Have you received this licensing error?   Operations error: 7581 Online return/repair request for the activation ID example.com01-ABCDE-FGHIJ-KLMNO-FSENT22.2 is not originated from the original client machine.   This error means that the licensing system did not recognize the the computer that requested the repair is the original computer where the license was initially activated.   This can happen when: It is not the same computer. Maybe the user activated a license, then moved the hard drive to a new computer (or cloned it, etc). This would break the license, and it wouldn't be able to repair because the licensing system recognizes that the computer hardware is different. There was a significant change to the computer. A large operating system update, a change to the hard drive's boot sector (for instance, installing a 2nd operating system to dual boot), or another significant hardware change.   In this case the license cannot be returned, and it cannot be repaired. You will need to contact your local FlexSim representative to explain the situation.   As you work with your FlexSim rep, they will guide you in deleting your unreturnable/unrepairable fulfillment (license server, standalone), then after your FlexSim rep performs a license force-return, your license should be available again for a new activation.

Como criar animações customizadas em máquinas ou equipamentos no FlexSim é o que demonstramos nesse rápido vídeo. Customizamos uma animação no objeto processor, criando a movimentação real de uma maquina envolvedora de filme stretch. Veja o tutorial completo de como executar essa tarefa passo a passo, acessando o Canal Youtube da FlexSim Brasil. Ainda neste artigo, estou anexando uma pasta chamada 'Wrapper' com os arquivos em 3D para os interessados que quiserem criar as customizações acessarem e usarem os arquivos. wrapper.raranimationcreator.fsm

FlexSim 2017 Update 1 Beta is available. (updated 5 Apr 2017) To get the beta, log in to your account at www.flexsim.com, then go to the Downloads section, and click on More Versions. It will be at the top of the list. 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. Release Notes Changed FlexSim to store strings using UTF-8 encoding. Added support for Oculus Touch controllers. Implemented OpenVR for HTC Vive compatibility. Improved the shadow frustum calculation in VR so that shadows look better. Added a global preference for changing the resolution of the shadow map. Added support for nested queries in SQL. Added ROW_NUMBER as a SQL keyword. Implemented F2 and Esc functionality in tables. Updated the table view and labels tab to be more robust with different datatypes. Added Table(name) method for referencing Global Tables. Added more FlexScript classes, including List, AGV, Conveyor, and TrackedVariable. Added more properties and methods to existing FlexScript classes, including Object stats and additional string methods. Improved scientific notation for literals in FlexScript. Added a start value to tracked variables. All tracked variables in the model now reset on model reset. Changed itemtype references to referencing an item's type label instead. Improved the Person flowitem's 3D shape. Added repeating events to time tables. Added a short description field to user commands. Made the gantt charts and time charts scroll with a fixed time window. Removed the global table Clear on Reset checkbox and replaced it with a reset trigger. Added new visualization options for the Rack. Added duplicate buttons to the Excel Interface window. Added a duplicate option to the Toolbox's context menu. Taskbar now shows experimenter/optimizer status and runtime based upon stop time. Disabled deleting objects while the model is running. Fixed an issue with the undo history when pasting over nodes with pointer data. Fixed issues with using the ternary operator after properties. Fixed an issue with writing to Access databases with read-only fields. Included fixes listed in 17.0.3. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Removed the FlexSim WebServer application from the default installation and developed a new WebServer application using Node.js that streams the 3D view much faster. The new WebServer can be downloaded through FlexSim's Online Content. Existing models will continue to work with itemtype, but new models should be built using a type label instead of the itemtype attribute and commands. Process Flow Added an Assign Released Resource(s) To field on the Release Resource activity. Added functionality to allow you to Ctrl+Drag activities in an activity block. Added a right-click menu option and Alt+Click to open the Token View. Added a sampler to the assign labels Label Name field so you can sample other activities or tokens to get label names. Added a right-click menu option to open multiple views of a Process Flow. Added an Assign To property to the Create Tokens activity. Added a Make Array label aggregation type to the Batch. Added Center in View buttons for fields with pointer data. Added a name property to the Token FlexScript class. Fixed a bug with duplicating Process Flows using the Toolbox. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Updated the Pull From List activity so it does not assign a null label when nothing was pulled or the token was released early (manually). Previously, if you used a Max Wait Timer or Max Idle Timer (or some other mechanism) to release a token from a Pull from List prematurely, the label specified in the Assign To field would be created with a value of NULL. Now, the label will not be created. This may break other models that are checking to see if the label value exists. For example, saying objectexists(token.pulled) will throw an exception if the pulled label is never created. This can be easily remedied by changing the code to objectexists(token.pulled?). The ? will cause the value returned to be nullvar when the pulled label does not exist. Universal Edit fields are now more strict when accessing labels on a token. Previously, typing token.labelThatDoesNotExist would happily return NULL and move on. Now the Universal Edit will throw an exception if the label doesn't exist. This does not include Universal Edit fields that assert labels, for example the Assign To fields.

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[ FlexSim 16.1.0 ] Attached is an example model that uses both of the new template process flows for AGV and AGV elevator control, available in FlexSim 2016 Update 1. Thanks @Katharina Albert (I believe), who provided the seed model, which I adjusted/extended as I implemented these process flows. This model enumerates many of the control point connections and path configurations you might use in an AGV model when using these template process flows.

FlexSim 2019 is available. 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. Release Notes Added support for importing JT files. Added a way to directly animate 3D shapes with bones. Added a way to parent subcomponents to a bone on a 3D shape. Updated calculated tables and chart templates to be able to save their data during an experiment. Added support for SQL keywords UNION, UNION ALL, INTERSECT, and EXCEPT. Updated the time table's weekly and daily modes to use a graphical display. Improved the time table's user interface. Added options for stacking bars on a histogram and added more bar modes. Added a Column Sets feature to statistics collectors. Added more options for event listening in statistics collectors. Added an option to statistics collectors and calculated tables for object path display depth. Added an option to statistics collectors to stop tracking row values after specified events. Added an option to milestone collectors to start new entries on the next milestone. Added options to record more data in additional columns on a milestone collector. Added enable/disable right-click menu options to statistics collectors in the toolbox. Improved the performance of calculated tables in certain configurations. Fixed a bug with Always Leave Entries on List when reevaluating multiple back orders. Fixed a bug with color spilling from one mesh to another when using shape data overrides. Fixed scaling issues and a crashing bug when loading certain STEP and IGES files. Process Flow Improved the Token.create() method to be able to create child tokens. Added a new Person Flow type of Process Flow. Fixed a bug with a resource connected to a global list deleting the list when the resource was in an instanced flow. People Added a Process activity. Added a Remove Person activity. Added various activity sets to quickly create common groups of activities. Added a priority value to resource objects that is used for acquiring and preempting resources. Added advanced options to the Process activity for handling preemption. Added functionality for simulating shift schedules with time tables and down behaviors. Improved the UI for how people objects are added to groups. AGV Improved control point selection on paths in the 3D view. A* Added a way to draw a heat map based on a node's percentage of total traversals. Added a Two Way option to preferred paths and dividers. Added a Condition option to A* objects to optionally disable them under certain circumstances. Added a Mandatory Path object used for defining sets of paths where certain connected objects can travel. Updated the Barrier object to be able to specify patterns to determine how it affects the grid. Added a FlexScript API for A* objects and data. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Fixed a bug with A* barriers blocking space larger than their actual size.

