I am very impressed by FET and it does almost all I need it to.
However, I have not yet worked out if it is possible to force the first two "hours" of each day to be an activity of duration 2 rather than 2 activities of duration 1 - I do not think combining each of these into one single activity, would work as that would give it the effective duration of 1.
Many thanks for any suggestions, and thank you for the program - it's brilliant!
Thank you for the appreciation!
Quote from: palisander on August 31, 2016, 10:11:35 AM
However, I have not yet worked out if it is possible to force the first two "hours" of each day to be an activity of duration 2 rather than 2 activities of duration 1
I think the magic constraint activities occupy max time slots from selection might help you.
First of all, you can read its help.
Then, I can give you the solution: Say you have 5 days per week and 6 hours per day. 7 activities with duration 2. Then I think you want 5 activities of these 7 to start at the first hour of each day. Then, the remaining 2 activities of 2 hours each can fill the remaining space. So, add a constraint activities occupy max slots from selection, all 7 activities, selected slots hours from 3 to 6 of each day (20 slots selected with an X), max occupied 2*2=4.
Please let me know.
Quote
I do not think combining each of these into one single activity, would work as that would give it the effective duration of 1.
I am sorry, but I do not understand this.
depending on your dataset, i suggest to do it a bit different.
example:
You have got subject english with 4 hours per week. so add an activity with duration 2+1+1.
do the same for math and some other subjects. in best case do it for as many subjects as you have got days per week.
then use constraint "a set of subactivity has a set of preffered times". allow only hour 1 and 2 for component subject X (see above) and component number 1 (the subactivity with duration 2).
be careful. this constraints must be possible for students AND teachers.
So if you have got a subject with only 2 hours (like sports), it will be highly impossible to do it. Of course it is possible from the students view, but (very highly) not from the teachers views.
i do this trick for main subjects. (but i have got less main subjects then days per week, so it is a bit easer to solve; but still in some cases impossible (very easy to prove that) so i use this trick in fact for hours 1 to 4 (not 1 to 2)).