How to automatically generate a school timetable - Prime Timetable

Automatic timetable generator has been crafted for 30+ years to solve the most challenging constraints. The generator can save a weeks of hard mind bending work. It will resolve conflicts, forbidden positions, distribute subjects evenly across the week/class, optimize student/teacher load, gaps and building moves, optimize room usage and many more. The generator will find optimal solution even in "mission impossible" cases.

00:00 #01 Automatic timetable generator
- Why manual timetabling is really hard
- Automatic generator might save you days or even weeks of mind bending work
- Use sponge to remove all cards from the timetable
- Start the automatic generator
- Notification panel shows no errors
- Generate another solution
01:15 #02 Best practices
- Set moderate requirements and don't expect to instantly get a perfect timetable
- Revise your data if the timetable can't be generated even without constraints
- Check statistics to get a clue where the problem is
- Only when you manage to get a valid timetable should you gradually increase the constraints
01:45 #03 How generator works?
- Generate K-12 example from scratch
- The generator deals with errors first and then proceed resolving warnings
- In some cases timetable requirements are impossible to meet
- The generator will always try to find a better solution no matter how hard the constraints
02:43 #04 Generator and constraints
- "Teach" the generator to better understand your requirements
- Pin the cards that you don't want to be moved by the generator
- Divide a class into groups to handle electives
- Electives can be clipped
- Mark time slots as forbidden to handle lunch, part-time teachers and similar
- Pin cards to ignore conflicts
- In a nutshell, the better you prepare your data and constraints the better output you'll get

Read more in the user guide: primetimetable.com/help/#generate

Prime Timetable is a school scheduling software designed for both automatic and manual timetabling on any device: Mac, PC, tablet, smartphone.

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