Education block - Checking of gaps in class timetables

The software will not create a gap (a window, free period) in a class timetables by default.
The software calculates so called Education block.

Education block is term used to describe time range when some class has to have education. For example it may mean, that every student of some class MUST have education between periods 1-5, and CAN have education between periods 0-7.

Generator computes education block automatically based on total number of periods defined in class's lessons and settings in class's details. For most schools this automatic education block works well, but in some cases this automatic fails and education block needs to be set manually.

Possible cases when automatic education block fails:

* divided lessons with length 3 and more, which don't have complementary lesson,
* divided lessons with length 2 together with some complicated combination of other lessons without complement,
* divided lessons with length 2 and more in combination with breaks around end of education,
* when you define lunch break as forbidden period using time-off.

These are only cases when it is possible that there will be a problem with the education block.

Real problem occurs when program says that there is some problem with timetable of class, and you think that this timetable is ok. Program may show one of these problems in verification (Menu - Timetable - Verification):

* Class (class name) contains a window
* (Card) is out of teaching block

When you click on one of these problems, program will show you more details about it, including area of automatic education block ("Class must have lessons in this interval" and "Class can have lessons in this area). If you are not satisfied with automatic teaching block, you can click on Advanced button in Constraints. This will open advanced Class details dialog where you can specify teaching block settings. You have 3 options here:

* automatic - this will compute teaching block automatically. Automatic teaching block is computed so that education starts on period 1 and ends between periods N and N+2, where N is number computed from total number of lessons in class.
* discontinuous - this will completely disable education block and also checking of windows in timetable of class
* manual - here you can specify manual settings

Manual settings of education block are defined by four numbers: A, B, C, D.

Numbers A and D define when class can have education. You can define similar thing also with Time-off for that class. You can leave those values "Arbitrary" - in that case only Time-off is important.

Numbers B and C define area, where all students in class must have education. So there must be lesson on every position in this area for every student. If there is some lessons missing, program will report it as window even in cases when it is not really window.

You can leave any of these numbers as "Arbitrary". In case you set all of them "Arbitrary", program will only check windows in class timetable, but will not care about time when students have education. So they can have education one day in the morning and another day in afternoon.