FlexSim 2022 Beta available

[#1]

FlexSim 2022 Beta is now available. (Updated November 23)

To get the beta, log in to your account at https://account.flexsim.com, then go to the Downloads section, and click on More Versions. It will be at the top of the list.

The More Versions button does not appear when logged in as a guest account. Subsequently the beta is available only to licensed accounts and accounts that have a license shared with them. Learn more about downloading the best version of FlexSim for your license here.

If you have bug reports or other feedback on the software, please email dev@flexsim.com or create a new idea in the Development space.

FlexSim 22.0.0 Release Notes

• Added several new features to the Experimenter including:
  • Experimenter can define and run multiple different jobs.
  • Experimenter results are stored in a database file.
  • Additional replications of a scenario can be run without needing to rerun previous replications.
  • Improved visuals for status of replications.
• Added a Reinforcement Learning tool.
• Added Label charts.
• Added Tracked Variable charts.
• Standardized charts created by Pin buttons.
• Added sort options to table views.
• Updated MTBF/MTTR time fields to show unit conversion options.
• Added InObjectsInternal and OutObjectsInternal properties to the Visual Tool class.

Backwards Compatibility Note:

The following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave.

• Deprecated the optquest() command. It no longer executes any logic when called. The associated OPT_* macros have been removed. FlexSim now interacts with OptQuest through the Optimization Job object.
• Changed the default query handlers that deal with the Experimenter in MAIN:/project/exec/globals/serverinterface/queryhandlers. Custom applications that create web queries may need to be updated.

Process Flow

• Added Process Flow Activity Statistics charts.

[clair_augsburgerZGWRZ]

We can't install it.

I think there is an issue with the installer. On the website it says that the installer size is 629 MB:

But once the download is complete, the file size is 434 MB:

[philboboADSK]

@Ben Wilson

[Ben_WilsonADSK]

@Clair A,

I have re-uploaded the installer.

I just tested a new download and installation with this updated upload, and everything worked well for me.

Please try again and let us know of any problems.

[clair_augsburgerZGWRZ]

Thanks @Ben Wilson , with the updated installer it works well, I have completed the installation.

[mhosseini457NG]

@Matthew Gillespie I see nothing happens when I hit that help button for "Tracked Variable", "Label Chart", and "Process flow activities". Is there any documentation for those charts that I can use?

[Matthew_Gillespie]

@Maryam H2 Some of the documentation for the newest features is still under construction. It should be up soon though.

[ralf_gruber]

It seems a 22.1 OptQuest license is not recognized by the beta, while a 22.2 works just fine.

Is that a bug?

[philboboADSK]

What does "is not recognized by the beta" mean?

Seems to be working fine to me:

[ralf_gruber]

Phil,

In the "Jobs" tab I can add an Experiment only, but not an Optimization. If I load an old OptQuest model, I can duplicate the Optimization, but still not add one. Menu just shows "Experiment".

However, it now does not work with the updated 22.2 license either.

Originally I tried 22.1 based upon @Felix Möhlmann not being able to use the Optimizer as well. When I upgraded to 22.2, it worked, but now it does not anymore...or do I do something fundamentally wrong? Should I not even in a blank model be able to add an Optimization to the Experimenter?

Thx

[philboboADSK]

On the License Server tab of the License Activation window, do you have "Only checkout features..." checked with "Checkout optquest feature" unchecked?

If so, then the licensing system is purposefully not checking out the optquest feature.

If you have an optquest feature checked out, then you should be able to add and run Optquest jobs. If when you open the Experimenter window, you are missing the Optquest job in the Add list, then you probably don't have an optquest feature checked out.

On the Run tab, can you run an Optimization job or do you get a "No OptQuest license found" message?

[lars_jacobsen_ScandiSim]

I am not able to install stable-baseline3. It says it depends on torch. What should I do? I have attempted to use Conda, as it is better at resolving package dependencies, but I am not able to activate Conda from with Visual Studio.

[ralf_gruber]

Thx, that solved it...and sorry for not coming up with it myself.

[support5CRPZ]

I can't install the new Nov 15 version beta. The program looks like to have a problem.

