Funtion (RunLoadingHeuristic) is not implemented

[junqueira200]

Dear Authors,

I hope you are doing well.

I have been reviewing the code associated with your paper “A branch-and-cut algorithm for vehicle routing problems with
three-dimensional loading constraints”, and I had a question regarding the implementation of the packing heuristic.

In the file LoadingChecker.cpp, the function RunLoadingHeuristic currently contains only:

// Implement heuristic here.
return LoadingStatus::Invalid;

Since the paper mentions the use of a packing heuristic, I was wondering whether this part is implemented elsewhere in the code or if it was omitted from the released version.

Additionally, as the goal is to check packing feasibility rather than to fully optimize the CP model, it seems that using
set_stop_after_first_solution(true)
could be sufficient and might significantly reduce the computational time.

Could you please let me know whether an updated version of the code is available, or if a clarification or correction to the paper is needed?

Thank you very much for your time and for making your work available.

Best regards,
Igor Junqueira

[felicze]

Dear Igor,

The packing heuristic is proprietary to a company and is therefore not included in the published source code. We mention this in a note in the README.

Regarding the CP model, we do not define an objective function. Consequently, the solver terminates as soon as a feasible solution is found. In our understanding, performance should therefore not be affected by setting an additional parameter. Have you observed any different behavior in your experiments?

Best regards,
Felix