FET

FET is an open-source program for automatically generating timetables for schools, high schools, and universities. It uses an efficient algorithm that solves complex timetables in anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on the data. The results are exported to HTML, XML, and CSV formats. The application runs on GNU/Linux, Windows, and macOS using the Qt framework.

★★★★★

4.7(3 ratings)

• Automatic and manual generation. FET uses a fully automatic algorithm to create timetables from scratch. It also allows semi-automatic or manual assignment of activities, giving you full control over the final schedule. Users can adjust specific assignments after the automatic generation.
• Flexible student structure. Students are organized in hierarchical sets: years, groups, and subgroups. The system supports overlapping years and groups, as well as subgroups. Individual students can be defined as separate sets, adapting to a variety of organizational structures.
• Activities with configurable duration. Each activity can have a custom duration of 1, 2, 3, or more hours. A single activity can involve multiple teachers and student sets at the same time, or even have no teacher or students assigned.
• Time constraints system. Includes a wide range of time constraints with adjustable weights from 0.0% to 100.0%. These include break periods, unavailable hours for teachers or students, daily/weekly hour limits, minimum/maximum days between activities, and specific starting or ending conditions.
• Space constraints system. Offers detailed space constraints for managing rooms and buildings. You can define unavailable rooms, home rooms for teachers or students, maximum building changes per day/week, and assign preferred rooms by subject, activity tag, or individual activity.
• Import and export formats. Uses a modular and flexible XML format for input files, which can be edited with the FET interface or manually. Supports importing from CSV. The resulting timetables are exported to HTML, XML, and CSV formats for use in other applications.
• Large and scalable limits. FET handles up to 6000 teachers, 30000 student sets, 6000 subjects, and 30000 activities. The constraint limits are 60000 for time and 60000 for space. These limits can be increased in custom builds.
• Full internationalization. The program is translated into many languages, including Spanish, Catalan, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Arabic, Persian, and others. The interface adapts to the user's system language.
• Platform independence. Developed with the Qt toolkit, FET runs on GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Apple macOS without modification. The same source code works across different architectures.
• Activity tag management. Supports a virtually unlimited number of tags for classifying activities. Tags make it possible to apply specific constraints, such as limits on continuous hours for activities with a given tag, adding a layer of customization.
• Building and room control. Manages up to 6000 rooms and 6000 buildings. Sets constraints on building changes and minimum gaps between changes, and assigns preferred rooms. Models the complete physical layout of the institution.
• Granular constraint weights. Most constraints have an adjustable percentage weight, letting you define their relative importance. The algorithm tries to satisfy constraints with higher weights first, optimizing the timetable according to institutional priorities.
• Split activities. Lets you divide an activity into sub-activities that share common characteristics. Constraints can be applied so that they are consecutive, take place on the same day, or have minimum gaps between them, which is useful for theory and practice blocks.
• Working period definition. Configure the working days per week and the hours (periods) per day, with maximum limits of 35 days and 60 periods. This models unconventional calendars, such as 6-day weeks or days with double shifts.

FET was created by Liviu Lalescu. Development began in 2003. The program is written in the C++ programming language and uses the Qt framework for the graphical user interface. It is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).