Hi,
Could you please let me know if my understanding is correct?
1. Every time we "Generate new", even though we don't change anything at all, we will get different version of timetable and the file in fet-results>>"file_data_and_timetable.fet gets overwritten
2. If I like the choice of the timetable, though not completely happy but would like to keep it as an option, I have to save the file in 1) as a different name
3. However, if I open the file from 2 (the one I save as a different name) and "Generate new" I'll get the version of the timetable that I like from 2.
4. However, if I click "Generate new" again following doing no. 3, it now gives me a new version
5. Can I lock the time of some of the lessons in the timetable , but then go on to change the teacher of that activity, how does it affect the lock in this case?
6. The reason I asked no. 5 is we have 5 groups of students all studying 4 subjects (say English 1,2,3,4) and a group of teachers. Any teachers can teach any subjects and each teacher has a target hours. The idea here is to optimise the teacher's time so they teach on minimum number of days as they are part time and only want to travel as little as possible. Is there a way to do this?
Sorry for so many questions, as they come up as I started to use more and more functions of FET. Many thanks.
Hello:
1, 2, 3 are true. 4 - I think the timetable should be again the same. The easy idea is that locking an activity adds a preferred time constraint for that activity and a preferred room - please see that in the time/space constraints list.
5 - the activity id will remain locked in that time/space.
6 - unfortunately, FET cannot be made to make a best choice of teachers - each activity has exactly specified teachers. But you can change the activities' teachers before generating. Maybe you could use teacher's max days per week constraints, in an increasing difficulty order.
About 6 - there is a mode - block planning - to choose teachers for students, but I don't think it would help you.
Thanks so much. I'll try to generate some versions first and go from there.
Regarding this, I'm still not quite clear
5 - the activity id will remain locked in that time/space.
As I understand, the activity id also includes info about teacher. Does that mean the subject and room remain there with a new teacher?
Many thanks.
The locking constraint is referring to an activity id. If you change the teacher of that activity, the locking constraint will refer to the same activity but with the new teacher. Of course the same subject. But the room is locked by a space constraint to that id. Room is not included in the activity id.
Thanks very much for that.
You're welcome!