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Same starting time (day+hour)

Then I added
each 1st activity of a group to a constraint
each 2nd activity of group
etc.

It doesn't really matter that first activities go together and so on, and I hope fet will not find that more difficult to place.
My test group worked well. It is processing now the whole batch. Fingers crossed I didn't make any mistakes entering everything.

Thanks!

Beautiful,

Progress is being made.

Thanks again for the prompt and effective response!

Hello,

I have sets of activities in separate tags 'A' thru 'G' which are duration 3 or 4.
I would like all of these activities occupy the same time slots, but I do not care where they are placed.

Is this possible? I had trouble discovering a time constraint option to fit this need (but my brain is pretty well fried at this stage).

I am trying to open more options for what was previously a container or block scheduling system.

As always, I appreciate your advice.
(it seems as though this process will never end...)

Thank you,

Zack

Hello,

It is possible to alter the initial order of placing the activities?
I would like to try and place some specific activities much earlier in the layout to see if the remainder of the timetable could be built around them.
Do the given constraints have any impact on the order of placement?

Thanks again!

Success,

For the lunch situation I created a placeholder activity in a dummy 8th period to ensure that 'max hours continuously'=4 put a break either period 4 or 5 for all students.

I relaxed a few other constraints and can now get a generated output within 10 minutes.
There are quite a few undesirable scenarios (e.g. two English classes spaced out on the same day), but that was expected.

If I may ask for advice again: is there a recommended procedure for reintroducing constraints on the most undesirable scenarios?
Should I gradually increase the 'min days' percentage within 'spread activities,'
or increase percentages on the activities which are placed awkwardly,
or lock placements of well placed activities,
or something else I haven't thought of?

Thank you again.
Soon I may be proficient enough with fet to offer some help here on the forum!

Hello again,

I am working without a break and reducing 'min day' percentages.

I would like Lunch to fall in the 4th or 5th period (out of 7) of the day, I was thinking of removing the lunch activity for a 'max hours continuously' of 4, but would need another constraint to ensure the break did not fall period 3. Is this a better approach computationally than a 'lunch' activity?

Also, is there a quick way to activate/deactivate activities of a particular tag/subject etc.?

With appreciation,

Zack

Thank you so much for your efforts.

I will work to reduce the weights on various constraints.
Can you share the most efficient way to change constraint weights in bulk?

*It was preferred that tutor groups were split up within the week, but if that constraint is slowing things down, I can reduce it.

This is already hugely useful, just to know I haven't overlooked an obvious flaw.

Hello,

I'm afraid I've hit a wall and not sure what to try next.
I have attempted to remove various constraints and alter various parameters, but I am now up against implementing an entirely new approach.

Before I go down that road, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to take a look at my .fet file and perhaps identify some glaring error I have overlooked. I think desperation and caffeine overdosing could be clouding my eyes and mind.

I apologize for this very non-specific approach for help, I just want to be sure there is nothing overtly foolish that I've missed before overhauling the whole data set.

Thank you,

Zack

As I battle with the urge to strangle myself for accepting the challenge of creating our school timetable, I cannot help but marvel at the efforts of the creators of this valuable tool.

I'll likely be back here to shower them with more praise once the horror of timetabling is over, but I can't imagine doing it now without FET.

I'm humbled and inspired about what the world would be like if the selfless effort and dedication I see in this forum were the norm.

With much gratitude,

Zack

Greetings,

I have run into a bottleneck generating a new timetable and recognized a potential blunder I've made:
I inadvertently opened the .fet file in version 6.04 and made changes.
I then opened the modified file in the 6.03-zblakley program.

Is it possible that making changes between these version could corrupt the .fet file, or am I more likely just missing some other constraint problem?

Thanks again for the help,

Zack

Excellent,

Virtual rooms solved that beautifully!

Vangelis, Thank you for the suggestion, I would agree that year group divisions would have been a more explicit and precise solution (and I am using this for some of the classes); unfortunately the number of choices made a dizzying number of subgroups to assign and track, so in simple cases like this one, I just lumped them all together. Thanks to the Virtual Rooms, it will work out.

Once again, my gratitude,

Zack

Greetings,

For some activities a Year level divides as A, B, C; but they mix differently for a particular subject.

For simple cases, I have scheduled this by creating a single activity including the entire year group and each teacher of the various classes (they would all be occurring at the same time). This works well until coming to space.

There are four preferred rooms for this activity, but FET knows it can't cram the whole year group into one of these rooms and halts the generation. There does not appear to be a way to give an activity multiple rooms.

I have seen a 'dummy class' solution with 'activities at the same time' constraints, but would like to know if there are other potential options for assigning rooms to these grouped class activities.

Thank you

Spectacular!

I have made the modifications to the divisions and generated a successful first draft for review.
The words to express my gratitude are certain to fall short: you have done me and my colleagues a great service.

I'm sure there will be more challenges in creating our schedule, but your support is paving the way to success.

My sincerest thanks,

Zack

I am very interested, and overjoyed!
If you were able to do this, I believe you would instantly become my personal hero.

Thank you, I can see that both of those solutions should work. Unfortunately, I think the time required and potential for user error will be quite large for the number of divisions I was looking at. 3*3*3*2*2*2 =216 (just for this year group).

MYP5 A
MYP5 B
MYP5 C

MYP5 Phys
MYP5 Chem
MYP5 Bio

MYP5 Ge
MYP5 Fr
MYP5 Sp

MYP5 DuLL
MYP5 DuLA

MYP5 EngA
MYP5 EngB

MYP Ma
MYP MaX

Few enough for FET to sort hopefully, but I will almost certainly make some errors somewhere assigning each subgroup manually into each activity or even into independent groups. With an 'intersection' option, I hoped it would directly pick the exclusive subgroups (and their counterparts).

I assume this 'intersection' option is not currently possible, but perhaps you might suggest another approach?
When just using A,B,C and blocking the other divisions together, it didn't seem to have the flexibility to complete a viable timetable.

Again, your time and effort are greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Zack