I might have a unique problem here. Ours is a college with about 12 departments. Let's say x rooms are available in the college. Each department is allotted 3 rooms to begin with, but, x is not equal to 36 (I hope that makes sense). To be precise, x> 36. Basically, some rooms are kept in 'reserve' and allotted if the need arises on a first come first served basis, that is, when a department falls short of the rooms. Can I incorporate this situation? I hope I am being clear. I don't have 4 rooms to begin with: the fourth room can be allotted only for some slots when I have run out of the rooms. Moreover, there is no guarantee I will be allotted the fourth room (depends on the number/size of rooms available in reserve).
Can FET generate a timetable where some activities haven't been allotted rooms? Can I change the weight on some constraint to allow this?
1. I think you can do an increasing approach, beginning with only 3 rooms for each department, then allowing more.
2. If for an activity there are no space constraints, this activity will end in no room. FET can generate such a timetable. But if for an activity you add constraints with 100% which cannot be satisfied, the timetable will be impossible.
Sorry, I forgot to mention. I am only preparing my department's timetable using FET. Other departments will work with their rooms and prepare the timetable independently.
So, do you suggest I don't put a space constraint in a particular activity? This way, won't it always be left without a room? There are usually limits to how many reserve rooms I can request for. To elaborate, I can leave possibly 15 activities (out of around 260) without a room in the entire week, and then get rooms allotted for those activities. If the reserve rooms are not available in the requested slots, I need to rework the timetable for those particular slots.
Yes, the activities will always be without a room if there is no space constraints for them.
You could try to add space constraints with <100% weight (like 90%). If such a constraint cannot be respected, the activity will remain without a room.
Thanks, I'll try that!