FlexSim 2016 Update 1 is available. Download it from: https://www.flexsim.com/account/#/downloads 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. Release Notes FlexSim 16.1.0 Added group commands (groupaddmember(), groupmember(), groupnummembers(), groupremovemember()). Global Lists will now update their Initial Content on reset when connected to a Group if the group's members change. Added support for the UPDATE clause in SQL. Added support for the RAND expression in SQL (uses stream 0 and will always be the same for a given query/row selection combo). Improvements to speed and memory usage when performing SQL inner joins. Tracked variables with type Categorical can now store arbitrary states. Added a Kinetic Level tracked variable type (e.g. Battery Level). You can now hold down the Alt key while clicking and dragging in the 3D view to ignore all objects. You can now resize objects while maintain their aspect ratio by pressing both the left and right mouse buttons down on a sizer arrow. Updated dashboard charts to support x-axis scaling. Added OnStop and OnResume events to 3D objects for use with event listening objects (Wait for Event and Event-Triggered Source in Process Flow). Video Recorder can now record Dashboards. Time Tables, MTBF/MTTR and User Events can now be disabled. Experiment variables can be set to enable/disable these objects. Fixed an issue with the VideoRecorder not loading properly. Fixed issues with windows and popups not opening on the correct monitor when using a multiple monitor setup. Fixed Fluid Conveyor throwing exceptions on reset. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Updated to OpenGL 3.1. Deprecated OpenGL functions, such as glBegin(), glEnd(), glVertex(), glNormal(), and glTexCoord(), may no longer work correctly on some graphics cards. You should instead use the mesh api. Changed the way that fixed resources (except the Combiner) receive items when they are being transported in. Previously, when they were notified that an item was being transported in, they would close their inputs and create an event to receive the next item. This would cause problems if the upstream objects had multiple items to send because their routing strategy would work differently when transporting vs not transporting. We have fixed this so that routing strategies will work the same when transporting as when not transporting. This may change the way that old models work because it changes the events that are created, and, obviously, it fixes routing strategy logic. menumain(), menubelow() and getviewmenu() have changed. Instead of returning a double, they now return a var. Any calls to these commands will need to be updated to use var or the value returned will be 0. double myMenu = getviewmenu(); Changes to: var myMenu = getviewmenu(); Conveyor Added Ports to the Entry and Exit Transfers. Added a Restart Delay setting to Conveyor Types. Fixed the Join Conveyors Tool when connecting conveyors with a custom conveyor type. Various bug fixes and improvements specifically with regards to items moving between conveyors and transfers. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Changed the way stopping a non-accumulating conveyor works when propogating stops to straddled conveyors. When a conveyor is stopped, it will act the same as if an item on the conveyor were stopped. Process Flow Added Preemption activities (Save Token Context, Release Token and Restore Token Context). Added gettokens() and getbatch() commands. Added Templates for Fixed Resource and Task Executer Process Flows. Added a Token Data to Preserve option to the Sink and Finish activities. In the Tokens window you can view Dead tokens and explore their data. Token Trace History is now stored as a label on the token. Added a Speed Type and Repeat Type to the Run Animation activity. A lot of improvements to the Zone. Updated the evaluation of the Return Value from the Finish activity so that executesubflow() can get a return value from multiple Finish activities. Added Activity Profiles to the token trace histories. Fixed a bug causing the Wait for Event to evaluate its Max Wait Timer even if the token left the activity. Fixed issues with the releasetoken(), createtoken(), and releasebatch() commands working differently when running vs stepping. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Changed the way that a token manually released (preempted) from waiting in a task sequence activity manages the task that it's waiting on. Now the task will be removed, and the task executer preempted if currently working on it. This may change older models that release tokens in task sequence activities. AGV Added Event info to AGVs and Control Points for use with event listening objects (Wait for Event and Event-Triggered Source in Process Flow). Added AGV templates to Process Flow. Fixed bug with way points not firing their OnArrival for redirected AGVs. Fixed issue with arrival waypoints not firing correctly with non-zero end speed travel tasks. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Fixed the order by which AGV trailers are attached to their AGV. This will affect old model trailer ordering.

Have you received this licensing error? An error occurred in the activation request Operations error: 7174 Only deployed entitlement line item can be fulfilled. You may encounter this error if your license code is no longer valid or is in need of support. Here are some common scenarios where this might happen: If this was a timed license that has expired, it is no longer viable and was likely obsoleted. If the license was upgraded, you need to make sure you're using the latest version of the activation ID, as any older versions of the license code will not work once an upgrade of the same license has been used. If the license model was changed from standalone to license-server (or vice-versa) you may be trying to use an old license that was replaced. If your license was put into a support state and was not changed back. If you are encountering this error, please start a new Private Question and include your activation ID. We'll be able to look up the specific situation for your license. Or you can reach out to your local distributor for direct phone, email, or web support.

