Bin Packing

I need a program that can get data from up to 5 excel work sheets at once and use the data from them to sort them in a particular way. The sheets contain information about items that are about to be manufactured. The sheets contain information about the various lenght of the items and the type of material. The problem is that the pieces of metal used to make the items, have a specific lenght from the begining. Now the items should be orderd in groups, until each group get a lenght that cover as much as possible of the piece from the begining. The program should then creat a new excel sheet and write the groups of items generated. It should also present a grafh where the efficiency of material use is displayed. *Example: We have a list of items with various lenghts like, 1, 1.2, 1.5, 2.6, 3, 5.4 and so on. Further there are different numbers of each lenght. And the pieces used to cut out these items from are 10 meters from the begining. How should these items be grouped so that each group cover as much of the total 10 meters as possible?* The mathematical name for this sorting problem is called "The Bin Packing Problem". There is no optimal way of solving this problem but there are some approximation algorithmes that work very well. Check this link for the mathematical description: [login to view URL] ## Deliverables 1) Complete and fully-functional working program(s) in executable form as well as complete source code of all work done. 2) Deliverables must be in ready-to-run condition, as follows (depending on the nature of the deliverables): a) For web sites or other server-side deliverables intended to only ever exist in one place in the Buyer's environment--Deliverables must be installed by the Seller in ready-to-run condition in the Buyer's environment. b) For all others including desktop software or software the buyer intends to distribute: A software installation package that will install the software in ready-to-run condition on the platform(s) specified in this bid request. 3) All deliverables will be considered "work made for hire" under U.S. Copyright law. Buyer will receive exclusive and complete copyrights to all work purchased. (No GPL, GNU, 3rd party components, etc. unless all copyright ramifications are explained AND AGREED TO by the buyer on the site per the coder's Seller Legal Agreement). ## Platform VB 6.0