The manual installation program is same also.

[philboboADSK]

@Ben Wilson

[JordanLJohnson]

I had this problem when I was using python 3.10; I couldn't get torch to build with that version. When I switched to 3.8 or 3.9, it worked fine. I also read online that it can happen if you are using the 32-bit version of python, when I was trying to figure out what was wrong.

I also used Visual Studio Code, rather than Visual Studio. The documentation has been updated for that case. If you want to use Conda, I'd recommend that option. I was able to use Conda within VS Code (which is not part of the documentation); as long as you specify a python version when you create a Conda virtual environment, VS Code will let you pick that environment as your default interpreter. I learned that on this page, which may have other helpful information for you:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/environments#_create-a-conda-environment

[Ben_WilsonADSK]

@David Seo I tested a new download of the .exe installer. It was able to successfully upgrade my previous 22.0 beta installation. I then used it to uninstall the beta, and reinstall. It was successful in all 3 instances.

I then tested a new download of the .msi installer. Here I found problems. I have since re-uploaded the .msi. Since then I have used a new download from my account to uninstall and install, and both are working.

Let us know if you encounter any issues.

[support5CRPZ]

Thank you @Ben Wilson

Yes. I installed msi program not exe. It had a problem.

I have done it again using new msi you uploded newly.

It was installed and run without any problem.

Thanks.

[ralf_gruber]

@Ben Wilson Related to this, exe and msi description seem to be confused in the account´s downloads section:

[Ben_WilsonADSK]

Thanks @Ralf Gruber , I've switched the labels.

[clair_augsburgerZGWRZ]

Have you already decided what will be the release date of 22.0 ?

[Matthew_Gillespie]

@Clair A December 6th is the anticipated release date.

[clair_augsburgerZGWRZ]

Hi @Jordan Johnson, some of our users reported that they were blocked when following the Reinforcement Learning tutorial. The tutorial says:

Download and install VS Code, its Python extension, and Python 3

(https://docs.flexsim.com/en/23.0/ModelLogic/ReinforcementLearning/WorkingWithGym/GettingStarted/Gett...)

But it is not precised which version of Python 3 needs to be installed. If you install for example Python 3.11.2, you will be blocked later in the tutorial at the step where stable_baselines3 needs to be installed (https://docs.flexsim.com/en/23.0/ModelLogic/ReinforcementLearning/WorkingWithGym/Training/Training.h...), because there is no compatible version of stable_baselines3 with Python 3.11.2.

Could you please add a warning note in the tutorial here:

To precise that this tutorial was initially designed to work with Python 3.8. And maybe add the download link if needed:

https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-3810/

+ 1 comment that if the user installs Python 3.10 or later, he will not be able to complete this tutorial, because some provided packages in the tutorial are not compatible with Python versions that were released after this tutorial was created.

[philboboADSK]

This tutorial very purposefully doesn't specify exact version numbers because those version numbers may change at any point. The exact versions numbers will depend on when you downloaded which packages.

None of the packages are "provided in the tutorial." You download them as part of the tutorial. So depending on what version of the packages you download, they may require different versions of their dependencies.

"because there is no compatible version of stable_baselines3 with Python 3.11.2."

There may be no stable_baselines3 version compatible with Python 3.11 today, but maybe there will be tomorrow. We're not going to put arbitrary version requirements or limitations into the documentation that are dependent on packages out of our control.

Steps 5-8 of the Getting Started tutorial walk you through the steps of verifying that your configuration of software packages works properly. If something you downloaded requires a particular version, then you need to resolve that.

The step where stable_baselines3 is first used also already has a warning about errors or missing package dependencies that you may need to resolve. Unless and until you get those errors, there's no way to know which exact versions of which packages you may need.

The only thing we provide are python scripts that are written in Python 3. They aren't specific to a particular Python 3 version.

Also, this tutorial was not "designed to work with Python 3.8." You can see from the paths in the screenshots that it was originally written using Python 3.9, which was the latest version available when the scripts in this tutorial were written.

[JordanLJohnson]

I'll add this to the dev list. This issue doesn't appear to be going away.