What's Happening
ShowSort tries lots of possible orders and keeps the ones that work best for your performers — fewer quick changes, more even balance between shows, styles spread out, families grouped, and so on.
Every rule you add — a lock, a link, a group, an act restriction — tells the app "this part of the order has to stay put." That's exactly what you want when a rule matters. But if you stack up a lot of strict rules, there aren't many ways left to rearrange the show. Optimization will still give you a finished order, but it may look very close to where you started.
This isn't a bug, and your order isn't wrong — it just means the rules you've set don't leave much to move around.
Signs You're in This Spot
- Optimization finishes quickly and the result looks almost identical to what you started with.
- You run it again and get the same order.
- Swapping two routines yourself makes a red warning pop up, because the rules don't allow them to move.
How to Free Things Up
- Look over your rules. Keep the ones you really need. Remove ones you added just in case.
- Loosen before you delete. For example, change a link from neighbors to follows, or take one routine out of a big group.
- Run optimization again. Even relaxing one or two rules often makes a big difference.
- Add rules back one at a time if the order drifts away from something important.