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Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm?

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On Wed, 13 Sep 2017 10:36:41 -0700, Eric Douglas wrote:

> I'm sure the traffic manager would love it if we could write a truck
> packing screen as a game of 3D Tetris.
>
:-)

FWIW, I've been maintaining a set of six club duty rosters for the last 
few years. These are interlinked by a set of rules:

- some members are on more than one roster so must not be rostered on
  both rosters for the same weekend

- some members (on different rosters) travel together, so should be
  rostered on the same day at the same time

- group ownership of rather a rather expensive piece of sporting
  equipment means that only one group member can be rostered on a day,
  regardless of which rosters each of them volunteer for.

..and finally, for each roster there are rules that set the minimum gap 
between successive duties for a member.

Before I took the task over it was handled by a massive 13 page 
spreadsheet (six rosters, a preferences import page for each and last 
season's overall roster), which did little more than record its user's 
input and required manual application of the above rules. 

I built a Java program that does all the above AND implements those rules 
as well as visually showing days blocked out because they are too close a 
member's previous duty, but this still requires duty allocation to be 
done manually. 

It uses a matrix. The X axis lists member names, the Y axis shows dates 
and duty allocations for that roster. The matrix body contains colour 
coded cells showing the status of a member vs duty allocation, e.g.:

pale blue=unallocated  

green=allocated duty

darkgreen=allocated all-day duty

red=rejected allocation attempt

I initially wanted to try automating duty allocation but was persuaded 
that this would be a nightmare to implement, while the current approach 
of just automating the rules to do real-time checks as duties are 
allocated works well and is fairly intuitive to use.

I suspect you may find my rostering task has similarities to your 
container packing task, so making something with a UI like a 3D Tetris 
game with automated packing rules and manual package allocation may not 
be such a bad idea, particularly if it is possible to simultaneously show 
all the trucks currently in loading bays or all trucks taking stuff to 
the same destination while still having a usable screen.


-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |

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Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-08 05:05 -0700
  Is there already an easy fit algorithm? lewbloch@gmail.com - 2017-09-08 07:38 -0700
    Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-08 08:34 -0700
    Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-08 11:36 -0700
      Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Joshua Cranmer 🐧 <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2017-09-10 22:52 -0400
        Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2017-09-11 20:24 -0700
          Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-12 05:05 -0700
          Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-12 05:11 -0700
            Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? lewbloch@gmail.com - 2017-09-12 10:31 -0700
              Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-12 10:52 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? lewbloch@gmail.com - 2017-09-12 12:43 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-12 13:02 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2017-09-12 17:08 -0400
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-13 05:21 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2017-09-13 12:49 -0400
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-13 11:13 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? lewbloch@gmail.com - 2017-09-13 14:24 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2017-09-13 20:35 -0400
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? lewbloch@gmail.com - 2017-09-14 11:26 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-14 11:53 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2017-09-14 19:49 +0000
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? lewbloch@gmail.com - 2017-09-14 14:38 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2017-09-14 20:34 -0400
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Andreas Leitgeb <avl@logic.at> - 2017-09-15 09:22 +0000
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2017-09-15 20:03 -0400
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2017-09-19 21:16 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2017-09-20 08:58 -0400
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? leif.roar@dimnakorr.com - 2017-09-18 04:14 -0500
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2017-09-12 21:50 +0000
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-13 05:12 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2017-09-13 13:07 +0000
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-13 06:33 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2017-09-13 16:37 +0000
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-13 10:36 -0700
                Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2017-09-13 18:54 +0000
            Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2017-09-19 21:21 -0700
          Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-12 07:32 -0700
            Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-09-12 08:02 -0700
  Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2017-09-12 11:47 -0400
  Re: Is there already an easy fit algorithm? Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2017-09-15 10:27 +0000

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