8 constraints, like above. If you have say also activities split into 6, and you want 3/3, you need to make a distinction between the (sub)activities, by specifying a filter, like the subject. Or add activity tags (like "8") to activities split into 8, and use this as a filter. Adding tags to all activities might be easier than adding constraints for all activities, like you unfortunately already did.
Hah! Now I know exactly what you mean. I'll do it that way just as an exercise, because it is most definitely cleaner than how I did it this time around. Whoops! :'(
Thanks for your help!
You are welcome! :)
Hi - me again!
I'm bumping this older thread because I have a new question to add that's along the same lines as the original.
I've used Liviu's suggestion regarding subactivities preferred time slots and ensured that subactivities are evenly distributed throughout the two week cycle, meaning that even classes will be split half during the first week and half during the second week. I just completed the first draft of next year's timetable and I looked through and noticed that many classes in one subject primarily occur during the final third of the school day. I'd like to fix that.
Specifically, we have a six-period day and a 10-day week (for FET purposes - in actual truth it's a two-week cycle as mentioned). Math meets 8 times per 10-day cycle. Currently, I have 4 meetings scheduled during week 1 and 4 during week 2. However, of those 8 meetings, 6/8 occur during periods 5 and 6. I would like to more evenly distribute the meetings throughout the day, so maybe 2 occur periods 1-2, 3 occur periods 3-4, and 3 occur periods 5-6.
I know that I could accomplish this in a similar way to how I split the classes into week 1 and week 2 using subactivities preferred time slots, but I'm wary of trying to use the same constraint to adjust time of day as well. Is there another way to do it?
Thanks!
Quote from: ChicagoPianoTuner on April 15, 2015, 10:56:20 PM
I know that I could accomplish this in a similar way to how I split the classes into week 1 and week 2 using subactivities preferred time slots, but I'm wary of trying to use the same constraint to adjust time of day as well. Is there another way to do it?
Either you want it or not - it comes up to preferred times constraints. There is no problem if you use these constraints for the same activities, twice.
So, please use subactivities preferred time slots and let us know if it works.
Okay, great, I see how to use this constraint now. I didn't realize I could add the same constraint multiple times for what essentially amounts to the same activities, but I understand it now. In principle, it should be working fine, but I think I may be putting too many constraints on my timetable as it can't successfully place all of my activities, but I'm still fiddling around with it.
I have a separate question. I have made an activity with 6 subactivities. Is it possible for me to remove one of the subactivities completely without having to remake the activity? My current workaround is just to mark the unnecessary subactivities as inactive, but I'm wondering if it's possible to delete them entirely.
Thanks!
Quote from: ChicagoPianoTuner on April 17, 2015, 12:01:00 PM
I have a separate question. I have made an activity with 6 subactivities. Is it possible for me to remove one of the subactivities completely without having to remake the activity? My current workaround is just to mark the unnecessary subactivities as inactive, but I'm wondering if it's possible to delete them entirely.
No, it is not possible :-[