FlexSim 2021 Update 1 Beta is now available. 21.1 Release Notes 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 2016 Update 1 Beta is available. Download FlexSim 2016 Update 1 Beta (updated 17 June 2016) 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. Release Notes FlexSim 16.1.0 Added group commands (groupaddmember(), groupmember(), groupnummembers(), groupremovemember()). Global Lists will now update their Initial Content on reset when connected to a Group if the group's members change. Added support for the UPDATE clause in SQL. Added support for the RAND expression in SQL (uses stream 0 and will always be the same for a given query/row selection combo). Improvements to speed and memory usage when performing SQL inner joins. Tracked variables with type Categorical can now store arbitrary states. Added a Kinetic Level tracked variable type (e.g. Battery Level). You can now hold down the Alt key while clicking and dragging in the 3D view to ignore all objects. You can now resize objects while maintain their aspect ratio by pressing both the left and right mouse buttons down on a sizer arrow. Updated dashboard charts to support x-axis scaling. Added OnStop and OnResume events to 3D objects for use with event listening objects (Wait for Event and Event-Triggered Source in Process Flow). Video Recorder can now record Dashboards. Time Tables, MTBF/MTTR and User Events can now be disabled. Experiment variables can be set to enable/disable these objects. Fixed an issue with the VideoRecorder not loading properly. Fixed issues with windows and popups not opening on the correct monitor when using a multiple monitor setup. Fixed Fluid Conveyor throwing exceptions on reset. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Updated to OpenGL 3.1. Deprecated OpenGL functions, such as glBegin(), glEnd(), glVertex(), glNormal(), and glTexCoord(), may no longer work correctly on some graphics cards. You should instead use the mesh api. Changed the way that fixed resources (except the Combiner) receive items when they are being transported in. Previously, when they were notified that an item was being transported in, they would close their inputs and create an event to receive the next item. This would cause problems if the upstream objects had multiple items to send because their routing strategy would work differently when transporting vs not transporting. We have fixed this so that routing strategies will work the same when transporting as when not transporting. This may change the way that old models work because it changes the events that are created, and, obviously, it fixes routing strategy logic. menumain(), menubelow() and getviewmenu() have changed. Instead of returning a double, they now return a var. Any calls to these commands will need to be updated to use var or the value returned will be 0. double myMenu = getviewmenu(); Changes to: var myMenu = getviewmenu(); Conveyor Added Ports to the Entry and Exit Transfers. Added a Restart Delay setting to Conveyor Types. Fixed the Join Conveyors Tool when connecting conveyors with a custom conveyor type. Various bug fixes and improvements specifically with regards to items moving between conveyors and transfers. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Changed the way stopping a non-accumulating conveyor works when propogating stops to straddled conveyors. When a conveyor is stopped, it will act the same as if an item on the conveyor were stopped. Process Flow Added Preemption activities (Save Token Context, Release Token and Restore Token Context). Added gettokens() and getbatch() commands. Added Templates for Fixed Resource and Task Executer Process Flows. Added a Token Data to Preserve option to the Sink and Finish activities. In the Tokens window you can view Dead tokens and explore their data. Token Trace History is now stored as a label on the token. Added a Speed Type and Repeat Type to the Run Animation activity. A lot of improvements to the Zone. Updated the evaluation of the Return Value from the Finish activity so that executesubflow() can get a return value from multiple Finish activities. Added Activity Profiles to the token trace histories. Fixed a bug causing the Wait for Event to evaluate its Max Wait Timer even if the token left the activity. Fixed issues with the releasetoken(), createtoken(), and releasebatch() commands working differently when running vs stepping. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Changed the way that a token manually released (preempted) from waiting in a task sequence activity manages the task that it's waiting on. Now the task will be removed, and the task executer preempted if currently working on it. This may change older models that release tokens in task sequence activities. AGV Added Event info to AGVs and Control Points for use with event listening objects (Wait for Event and Event-Triggered Source in Process Flow). Added AGV templates to Process Flow. Fixed bug with way points not firing their OnArrival for redirected AGVs. Fixed issue with arrival waypoints not firing correctly with non-zero end speed travel tasks. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Fixed the order by which AGV trailers are attached to their AGV. This will affect old model trailer ordering.

Following attached Code is Useful as Performance Major to Find Out Total Simulation Time in Different Scenarios. treenode datanode = param(1); double tm = time(); return tm;

Neste Tutorial iremos demonstrar como funciona a ferramenta Model Layouts no FlexSim. Esta ferramenta permite que você crie e edite diferentes Layouts para um mesmo modelo. Você pode modificar a posição dos objetos e criar uma nova opção de Layout. Por exemplo você pode salvar um Layout inicial de seu processo e após montar propostas a serem estudadas, como um Layout com diferentes posições, redução de transporte, etc... O Model Layouts permite que você possa fazer isso. modellayouts-example-model.fsm Ferramenta útil para estudar comparativamente os resultados gráficos dos Layouts criados apenas rodando o modelo para cada um dos Layouts, e ou para criar a variável Layout para inclusão das opções de Layouts em um experimento. As informações de Layout são armazenadas em cada um dos objetos individuais. Um nó é adicionado aos atributos de objeto chamados Layouts. Para cada Layout criado, uma cópia das informações espaciais atuais do objeto (posição, tamanho, rotação) é armazenada. Janela Model Layout Esta janela pode ser acessada em: View Menu / Model Layouts Layout List - Exibe a lista de Layouts atuais. Selecione um layout para atualizar imediatamente o modelo desse Layout. Você pode renomear um Layout digitando um novo nome neste campo. Add Layout - Adiciona um novo Layout. Quando você adiciona um Layout, ele salva o Layout atual do modelo. Delete Layout - Remove o Layout selecionado. Set - Opção para atualizar o Layout do modelo selecionado para corresponder ao Layout atual do modelo indicado na lista (Layout List).

A new feature has been added to our Answers Platform. In App notifications are now available for all users. These are instant notifications designed to work in coordination with or in place of email notifications. You'll now see a bell icon next to your avatar in the upper-right hand corner of your browser on the Answers website. In order for this location to start showing notifications, you will need to click on your avatar and choose 'My Preferences' Then click the Notifications tab in the top Navigation Bar. From here, you can choose to set certain actions to notify you instantly by selecting the radio button next to the action you would like to be notified on. Once there is content matching your notification settings, you'll see a red circle on the bell icon, as shown below: If you click the Bell icon, you will be redirected to a page showing all your recent notifications which will show you a summary of the notification as well as a link to the post:

