Minority of Activities outside Normal Periods

[KH Wong]

Hi,

I am trying to generate a timetable for my college. Currently we have about close to 80 subjects for next semester. Our normal class period is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily so I have set each period to be an hour, starting at 8 a.m. We usually have an hour lecture (1 period) and 2 hours tutorial (2 periods) per subject. Most of these subjects should finish no later than 5 p.m.

However we have 4-5 subjects that needs to use 2 periods each starting at 4 p.m. thus finishing at 6 p.m. Should I do the following:

1. Set the period to end at 6 p.m. then set constraints for majority of subjects not to go over 5 p.m.

OR

2. Set the period to end at 5 p.m. then set constraints for these 4-5 subjects to have preferred time slot.

Thanks in advance.

[Volker Dirr]

depend on also this:
have the students a full table? are students gaps allowed? ...

first of all you should tag that activities with an activity tag.

then you should add one of the following constraints:
a) constraint "a set of activities (with activity tag) must end students day".
or
b) constraint "a set of activities (with activity tag) has a set of preferd starting times".

in variant a) are mybe more (other (maybe better?)) possible solutions.
variant b) is definitly much faster to generate if you use weight = 100%. But maybe you didn't find the best solution.

But if i understood your request correct, then you should use variant b), but rethink about my first question. you need to think about that first and then choose:
variant a) just end students day, but maybe at other times.
variant b) must start at 4 (so FET can not much find as mony solutions as in a), but it should be faster if it is solveable.)

[Liviu Lalescu]

Hi,

I am trying to generate a timetable for my college. Currently we have about close to 80 subjects for next semester. Our normal class period is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily so I have set each period to be an hour, starting at 8 a.m. We usually have an hour lecture (1 period) and 2 hours tutorial (2 periods) per subject. Most of these subjects should finish no later than 5 p.m.

However we have 4-5 subjects that needs to use 2 periods each starting at 4 p.m. thus finishing at 6 p.m. Should I do the following:

1. Set the period to end at 6 p.m. then set constraints for majority of subjects not to go over 5 p.m.

OR

2. Set the period to end at 5 p.m. then set constraints for these 4-5 subjects to have preferred time slot.

Thanks in advance.

It is very easy to make these special activities have duration (fake) 1 and constrain them to begin at hour 4. The timetable will not look perfect this way. If you want them displayed with duration 2, make hours from 8am to 6pm and constrain the usual activities into 8am-5pm and the special activities to start at 4 pm. There are many possibilities - preferred time slots maybe for usual activities, which will get a special activity tag.