Automatic assignment

Top  Previous  Next

PerfectTablePlan will do an automatic seat assignment if you select File>wand_16Auto Assign Seats or the equivalent Main tool bar button.

Unless you have set it to assign seats randomly (in the prefs_16Preferences window) the automatic assignment will attempt to:

put people near to or not near to each other, according to your settings in the heart_16Proximity pane
not leave people on their own
alternate males and females (unless you have unselected this in the prefs_16Preferences window )
assign VIP guests to VIP tables
prioritise VIP guests

Professional edition only

You can also set proximity using custom fields.

Note The automatic assignment may try to put 2 'near to' proximity guests next to each other if no 'next to' proximity guests are available.

It does this by assigning a score to each plan and using a genetic algorithm to try to find the highest scoring plan. You can check you have enough seats by looking at the Status bar.

You can run File>wand_16Auto Assign Seats as often as you like. Click on the Stop button at any time during calculation to keep the best (highest scoring) plan so far. Select Edit>undo_16Undo to go back to the previous plan.

Note Guests who have been lock_16 locked by you will not be (re)assigned by the automatic assignment.

Scoring

A plan is scored as follows:

Criterion

Score

heart_16 Next to proximity guests next to each other

+20

smile_16 Near to proximity guests next to each other

+5

sad_16 Not Next to proximity guests next to each other

-10

skull_16 Not Near to proximity guests next to each other

-40

heart_16 Next to proximity guests on same table

+10

smile_16 Near to proximity guests on same table

+2

sad_16 Not Next to proximity guests on same table

-5

skull_16 Not Near to proximity guests on same table

-20

Male next to female

+2 (0 if you have disabled this in the prefs_16Preferences window)

star_16 VIP guest assigned to VIP table

+10

star_16 VIP guest not assigned to VIP table (if there is one)

-10

Guest with no-one sat next to them

-9

Guest not assigned a seat (apart from locked guests and guests who aren't seated due to their RSVP status)

-100

In addition star_16 VIP scores are multiplied by 3.

The scoring simply takes account of whether guests are sat next to or on the same table as other guests. It doesn't allow for whether the guests might be able to see each other or be within talking distance. This simplification allows the genetic algorithm to search the vast space of possible solutions reasonably quickly. You may have to tweak the automatic assignment a little 'by hand' to get the best possible result. For example you might have to move/rotate tables so that people who don't like each other aren't sat back to back. However you should find that the automatic assignment will be quite close to ideal, and this will save you a great deal of time.

Time

You can set the stopping criteria for the automatic assignment in the prefs_16Preferences window. The automatic assignment time goes up rapidly with the number of guests. This is in the nature of combinatorial problems.

The longer the automatic assignment is run, generally the better it will be. Select Edit>opts_16Preferences and on the Auto assignment tab click on seconds and set an appropriate number of seconds (1 hour = 3600 seconds). Then select File>wand_16Auto Assign Seats.

Note If you have a single core/processor PC you won't be able to do much else on your computer while the automatic assignment is running, as it will try to use all the power of the processor.