Introduction Several times per year we release a new feature-version of FlexSim Simulation Software. In order for your PCs to be able to run a licensed version of the upgraded software, you'll need to upgrade your standalone FlexSim license. Licenses with a current maintenance subscription are eligible to be upgraded to the new version. If you don't understand how licensing works for different FlexSim versions, please review our Answers article FlexSim Version Numbering. Overview After installing your new version of FlexSim, there are 3 main steps to upgrading your standalone license: Return the licenses you intend to upgrade Upgrade your licenses Activate the upgraded license Several of these steps have their own fully documented procedures. We'll link you to those resources below. 1. Return the licenses you intend to upgrade The steps to return a standalone license are fully documented. Choose the link below that best matches your needs, depending on whether your PC can connect to the Internet: Standalone - Return - Online Standalone - Return - XML / Offline Be sure to return ALL licenses you wish to upgrade. 2. Upgrade your licenses NOTE: Licenses with expired maintenance will not upgrade. Timed licenses do not upgrade. Only permanent (not timed) licenses under current maintenance can be upgraded. Log in to your FlexSim Account. If you were already logged in to your FlexSim Account, in the top navigation menu hover over your initials icon and choose Reload Account. Now in the top navigation menu, choose Licenses > List. Check that the available seat count is equal to the total. All of a license’s seats should be returned for it to upgrade. Click on the Upgrade Licenses button. If you have several licenses to upgrade and all are owned by or shared with your FlexSim Account, they will all be upgraded at once. Please be patient while the upgrade process works in the background. When the page refreshes, eligible licenses will have a new activation ID for the latest version of the software. Your license code indicates its version at the end of the code to help you know what versions your license will properly activate. Review license code format. You'll be able to use the upgraded license codes in the next step. 3. Activate the upgraded licenses The steps to activate a standalone license are fully documented. Choose the link below that best matches your needs, depending on whether your PC can connect to the Internet: Standalone - Activation - Online Standalone - Activation - XML / Offline If you have any questions or problems, please search our Answers Community for possible solutions. There is a good chance someone else has already asked your question. Still not finding what you're looking for? Submit a new question and we'll check it out. If you're including any confidential information, such as license codes, be sure to mark your question as private! You can also contact your local FlexSim distributor for live phone, web, or email help.

Names and version numbers   FlexSim releases have names like “FlexSim 2016 Update 1”, with corresponding version numbers in the format year.update.bugfix.   The year version number tracks with the “release year” when the software was released. For example, FlexSim 2016, having version number 16.0.0, was released for the 2016 “release year”. A “release year” roughly follows the calendar year, but a 2017 release could come at the end of the 2016 calendar year, for instance. The update version number is a count of how many feature-updates have been produced for a “release year”. For example, version 16.0.0 is the first feature-release for 2016. It is not an update, so the update version number is “0”. FlexSim 2016 Update 1 has version number 16.1.0 – it is the first update to the 2016 release. 16.2.0 is the 2nd update, and so on. Bugfix version numbers change when software is released without significant new features, but where errors, inconsistencies, or other bugs are fixed. For example, the first bugfix release for FlexSim 2016 Update 1 is 16.1.1, the next 16.1.2, and so on. Release schedule   New versions of FlexSim are released on a loose schedule:   Yearly release: November beta, December release. Update 1: March beta, April release. Update 2: July beta, August release. Bugfixes: as needed As with all future-looking plans, this schedule is subject to change. You should not rely on this schedule for making purchasing decisions.   How licensing works for a given version number   A new license is required for feature releases (i.e. year and update releases). Bugfix releases do not need a new license. For example, if you have a 16.1 license, you can license any FlexSim 2016 Update 1 releases, including all its bugfix releases, like 16.1.0, 16.1.1, 16.1.2, etc.   Licenses can also be used for older versions – i.e. they are backward compatible. For instance, if you have a 16.1 license, it can license any 16.1.x release, plus all older versions of the software back to 5.0.0. However, your 16.1 license will not work for any newer versions, such as 16.2.x or 17.0.x.   License Codes   Your license code should look something like mycompany.com03-A9B8C-7D6E5-F4G3H-FSENT17.1. Each part conveys some information:   mycompany.com- means this seat was initially licensed to mycompany. 03 is a unique index number for the license, but the actual number is meaningless. This number persists across upgrades. The mycompany.com03 license, if upgraded to version 18.0 or 18.1, etc, would still begin with mycompany.com03, even though the random characters and version number would change. A9B8C... The middle part of a license code is a unique, random mix of letters and numbers. It is different for each license, and changes when a license is upgraded for the next FlexSim version. FSENT signifies the product, in this case FlexSim Enterprise, but you may also see FSEDU for Educational, or OPTQU for OptQuest, etc. Each FlexSim product has a unique product code. 17.1 specifies the version number this license is good for. It can be used to license any FlexSim 17.1.x version or earlier, back to version 5.0. The license won't work for later software versions, like 17.2 or 18.0. For that, the license must have current maintenance and be upgraded for use with the new version. Upgrading Licenses   To use a new year or update release, your FlexSim license will need to be upgraded.   The exact steps for upgrading your license differ based on your type of license:   License Server - Upgrading your hosted licenses Standalone - Upgrading your license If your maintenance agreement has expired, or if you have timed licenses, your licenses will not upgrade. In either case, please contact your local FlexSim representative.   If you install and run a version of FlexSim software greater than your license’s version number, that newer software won’t be licensed, but will run in the feature-limited "Express" mode. To use a fully-featured, licensed copy of the software, make sure that the software’s year.update version number is not greater than your license’s year.update version number (which is typically visible in the license code itself as the final digits of the code - see License Codes above).   Long-term support (LTS) versions   From Wikipedia: Long-term support (LTS) is a product lifecycle management policy in which a stable release of computer software is maintained for a longer period of time than the standard edition.   FlexSim maintains the year release for more than a year, overlapping with the release of the next yearly release for a few months.   Here is an example of how it works:   In December 2017, the current LTS release was version 17.0.11. That same month version 18.0.0 was released. Because 18.0 was brand new, it was not yet considered the LTS version - we let it mature a bit before promoting it to the current LTS. During the time when 18.0 was the latest version, new bugfix releases were added for both 18.0 and 17.0. Finally, in April 2018, 18.1.0 was released. At that time the 18.0 branch was on its 4th bugfix release, 18.0.4, and the 17.0 LTS branch was up to 17.0.13. With the release of 18.1.0 the 18.0 branch was promoted to our current LTS release, and the 17.0 LTS was retired - it receives no further bugfix releases.   As with all future-looking plans, our LTS plan is subject to change. You should not rely on this plan for making purchasing decisions.   Downloading an appropriate version of FlexSim software   To download the version of FlexSim software that best matches your license version:   Log in to your FlexSim Account at https://account.flexsim.com/login/. Visit the downloads page at https://account.flexsim.com/downloads/. Download the latest bugfix release for your license’s version.   If a version of the software most appropriate for your license version is not listed on the main download page, click the More Versions button next to the product matching your license (see screenshot). This will open an expanded view with older versions of that product. Older software versions are not available for download from within unlicensed guest accounts.     If your FlexSim Account is a guest account (does not own a FlexSim license), only the latest software versions are available for download. Your FlexSim Account must own a license directly, or a license owner can share their license info with you, in order for you to see the More Versions button and have access to download older versions of the software. Visit your Licenses page to see if your account has access to licenses and have them loaded into your account session, then go back to the Downloads page and look for the More Versions button. Older software versions are not available for download from within unlicensed guest accounts.   Model compatibility across FlexSim versions   FlexSim versions are backward compatible, meaning that when a model built in an older year.update release of the software is opened in a newer year.update version, the model is put through an upgrade process that updates the model for use in that later version:     We recommend always saving this updated model under a new file name in order to preserve the original, non-upgraded model file, which you should archive for safe keeping.   FlexSim is NOT forward compatible, meaning that a particular year.update version of FlexSim does not support opening model files saved in newer year.update versions of the software. This is due to changes that are introduced to objects, data structures, added features, etc., that an older version of the software would not support.   A FlexSim model built with a particular year.release version of FlexSim can be opened by any bugfix release of the same year.release version, forward or backward. Bugfix releases do not change objects, data structures, etc., in such a way as to break model compatibility across different bugfix versions of the same year.update FlexSim release.   You should use judgment and care in upgrading models and continuing model development in newer versions of the software. If your simulation team has licenses that have expired at different times, and a colleague is on an older license and you are not able to renew maintenance at this time, you may want to standardize on that lowest version number of FlexSim so that models your team creates and edits can be interoperable among teammates.   FlexSim's model upgrade functionality is fairly robust, but if you are upgrading a model from a version of FlexSim many years older than the version you're opening it in, it may be necessary to open and save the model in an intermediate version (or two). Post a new question here on Answers if you encounter any problems upgrading your FlexSim model to a later version.   Opening Files from different versions (Flexsim Version Selector)   If this is a first time install of the FlexSim software, you can double click on any .fsm file and Windows will ask you what software you'd like to open .fsm files. In the program selection scroll down to the version entitled Flexsim Version Selector. This application will automatically open any .fsm file in the version that the file was originally saved or created in.   Alternatively, you can right click on a .fsm file in Windows and navigate to the option Open With > and then navigate to Flexsim Version Selector from here. This will set the version selector application as the primary method for opening .fsm files in the future.  

