Dear Liviu,
Thank you for having developed FET, I started to use it recently and I find it very powerful!
I have a suggestion for a new time constraint "building" related; it should be something like:
"Max days per week for a student set in a building"
"Min days per week for a student set in a building"
(one should have the entries: student set, max/min days per week, building)
and maybe also:
"Max days per week for all student in a building"
"Min days per week for all student in a building"
(one should have the entries: max/min days per week, building)
I try to explain why it is important in my case (and I hope also for other schools).
In my school we have two buildings, very far apart from each other, and for various logistic reasons, during the week students have to stay in one building for a few days and the rest of the week in the other building (students go to school 6 days per week). Moreover the Principal would like the classes spend time in the two buildings homogeneously (ideally 3 days in each building) but this is actually not always possible because there are other good reasons for spending, for example, 2 days in one and 4 in the other. Note that some laboratories (and gym) are in one building but not in the other, therefore they are forced to go in a specific building.
At the moment FET decides to send one class (student set) in one building or in the other just according to "activity preferred room" or just because the rooms in a building are finished. But sometimes happen that one class is in a building for one day and the other five days is in the other: this is not acceptable for me. Therefore I had to modify the timetable by hand...
Introducing the above suggested constraints the classes can be distributed between the two (or more) buildings in a controlled way.
Thank you very much for considering this suggestion, this will help me a lot!!!
Best regards,
Pietro
Dear Pietro,
Thank you for your kind words!
If you knew exactly for each activity its corresponding building (each activity has a fixed single building possible), the "max" variant is possible: a set of activities occupies max sets of time slots from selection; add one such constraint for each students set's activities, selecting the slots as 6 sets: day 1, ..., day 6, max occupied = 4 for your case.
But I think in your case a specific activity may take place in either building, so maybe the approach above is not possible.
Liviu.
Dear Liviu,
thanks for your answer. Unfortunately, as you have noticed, a specific activity may take place in either buildings. For example, certain theoretical subjects such as mathematics, history, geography, philosophy, etc., can be taught (by the same teacher to the same class) in both buildings. Other ideas ? or any chance to introduce a new constraint ? Pietro.
Dear Pietro,
I think you need a new constraint. I will add your suggestion in the list of suggestions, for now.
It is a research problem, and "min" seems much more difficult than "max".
Liviu.
PS: Could you please tell me your complete name or nickname you would like me to add you to the Credits, as the person who suggested this? We already have a Pietro there.
Dear Liviu,
thanks a lot for having considered the suggestion, it will help me a lot in the future!
PS: I sent you my complete name by email.
Pietro.
Thank you as well, Pietro!
:)