Custom FET BP - block planning (Need help choosing a custom version)

Liviu Lalescu · February 01, 2020, 04:57:47 PM

OK, I will delete it soon

Please tell me the max number of hours per week you have (real n_days_per_week x real n_hours_per_day). This will be the FET hours per day in the new AAT. And the max number of FET days per week will be 100 (real teachers).

I think I will start from the official FET 5.42.3 (just released). How could we name the version? AATV2?

ChicagoPianoTuner · February 01, 2020, 05:03:44 PM

AATV2 sounds good to me.

For FET hours per week, my particular application will have 16 real, and 8 fake in which to place "reserve" choices - so 24 total. It probably could be reduced to 2 fake, if we applied the customization from the old CPT version "activities tags not overlapping unless in fake FET hours." But with 8 fake, that constraint is not required. I do not think having 24 will make generation too hard.

This number (24) is the part I mentioned that other schools would need to customize the most. But for me, 24 is a safe number.

Liviu Lalescu · February 01, 2020, 05:12:20 PM

Do you mean FET AATV2 hours per day = real hours per week = 24?

Max FET hours per day is 60, so we can leave this untouched. We'll need to increase the number of FET days per week (in FET-AATV2) to 100 (real-life teachers).

ChicagoPianoTuner · February 01, 2020, 05:15:05 PM

Quote from: Liviu Lalescu on February 01, 2020, 05:12:20 PM
Do you mean FET AATV2 hours per day = real hours per week = 24?

Max FET hours per day is 60, so we can leave this untouched. We'll need to increase the number of FET days per week (in FET-AATV2) to 100 (real-life teachers).

Yes, that is what I mean, sorry. AATV2 hours per day = real hours per week = 24. It is very unlikely that any school would need more than 60.

Liviu Lalescu · February 01, 2020, 05:18:55 PM

OK, I'll see hopefully in a few hours or less, because I need to take a rest now, after some difficult work with the new official release. I'll let you know.

Liviu Lalescu · February 01, 2020, 08:47:40 PM

I did it easily, using the old code to make 216 days per week from a custom version and the old code from AAT.

Please get it from: ~~https://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download/custom/aatv2/~~ NOTE: This aatv2 version is deprecated in favor of the BP version (Block Planning), whose link is available in the "Custom versions" of the FET homepage or directly here: https://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download/custom/bp/

There is a simple example there in the "examples" directory.

ChicagoPianoTuner · February 01, 2020, 08:56:53 PM

Great! I am glad it wasn't too difficult.

I will try it out within the next day or two once I have a full set of data instead of just one year group. I expect it will work well.

Liviu Lalescu · February 01, 2020, 08:59:38 PM

Maybe you could try on your file with only one year of students and let me know if it is OK?

ChicagoPianoTuner · February 01, 2020, 09:46:27 PM

Sorry - I did not see your message. I just tried - it works! I will email you the FET file for your reference.

Liviu Lalescu · February 01, 2020, 10:09:45 PM

Thank you!

Do you think we should post this custom version as a prominent one, near the Algeria, Morocco, mapr, AAT, AAP, and the few others on https://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/custom.html ? (maybe after you test for your complete data?)

Liviu Lalescu · February 02, 2020, 04:08:19 PM

I just added a new entry in the custom versions, as I said, and released a final version (without the word "snapshot" in its name - the rest is identical).

ChicagoPianoTuner · February 04, 2020, 12:18:56 PM

Great - thanks very much! I am still working on the input file, but have run it through FET with more of the data than before (but still not the full set of data). It is still generating very quickly without any errors, so good news so far. I will keep working throughout the week and update you when I have a full file. I will then start adding constraints, though I do not anticipate many constraints.

Liviu Lalescu · February 04, 2020, 12:58:39 PM

Good news! Thanks for the update!

ChicagoPianoTuner · February 07, 2020, 10:44:27 AM

Another update: I have all the data in and am starting to add constraints. Things are going well!

As was the case with the CPT version, I am finding it difficult to view the timetables for subgroups because the files are so big and the data is sparse. For the CPT version, you implemented a feature that, for subgroups, a FET day was only included in the timetable file for the subgroup if the day was not empty. Ideally the same thing would be true for subjects. Is that a possible addition you could make? It is important because there are ~500 subgroups and ~50 days. If it is easy for you, that would be great for me!

I will keep you posted with my progress.

Liviu Lalescu · February 07, 2020, 05:26:18 PM

That is good. So the whole data is generating in a reasonable time (without the preference constraints)?

What you are requesting is possible. In fact, for Jude G, who requested the AAT version, I did another customization: after the generation FET will save an official .fet file, and you can generate on that file with the official FET, and obtain a "compressed" timetable with the real-life appearance. Or we could compress the timetable in a single phase, though it is a bit more difficult.

But for now I would consider making this customization on a contract base (me and Volker we'll retain the copyright, but it will remain free software, GNU AGPL).