16 Dec: Bug fix releases 19.0.8 and 19.2.2 are now available, together with the new FloWorks 2020 release. 18 Oct: Bug fix releases 19.0.7, 19.1.5 and 19.2.1 are now available. 09 Oct: Bug fix releases 19.0.6 and 19.1.4 are now available. The new release FloWorks 19.2.0 is now available for use with FlexSim 2019 Update 2. A bug fix release FloWorks 19.0.5 is available for use with FlexSim 2019 LTS. A bug fix release FloWorks 19.1.3 is available for use with FlexSim 2019 Update 1. FloWorks 2019 introduced some major changes in the way FloWorks works internally. These changes include the following: Flow rates and content are now tracked in the standard statistics variables, requiring us to override fewer FlexSim features. This means, for example, that you can use all of FlexSim's included Statistics Collectors and Chart Templates out-of-the-box. FloWorks now tries to schedule fewer events. This means that models will run faster and debugging your model by stepping through has become much more transparent. This release includes the beta version of the next-generation solver. This solver is particularly suited for networks with many connections, most of which are closed or blocked, or long 'chains' of objects with a single connection in and out. By simplifying the flow network before calculating the flow rates, the solver should become much faster overall. Since this solver is likely to give (valid but) different outcomes, it is not enabled by default - you can test it by enabling the "Optimize networks before solving" option in your Flow Control. The Flow Tank level triggers functionality has been overhauled. For more information, please see the detailed release notes below. All versions of FloWorks can be found in the Downloads section of your FlexSim account on the 3rd party modules tab. Please do not hesitate to report any bugs, usability improvements and feature requests to support@talumis.com. Thanks to the active users who have done this in the past weeks, we appreciate your ongoing support in helping us to improve FloWorks! About FloWorks FloWorks is a 3rd party module developed and maintained by Talumis BV (talumis.com). It provides faster and more accurate modelling and calculation of fluid systems than the default FlexSim fluid library. It is especially useful within the oil, gas, and bulk industry both for production and supply chain optimization. This module requires a FloWorks license with active maintenance. For any questions, please email support@talumis.com. Release notes Changes in FloWorks 19.2.2 (16 December 2019): Bug fix: FlexSim 19.2.4 removed node that was overridden in FloWorks All changes included in version 19.0.8. Changes in FloWorks 19.2.1 (18 October 2019): Bug fix: allow objects to be created when no runtime license present. All changes included in version 19.0.7. Changes in FloWorks 19.2.0 (26 September 2019): Flow pump / valve input and output can be set to balanced rate by % simultaneously. Flow To Item can now buffer additional material before blocking. New segmented flow pipe object. Created new runtime license type. All changes included in version 19.0.5. Changes in FloWorks 19.1.5 (18 October 2019): All changes included in version 19.0.7. Changes in FloWorks 19.0.8 (16 December 2019): Bug fix: Tank level trigger could cause event list to become unsorted. Bug fix: Max. Object Depth setting in FloWorks charts was ignored. Changes in FloWorks 19.0.7 (18 October 2019): Request: Added Waiting for Transport state to Loading Point. Bug fix: Flow Content Histogram was broken. Bug fix: Fixed rounding errors when inflow very close to outflow. Bug fix: Fixed rounding error in tank top/bottom duration calculation. Bug fix: Avoid duplicate event when recalculation requested before Flow Control resets. Backwards Compatibility Note: The following changes may change the way updated models behave. On Full event only available on tank-type objects, no longer on e.g. flow conveyors. Flow Conveyor no longer closes all ports on stop, but only input and output. Flow Conveyor speed is now affected by impact factor set through stop and impact . Flow tank passes set level instead of actual level into trigger code (rounding difference may cause Wait for Event to not match). Input and output trigger also fire in pre-recalculation when amount is reached. Changes in older FloWorks 19.x.x releases Changes in FloWorks 19.1.4 (09 October 2019): Bug fix: Restored objects missing from library and icon grid. Changes in FloWorks 19.1.3 (26 September 2019): All changes included in version 19.0.5. Changes in FloWorks 19.1.2 (19 July 2019): Bug fix: dragging in a shape from a group will no longer create the first shape in the group. All changes included in version 19.0.4. Changes in FloWorks 19.1.0 (30 April 2019): This version is for FlexSim 2019 Update 1. For FlexSim version 19.0.x use FloWorks 19.0.3. Added support for unconstrained flows. All changes included in version 19.0.3 described below. Backwards compatibility note: The following change may change the way updated models behave. Option "Unchanged" removed from "Set flow rate" triggers -- this is now considered as "Unconstrained". Use the "Set maximum input/output rate" option instead of "Set maximum rates" if you only want to change either the input or the output rate. Changes in FloWorks 19.0.6 (09 October 2019): Bug fix: Restored objects missing from library and icon grid. Changes in FloWorks 19.0.5 (26 September 2019): Bug fix: Removed old-style statistics from library, causing several issues like utilization resetting at model end time. Bug fix: FloWorks flow bin items no longer show up in Create Person Process Flow activity (class type changed from Operator to Flow Task Executer). Bug fix: Flow conveyor resume did not correctly close ports. Bug fix: Flow conveyor could get negative content due to rounding error. Bug fix: Flow conveyor stop, impact, resume did not stop content on conveyor when inflow and outflow were zero. Bug fix: Fixed issue when stopping or starting conveyor during Product Change event. Changes in FloWorks 19.0.4 (19 July 2019): Various bug fixes to the Mass Flow Conveyor. Bug fix: Utiliation returns (flow rate)/(max flow rate) at time zero. Bug fix: Solved exception when dragging different object shape into the model. Backwards Compatibility Note: The following change may change the way updated models behave. Bug fix: 'Time until event is 0' exception due to rounding errors fixed. Bug fix: Mixer On Empty event will only fire once (when mixer is actually internally idle). Changes in FloWorks 19.0.3 (30 April 2019): This version is for FlexSim 2019 LTS. For FlexSim 2019 Update 1 use FloWorks 19.1.0. Loading arm state will show Blocked and Starved instead of Idle while transporter is connected. "Pass product downstream" option added to product change trigger of flow processors. Bug fix: Transporters were sometimes positioned incorrectly when entering Loading Point. Bug fix: Flow object states were not updated. Bug fix: Fixed error when calling state() with no arguments. Bug fix: On Entry and On Exit in trigger list of Flow To Item and Item To Flow fixed. Bug fix: "Pass product downstream trigger" threw exception when connected to Flow To Item. Changes in FloWorks 19.0.2 (3 April 2019): For FlexSim 2019 Update 1 beta use FloWorks 19.1.0 (beta). Feature: Flow tank can scale in both directions (elliptical) instead of only using x-size for diameter. Bug fix: Various bug fixes to beta version of new optimizer/solver. Bug fix: Removed "content is larger than max. content" message during reset. Bug fix: Fixed exception in "Pass product downstream" when pipe is not connected to anything. Bug fix: Corrected normals on flow blender and flow splitter shapes. Bug fix: FlowObject.input /output.ports[index] now accepts Variant (e.g. token.Port ) as index and does bounds checking on index . Bug fix: Spheres no longer drawn outside flow pipes shorter than 2 m. Bug fix: Quick Properties only shows a single flow rate for flow pipes; output rate set to input rate on reset. Changes in FloWorks 19.0.1 (8 March 2019): Beta: Flow control can optimize network before solving. (Optimization is disabled by default, can be enabled for models with many (effective) single connections.) Content-holding objects now have On Trigger Level event that allows e.g. Process Flow to wait for a specific level trigger. Optimized event scheduling: obsolete events are removed from the event list instead of ignored. FlowToItem and ItemToFlow added to script so that rates and impact factors can be read and set. Added more shapes for Flow Tank and Mixer. Added "Change product by case" to trigger options. Bug fix: Flow conveyors now have state profile consistent with that of Flow Tank. Bug fix: Product color picker samples colors instead of objects again. Bug fix: Fixed incorrect layers being drawn during filling of Flow Mixer when multiple steps require input from the same port. Bug fix: Fixed incorrect states on Loading Point due to duplicate state_current node. Bug fix: Product field or dropdown will now preserve selected value instead of resetting to current product when switching property tab pages. Bug fix: Flow Task Executer connects itself to default network navigator on creation. Bug fix: Flow statistics now behave correctly under model warmup. User manual: Corrected description of FlowObject.stop() in documentation. User manual: Documented manual loading feature when Loading Points have 0 loading time. Backwards Compatibility Note: The following change may change the way updated models behave. Statistics are now kept in standard FlexSim tracked variables under the stats node. If you use dashboards, you may need to rebuild some charts. You can mostly use the standard FlexSim chart templates, listening to the On Rate Change event or the On Content Change Update (not Change). Tank trigger levels rewritten: Trigger levels are now specified using absolute level instead of percentage. Legacy limitations (max. 20 levels, no duplicate levels, 0% or 100%) have been removed. Separate trigger condition has been added to avoid coding ( if(mode == falling) { ... } ). Modes rising and falling are now called MODE_RISING and MODE_FALLING . Bug fix: Sometimes input and output triggers would not fire if trigger was reached precisely when flow was recalculated. (Mass) flow conveyor now closes input/output when stopped, instead of input/output ports. Loading point continues with next transporter after releasing completed item instead of waiting for it to exit. Bug fix: (Mass) flow conveyor only closed input when stopping; now closes both output and input.

