Timetable for entire year

[Frans]

Hi Liviu

As you know I am using FET to set a University timetable. I came across something that I want to know if it is possible and how to solve. (it seems to me that the majority of subscribers are from schools.)

Currently I have to set a timetable at least four times a year, I do not refer to changes due to circumstances outside our control.

I am thinking of setting a timetable at the beginning of the year for the entire year. In our institution student are send out in to practice for practical experience. The first three months one group of students are send out, while another group returns. (unfortunately these groups are not of equal size). This is repeated for every quarter, students moving out while another group are moving in.

What I want to do is to set the timetable for all groups irrespective if they are on training or not. The problem is now venue allocation. In our institution venue allocation is the most crucial and difficult part.

I know that it is not possible to allocate the same venue to different groups with different lecturers. A timetable will be impossible. (If I do not allocate venues it will ot be a problem)

What I have in mind is to schedule evrything and  then when one group moves out the incoming group, already scheduled is using the venue.

I hope that my explanation makes sense. If I can do this my job will be simpilified and save me a lot of hours of hard work.

To generate a timetable everytime is not a problem but if doing this the entire timetable is going to change at least 4 times a year and this is confusing to students. Currently it also take anything between 1 and 3 hours to generate one timetable.

Do you have any ideas or I am I looking for something that is completely impossible.

I thank you in advance.

Kind regards.

Frans

[Liviu Lalescu]

I think I understand your question. I'll put an example:

Students years Y1, Y2, Y3, teachers T1, T2, T3, rooms R1, R2, activities A1(Y1,T1), A2(Y2,T2), A3(Y3,T3), A4(Y1,T1)-practice, A5(Y2,T2)-practice, A6(Y3,T3)-practice. A1->R1, A2->R1, A3->R1, A4->R2, A5->R2, A6->R2. You want to add all 6 activities in the timetable, even if in the first semester there are only A1, A2 and A6 (Y3 is having practice), in the second semester there are only A2, A3 and A4 (Y1 practice) and in third semester there are only A1, A3 and A5 (Y2 has practice).

If students Y1 (and respectively Y2 and Y3) have each 2 free slots per week, it may be possible. If rooms R1 and R2 have each 3 free slots per week, again it may be possible. But the solution may be harder to find than for only 3 activities added.

If your rooms have less free slots, you may try to add more dummy rooms and see what you get.

There would be maybe another approach possible: when doing the second timetable (second trimester), use the one from the first semester, with already existing activities locked (so, in the first timetable, lock all timetable, remove activities which need to be removed, and add the new ones). If it is impossible, try this: lock each teacher and/or students set for second timetable with not available periods in the periods in which they are free in the first timetable. It might work.

Please let me know what you think.

PS: Maybe you could send me your current file, so I can have a look. It will also help me test FET. If you want to include it, if there are no privacy problems, I can also add it as an official sample. Otherwise, I'll keep it private.

[Volker Dirr]

An other variant is maybe that your "3 month"-changes are maybe similar/easy solveable like forthnightly activities; but that depend on your dataset.

so read this:
http://www.timetabling.de/manual/FET-manual.en.html#id_36
and check if that is possible with your dataset.

just replace "fortnightly activity" by "3 monthly activity".

[Frans]

Liviu and Volker

Thank you for the information.

This is a mouth full and I will have to study the suggestions thoroughly to make sure that I understand what you propose.

I also think of another solution that should not be to difficult but I do not know if it is possible as I do not know how the algorithm is working.

There are two different diplomas namely HR3 and MK3. HR3 has practice and MK3 is on campus. When HR3 returns MK3 is going out having practice. Let us assume the two groups are of same size. (If sizes not the same then the following will not be applicable, but as a rule the sizes do not differ a lot.)

All activities for the two groups are scheduled at the same time. Allocate only rooms to MK3 because they are on campus. Now:

I duplicate all rooms say the actual room is indicated by 3.62 and the dummy room 3.62D, the same venue. Further suppose FET allocates room 3.62 to MK3 on day 1 hour 5. How, if possible, can I force FET to allocate 3.62D to HR3 for the same period because the activities are scheduled at the same time and not another venue, say 4.16. In other words FET must always us the dummy, duplicate venue when ever two activities are scheduled at the same day and hour. There is then actually a double booking for the spectific venue.

Please let me know if it make sense.

If this can be done I think that the problem is solved.

Frans

[Liviu Lalescu]

Liviu and Volker

Thank you for the information.

