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What FET does
FET is designed to create an academic timetable while accounting for the groups, people, rooms and scheduling rules in an institution. Its manual describes support for classes, courses and students, a broad set of constraints, and styleable XHTML timetables. The project is licensed under GNU AGPL v3, and its documentation notes it may be used for other timetabling purposes. FET official site and manual.
Practical scheduling goals can include avoiding teacher and student gaps, giving part-time staff more free days, distributing core subjects more evenly, and preventing room conflicts. Which goals are achievable depends on the data and constraints entered. FET support site.
How to make a timetable with FET
- Enter the timetable data. Add teachers, student groups or classes, rooms and activities. Make sure the activities reflect the real teaching assignments that need to be scheduled.
- Set constraints. Encode rules that must be met as hard constraints and preferences as soft constraints. Examples of goals include reducing gaps and avoiding room clashes; the exact available rules are documented in the FET manual.
- Save the input file and generate. Save the FET input file before running the generator. FET searches for a timetable that satisfies the encoded rules and preferences.
- Review the results. Inspect the generated timetable views and check whether they meet the institution’s needs. If necessary, revise the input or constraints and generate again.
- Share the timetable. Keep or distribute the resulting .fet file. FET Viewer can import that file for checking, viewing, printing and sharing; it is a viewer, not a timetable generator. FET workflow and viewer information.
Constraints, automation and runtime
FET’s automatic scheduling is useful when many activities must fit around teacher, room and student-group rules. The result depends on the model you enter: a rule encoded incorrectly or an unworkable combination of hard constraints can prevent a suitable timetable from being produced. Treat soft constraints as preferences rather than guarantees.
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The manual’s project-history section says a heuristic based on recursively swapping activities was able to solve difficult timetables in a few minutes. That is a historical description of the algorithm, not an independent benchmark or a promised runtime for a particular school’s data. The primary sources do not provide an independent benchmark or a named adoption statistic, so there is no substantiated basis here for promising a specific generation time or claiming how widely FET is used. FET manual.
Which FET version should you download?
The official download page lists FET 7.11.0, released 1 October 2026, with a source archive and executable packages for Windows 10 or later, older Windows versions, macOS and 64-bit GNU/Linux. Choose the package for your operating system from the official page because available versions and files can change. The page also publishes checksums; for example, its Windows 64-bit executable has SHA-256 5371dcb741530ab8597802bd97bdcef3fc70b0d2a82ea8cffe4542519d5cb736. Compare a downloaded file against the checksum shown for that exact package. Official FET download page.
FET is desktop software that can be installed from the supplied binaries or compiled from source. The project describes Qt-based support for GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. If you need to build from source rather than use a ready-made package, consult the project repository for the source and platform details. FET source repository.
Is FET free?
Yes. FET is free, open-source software licensed under GNU AGPL v3. Its official site also provides a donation route. Its local desktop operating model distinguishes it from a hosted timetable service: you install or compile the program and work with timetable files on your computer. FET official site.
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FET and FET Viewer
Use FET to enter scheduling data and generate a timetable. Use FET Viewer when you need to import an existing .fet file to check, view, print or share the result. Viewer does not create timetables, so installing it alone will not replace the main FET application. FET and Viewer information.
What to evaluate before choosing a timetable system
FET’s suitability depends on how well its workflow and constraints match your institution. If comparing it with another system, assess the following criteria against your actual scheduling requirements:
Quick Recap
- Licensing and total cost: confirm the license and any support or hosting costs relevant to your use.
- Deployment: decide whether desktop software you install locally fits better than a hosted service.
- Constraint coverage: check that the system can represent the hard rules and soft preferences you need.
- People and spaces: verify support for your teachers, rooms, classes, courses or student groups.
- Import, export and sharing: confirm the file formats and viewing or printing workflow required by staff and students.
- Platforms and support: check operating-system compatibility and whether the project’s documentation and support channels meet your needs.
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