Using Mixamo Fuse, Mixamo, and (optionally) 3ds Max, you can create animated characters for use with FlexSim. For modifying the existing operators' animations, see Adding More People Animations From Mixamo Character Creation You can customize a character’s look using Mixamo Fuse: After creating the character, you can save your character as a .fuse file in case you want to edit it again later in Mixamo Fuse. Character Rigging From Mixamo Fuse, you can press the Animate button in the upper-right corner to upload the character to Mixamo’s website to apply animations. You will need to log in with a Mixamo account. You will be presented with the Mixamo Auto-Rigger. After a few moments, your character will appear in a view with a default animation applied. Choose whether to enable facial blendshapes and select the appropriate level of detail for the skeleton, such as 2 Chain Fingers, and then press Update Rig. The auto-rigger will reapply and the view will be updated with the newly rigged character. If the settings are good for your needs, press the Finish button. Character Animating Once the character is rigged, you can select it on the Mixamo website and press Find Animations to find animations to apply to the character. You can search for animations and add them to packs. For each animation, you can adjust various parameters to fit your character to that animation better. Exporting the Character and Animations Once you have applied and customized animations for your character, you can add them to the Cart and checkout in order to have them available for download. After checking out, you can select an animation or animation pack to download on the My Animations page. You can apply the same animation sets to different characters using the Change Character button after selecting the animation set. Press the Queue Download button to tell the Mixamo server to create the files for download. You want to use the FBX format so that we can edit it with 3ds Max. The pose can probably be T-Pose or Original because the Original is probably a T-Pose anyway. I use 30 Frames per Second for consistency and ease of timing animations. Keyframe Reduction didn’t seem to do anything in my tests, and you can do it yourself with more control in 3ds Max so I use “none.” If you exported multiple animations, the output will contain one fbx file that is the character shape and several other fbx files that contain only animation data for each animation. (Update) Important Note: Starting with FlexSim 2017 Update 2, the rest of the steps in this document are no longer necessary. FlexSim 17.2 added support for embedded textures, specular maps, and gloss maps that fix the material issues directly without modification in 3ds Max. FlexSim 17.2 also added support for assigning animations to a shape from multiple files, so you can import the mixamo output files directly without having to merge all the animations into a single file. The following steps can be used if you want to optimize or otherwise modify the shape files, but are no longer required. Preparing the Character using 3ds Max Import the character shape .fbx file into 3ds Max and save the file as a .max file. You will want to resave as a .max file at different points with different file names as you progress so that you can easily revert back to a previously known working point if something messes up. The FBX Import window will show you lots of options you can modify. The defaults seemed to work fine. I tried messing with the “Units” scale factor and file unit conversions, but I was unable to find any options that improved the scaling in FlexSim. Ultimately, I found it best to just use Automatic and sort out the units myself using FlexSim’s shape factors. Export the file as fbx and bring it into FlexSim to see how it looks. Again, the default options seem to work fine. In FlexSim, the size will probably be 100x too big (no matter what “unit conversion” options I seemed to set in the import/export options). Resize the character to be 100x smaller. Fixing the Materials in 3ds Max When you first bring in a Mixamo Fuse character into FlexSim, it will probably look shiny and dark. That can be fixed in 3ds Max. Open the Material Editor using the button Double-click each material in the list of Scene Materials on the left to add it to the middle view for editing. Press the “Lay Out All – Vertical” button to arrange the nodes nicely in the middle view. When you imported the .fbx file, 3ds Max should have automatically unpacked its textures into a directory called CharacterFileName.fbm. When you double-click on a texture node in the Material Editor view, you should be able to see and edit the path where it is referencing each texture in the Material Parameter Editor pane on the right. Removing the shininess Each material has Ambient, Diffuse and Specular colors, in addition to any textures that are mapped to various channels. The operator is shiny everywhere because each material’s Specular color is set to White and their specular maps are mostly black. Since FlexSim doesn’t currently read specular maps and gloss maps, the white specular color is being applied everywhere instead of the black color from the specular maps. To fix it, click each specular map and gloss map in the center view and delete them with the Delete key. Then double-click on each main material and set its specular color to black to turn off the shininess. Save the .max file with a new name, and re-export the .fbx file to test it in FlexSim. The shininess should be gone. Brightening the darkness FlexSim uses Assimp to read fbx files. Assimp’s fbx importer is setting a default Ambient color value of dark gray to the materials instead of leaving it off. This is why the character looks darker than he should. To fix it, we can simply specify an ambient color of white on each material. For each material, set the ambient color to white and check the Ambient Color box under Maps: Save the .max file with a new name, and re-export the .fbx file to test it in FlexSim. The darkness should be fixed. Setting local texture paths Based on the procedure above, the texture paths are likely to be absolute paths when you export the fbx file. You can fix that by saving the .max file, the .fbx file, and the textures all in the same directory. In Windows Explorer, copy all the useful textures from the CharacterName.fbm directory into the same directory where you have been exporting the .fbx file. Then also save your .max to that same directory. Once everything is in the same directory, you can reselect the texture file paths for each material so that they are pointing at these files instead of the other files. Then, when you export the fbx file, each texture’s path will be relative so you can copy all the necessary files onto any computer and use them correctly. After changing all the materials, export the fbx file again. You should be able to copy the fbx file and all its textures into a directory on a different machine and have them display properly. Save your .max file with all the updated materials. Making part of the object change color To make a material show the FlexSim color, append _fsclr to its name in 3ds Max: Configuring Animations With the character loaded, you can import the fbx files with just animation data, and it will automatically apply that data to the shape. The slider at the bottom controls the currently applied keyframe. The buttons in the bottom corner play the animation, pause, or step between keyframes. Animation data can be stored beyond the relevant range. You can open the Time Configuration dialog by pressing the button in the bottom corner. In that dialog, you can specify the speed of the