Group Optimizer 2 Switches and Descriptions

Group Optimizer 2 switches are found in the Trace Options dialog box.

Group Optimizer 2

The following Group Optimizer 2 switches are located in the Schedule Server application. Click View > Switches; in the Switches tab, expand Switches > PASS > SchedSrv > Batch > GrpOpt2 folder.
Table 1. Group Optimizer 2 Switches and Descriptions
Switch Description Default
Dump Sort Order This switch specifies whether the Alternate Group Optimizer sort order will be dumped to the trace log.
Specify one of the following options:
  • OFF - The Alternate Group Optimizer sort order will not be dumped to the log.
  • ON - The Alternate Group Optimizer sort order will be dumped to the trace log.
 OFF
Enable

This switch specifies whether to enable the Alternate Group Optimizer built on the premise of clustering by geography.

Specify one of the following options:
  • OFF - Disable the Alternate Group Optimizer.
  • ON - Enable the Alternate Group Optimizer.
 OFF
Enable Multi-Cluster Runs

This switch specifies whether the Alternate Group Optimizer will consider adding additional clusters to previously clustered runs. This optimizer is a “lite” version of recycling that forces the cluster rules to be honoured.

Specify one of the following options:
  • OFF - The Alternate Group Optimizer will not add clusters to previously clustered runs.
  • ON - The Alternate Group Optimizer will consider adding clusters to previously clustered runs.
 OFF
Enable Recycler

This switch specifies whether the Alternate Group Optimizer will consider adding additional locations to previously-grouped runs, or in short, ride-sharing between locations.

Specify one of the following options:
  • OFF - The Alternate Group Optimizer will not consider ride-sharing between locations.
  • ON - The Alternate Group Optimizer will consider ride-sharing between locations.
 OFF
Enable Repair Step

This switch specifies whether the Alternate Group Optimizer will consider moving trips between previously-grouped runs if it will reduce the total travel distance.

Specify one of the following options:
  • OFF - The Alternate Group Optimizer will not move trips between previously-grouped runs.
  • ON - The Alternate Group Optimizer will consider moving trips between previously-grouped runs if doing so reduces total travel distance.
 OFF
End Batch after Group Optimizer

For the purposes of testing, it may be useful to only schedule trips that qualify through the Group Optimizer and not schedule remaining trips during the batch.

Specify one of the following options:
  • OFF - Batch schedule trips that qualify for the Group Optimizer as well as remaining trips.
  • ON - Batch schedule only the trips that qualify for the Group Optimizer.
 OFF
Max Angle

This switch specifies the maximum angle that a booking can subtend in order to be added to a cluster. If the angle subtended by the considered booking exceeds this angle, do not allow it to be added to the cluster.

To indicate that there is no maximum angle, set the value to 0 (default).

 0
Max Angle Thresh This switch specifies the maximum subtended angle if the distance from booking to location is greater than this many meters. 800
Min Cluster Size

If the cluster-by-geography strategy yields a cluster with fewer than this many trips, then the cluster will be dismissed and trips will only be scheduled by the regular batch algorithm.

To disable this switch, set the value to 0.

 3
N - Num to Look back This switch specifies the number of previous bookings to look back to when adding a booking to a cluster, and measure the distance from the candidate booking to each of these bookings. 2
Outside-In Sorting

This switch specifies whether the Group Optimizer will operate on the bookings the furthest away from the location, and schedule towards the location.

Specify one of the following options:
  • OFF - The Group Optimizer will not operate on bookings furthest from the location.
  • ON - The Group Optimizer will operate on bookings furthest from the location and schedules toward it.
 OFF
Repair Step Iterations This switch specifies the number of iterations that the repair step performs if schedule improvements are made. 5
Search Past Failure This switch specifies whether the Alternate Group Optimizer will continue to the next furthest booking when it fails to add a booking to a cluster. This strategy may help when there is a mix of bookings that have space types incompatible with each other on a run.
Specify one of the following options:
  • OFF - The Group Optimizer will not continue to the next furthest booking if it fails to add a booking to a cluster.
  • ON - The Group Optimizer will continue to the next furthest booking if it fails to add a booking to a cluster.
 OFF
Sub-sort Locations

This switch specifies whether the Alternate Group Optimizer will sort locations within a time period by proximity to the previous location, starting with the location with the most clients. When disabled, locations are sorted by descending number of clients.

Specify one of the following options:
  • OFF - The Alternate Group Optimizer will sort locations by descending number of clients.
  • ON - The Alternate Group Optimizer will sort locations within a time period by proximity to the previous location, starting with the location with the most clients.
 OFF
Y - Angle Multiplier

This switch specifies the Y parameter to calculate the largest subtended angle between the location and any two group events for the two best-ranked (closest) events based on the distance metric.

Increase each distance weight by (Y / 100) * (1 + A / 360) where:
  • A - subtended angle in degrees
  • Y- this parameter
 100
Z - Passengers Multiplier This switch specifies the Z parameter to further adjust the scores of two events by (Z / 100) * (R + P) / R where:
  • R - the number of group riders already on board.
  • P- the number of passengers embarking or discharging at the event.
  • Z - this parameter.
 100