This is a mouth full and I will have to study the suggestions thoroughly to make sure that I understand what you propose.

I also think of another solution that should not be to difficult but I do not know if it is possible as I do not know how the algorithm is working.

There are two different diplomas namely HR3 and MK3. HR3 has practice and MK3 is on campus. When HR3 returns MK3 is going out having practice. Let us assume the two groups are of same size. (If sizes not the same then the following will not be applicable, but as a rule the sizes do not differ a lot.)

All activities for the two groups are scheduled at the same time. Allocate only rooms to MK3 because they are on campus. Now:

I duplicate all rooms say the actual room is indicated by 3.62 and the dummy room 3.62D, the same venue. Further suppose FET allocates room 3.62 to MK3 on day 1 hour 5. How, if possible, can I force FET to allocate 3.62D to HR3 for the same period because the activities are scheduled at the same time and not another venue, say 4.16. In other words FET must always us the dummy, duplicate venue when ever two activities are scheduled at the same day and hour. There is then actually a double booking for the spectific venue.

Please let me know if it make sense.

If this can be done I think that the problem is solved.

Frans

It makes sense, but I think it is not directly possible. Maybe others can help you more.

I do not understand: why can't you add preferred rooms for HR3 all dummy rooms? You don't care about which dummy room is allocated to HR3. FET will choose a dummy room for HR3 (because you know that this activity for HR3 is practice).

I suppose you know for each activity if it is practice or campus, so you have some campus and some practice activities.

[Frans]

I do not understand: why can't you add preferred rooms for HR3 all dummy rooms?

FET must allocate the same room to both MK3 and HR3. In other words if MK3 goes out into practice the returning HR3 will have classes in the same room because there are no other rooms available. This is one reason for students going out because if all are on campus the rooms are insufficient.

My idea is actually two stage. Set a timetable for the first quarter complete with venues for the groups on campus. FET allocates venues.

The the second stage is to allocate venues to the groups not on campus. The problem is that HR3 must be in the same room as MK3. (I do not want to interfere with other groups if possible.)Therefore I cannot use preferred rooms because it is not to say that FET will allocate the same room to HR3 than MK3 if scheduled at the same time.

I can also set the timetable as above and allocate rooms to groups on campus and no rooms to groups on practical training. Then when HR3 returns, make all MK3 activities inactive and then just allocate venues to HR3. Hopefully FET will use the same venues for HR3 as for MK3 as all other groups will be locked. (Provided the groups are more or less of the same size. If not things will be more complicated and some activities wil have to be unlocked.)

So all that will happen then is that there will be a timetable with no venues but it does not matter because they are not on campus. When they return just allocate venues, the venues that becomes available due to the other group going out.

Liviu the timetable, although there is already one in operation, takes me much longer as expected. Once finished I will let you have the necessary files.

Regards.

Frans

[Liviu Lalescu]

I do not understand: why can't you add preferred rooms for HR3 all dummy rooms?

FET must allocate the same room to both MK3 and HR3. In other words if MK3 goes out into practice the returning HR3 will have classes in the same room because there are no other rooms available. This is one reason for students going out because if all are on campus the rooms are insufficient.

My idea is actually two stage. Set a timetable for the first quarter complete with venues for the groups on campus. FET allocates venues.

The the second stage is to allocate venues to the groups not on campus. The problem is that HR3 must be in the same room as MK3. (I do not want to interfere with other groups if possible.)Therefore I cannot use preferred rooms because it is not to say that FET will allocate the same room to HR3 than MK3 if scheduled at the same time.

I can also set the timetable as above and allocate rooms to groups on campus and no rooms to groups on practical training. Then when HR3 returns, make all MK3 activities inactive and then just allocate venues to HR3. Hopefully FET will use the same venues for HR3 as for MK3 as all other groups will be locked. (Provided the groups are more or less of the same size. If not things will be more complicated and some activities wil have to be unlocked.)

So all that will happen then is that there will be a timetable with no venues but it does not matter because they are not on campus. When they return just allocate venues, the venues that becomes available due to the other group going out.

Liviu the timetable, although there is already one in operation, takes me much longer as expected. Once finished I will let you have the necessary files.

Regards.

Frans

Now I understood what you need. Unfortunately, there is no way to say that if activity A1 is into room R1, activity A2 should be into room R2.

But I think you can overcome this problem. For the second phase, make the other rooms for the other students sets not available (constraint room not available).