playback and set a Start Time (keyframe number) and End Time for the animation you want to see in the viewport when you play. This dialog is only changing the playback options in the software; the actual data outside the specified range is still preserved. You may need to adjust these values as you import/modify/combine animations into one Timeline. Keyframes If you push the button on the top toolbar, it will open the Track View – Curve Editor. You can edit and modify Keyframes through this view. Click in the left pane and press Ctrl-A to select everything in the model. You should see keyframes appear if you have animation data loaded. Sometimes this window doesn’t refresh correctly and you can’t find keyframes. You can try closing it and reopening it, or pressing the and buttons to re-center the view on the keyframes in the configured time range. To edit the animations, you need to be able to see the keyframes in this view. You can drag the current frame by dragging the yellow bar around. You can zoom by scrolling the mouse wheel. Ctrl-mouse wheel will zoom the timeline (X-axis) without zooming the key values (Y-axis). You can select keyframes by dragging a rectangle around them. You can delete selected keyframes with the Delete key. You can move keyframes by dragging them. If you hold Ctrl while dragging them, then it will force the movement to be only along the X-axis and not along the Y-axis so that you don’t actually edit the keyframe’s values, just its time. You can duplicate keyframes by holding Shift and dragging them. Again, holding Ctrl will prevent the new keyframes’ values from shifting by holding the Y-axis still. You can scale keyframes by selecting them, putting the key keyframe indicator on the first keyframe in the selection, picking the menu option Edit > Transform Tools > Scale Keys Tool, and then clicking and dragging on one of the selected keyframes to scale all of the selected keyframes towards the yellow bar. This can be helpful to sync the timing of animations, such as walking empty vs. walking loaded. Preparing Animations for Merging When you load an animation into the file, the Track View – Curve Editor will show you the individual components that have keyframe animations. Different animations may affect different components and the interpolation of transformation information between keyframes may get messed up when you merge different animations that affect different components together into one timeline. To fix this, you can stamp a keyframe at the beginning and end of each animation that stores each component’s position at that point. You can also duplicate the first and the last keyframes to make it easier to specify perfectly-repeating animation clips in FlexSim later. Stamp a keyframe by moving the current frame (yellow line) to the keyframe you want. Then select all within the Track View – Curve Editor to select every component. Finally, press the Set Keys button ( ) at the bottom of the main 3ds Max window to store each component’s value as a keyframe. Duplicate keyframes by holding Shift and dragging them. Also holding Ctrl will prevent the new keyframes’ values from shifting by holding the Y-axis still. Merging Multiple Animations into One File To merge multiple animations into one file, you need the export each of the animations as an animation file (XML Animation File (*.xaf)). Then you can import each of these animations into a specific range of keyframes in the timeline. From the .max file without any animations loaded, import one of the fbx animation files. It will automatically apply it to the shape. Click in the Perspective view and press Ctrl-A to select everything. Then prepare the animation using the information above. Lastly, select the menu option Animation > Save Animation to save the animation as an XML Animation File (*.xaf). Reload the .max file without any animations and repeat this process for each animation you want to merge. Reload the .max file without any animations loaded. Click in the Perspective view and press Ctrl-A to select everything. Then select the menu option Animation > Load Animation to load an animation into the timeline. On the right side of the Load XML Animation File dialog, you can specify the keyframe number at which the animation should be inserted. Do not insert the animation at keyframe 0; make sure that keyframe 0 is the bind T-pose. This will be important later if you want to edit the mesh without breaking the skeletal rigging. You also need to be sure to specify Absolute and not Relative. Select the animation you want to import, specify the keyframe you want to insert at, and then press Load Motion to load the keyframes into the animation. Do this for each animation file you want to merge. Use the Track View – Curve Editor to determine the keyframe at which to insert each subsequent animation. Save your .max file with all the merged animations to a new file. Modifying the Mesh without Breaking the Rigging Sometimes you may want to modify the mesh after you have applied animations. I can’t guarantee that this always works perfectly, but there is a way to make some tweaks even after animations have been applied. Before trying to edit a skinned mesh, be sure to save your work so you can revert back to a clean state if something don’t work correctly. First, you need to be sure that the bind pose is frame 0 and that you are set to frame 0 on the timeline. Second, click on a mesh in the scene and click on the Modifiers tab. You will probably see an Editable Poly with a Skin modifier applied. If you click on the Skin modifier and expand the Advanced Parameters, you will see an Always Deform checkbox. If you clear the Always Deform box, you can then click on the Editable Poly and modify it. You then need to recheck the Always Deform box on the Skin modifier once you are done making edits. Ensure that your animations still work after making edits. In my tests with the operator shape above, when I cleared Always Deform, the mesh moved up slightly. This made the Tops mesh not line up correctly with the Body mesh. To fix that, I cleared and immediately checked Always Deform for each mesh (each mesh then moved up the same amount). Then I verified that the animations still worked and that the arms still lined up correctly with the shirt. Reducing Polygon Count 3ds Max has features for reducing the polygon count of an object. You can apply these modifiers without breaking the rigging by following certain steps. You can display the polygon count of your shape by clicking in the Perspective view and pressing the 7 key on the keyboard. As stated above, before modifying the mesh, clear Always Deform on the Skin modifier. To reduce the polygon count, you can use the ProOptimizer modifier. After clearing Always Deform, click on the Editable Poly and then select ProOptimizer from the Modifier List to add it to the stack between the Editable Poly and the Skin modifiers. In the Optimization Options, be sure to check Keep Textures. Then press the Calculate button. Then you can specify a Vertex % and it will start to remove vertices from your mesh. After applying the ProOptimizer modifier, the normals on your mesh might be messed up. You can recalculate the normals based on a crease angle using the Smooth modifier. Apply the Smooth modifier after the ProOptimizer and before the Skin modifier. Check the Auto Smooth box and specify a Threshold. You can use a value of 89 to get a very smooth surface, only applying a crease to angles that are greater than 89 degrees. After making these changes, be sure to recheck Always Deform on the Skin modifier, and test your animation to make sure the rigging is all still working properly.

