tomas-muller
commented
1 year ago You need to use Required Different Time (forcing the classes in not-overlapping times) or Required Same Students (also checking for distance conflicts between back-to-back classes) distributions. The Same Time distribution only checks for the time of the day, so Monday 8 - 10 conflicts with Tuesday 9 - 11 as the time of the day overlaps.
A better approach is to have student course demand data. These could be curricula, last year's course enrollments, the actual student pre-registrations, or a combination of these. For more details, see the Student Course Demands parameter on the Solver page.
It is also possible to use Student Group Reservations; see issue #78 for more details.
Using Unitime, what is the best practice to force the courses of the same level (e.g., Fall semester 1st-year courses) from being scheduled at the same time of the day, i.e., overlapped?
For instance, courses 101C, 102C, 103C, 104C, and 105C should be enrolled by the same group of students. Thus, these five courses should not be overlapped in the timetable. When I used the "Same time" distribution preference and prohibited these courses from being offered at the same time of the day, the solver couldn't find a solution, although I could do it manually easily. Of note, there are enough numbers of rooms and staff.
In other words, I need to schedule the groups of courses at non-overlapped times. Fall semester 1st-year courses should not overlap with each other; similarly, Fall semester 2nd-year courses should not overlap with each other, etc.