Finding the right answer should be easy. Together we can build and maintain a well organized, growing knowledge base by practicing a bit of good Question and Answer hygiene. Below are 12 tips for using Answers in a way that will help the whole FlexSim community get maximum value from the site, and keep our content organized, efficient, and intuitive. These tips are adapted from this Devada article. Devada makes AnswerHub, which powers this site. Search existing questions before asking. Use the advanced search functionality to look for a question you may have before asking it. You may find your question has already been asked and answered. This saves you and other community members time and effort. Please also search our online user manual. Your answer may be in FlexSim's documentation. Post a model that demonstrates your question. The best case is to make a simple model that demonstrates the question or issue. If the model is sensitive, you can post a private question (see the Private Questions item below for more info). Make your question titles descriptive. Making a question's title descriptive makes it much easier for other people searching the site to find what they need. Question titles like Problem with conveyor are not very helpful when searching, whereas titles like Item gets stuck at photo eye when using area restriction are much more helpful. The question title should not be too verbose, but it should describe the problem well. Post content in the right space. When creating content, it's important to select the appropriate space for it to be posted. Choosing the right space for your content will not only keep the community organized, it's also more likely to be viewed and responded to by the right community members. Need help with some aspect of FlexSim or your simulation? It goes into the Software & Simulation Questions space. Starting a discussion that doesn't have a specific answer? General Discussion is the space it should go in. Don't post an article to ask a question - do that with a question. Don't use a question to request a feature - that should be posted as an idea. Mark correct answers as accepted. It's important to accept a correct answer to a question, especially the questions that you asked. This will make finding the right answer much easier for other members and let the community know that your problem has been solved. Let others know what answers helped you solve questions by upvoting or liking correct answers to show community support. Share your knowledge by answering questions. See a question you know the answer to? Submit an answer with text, images, links, videos, and more to support your answer and to help fellow community members. Use comments and replies. Only post an answer when you're actually answering a question. You can use comments, or directly reply to others' comments to provide support, additional information or ask for further explanations when necessary. Ask experts directly. Want a reliable answer quickly? You can ask an expert directly after creating a question and the expert will be notified. Use the 'at' symbol @ and start typing someone's name, and they will be notified that they were referenced in a post. Be sure to use the autocomplete as you type their name, or you may type it incorrectly and the user will not be notified. A properly formatted @mention automatically becomes a link. If it's not a link (like this: @Ben Wilson!), try again. Avoid overdoing @mentions. Don't make the mistake of @mentioning more people than is necessary to try to draw attention to your question: Your question is just as important as any other question. The community will help you to the best of our ability regardless, so there is no need to spam multiple users in hopes of bumping up your priority. 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Visit the community often. The more we contribute to the community, the more valuable it becomes for everyone. Have an article you want to share? Post it. Want to share an idea and generate a discussion among other FlexSim users? Answers is a great place to facilitate "ideation" and collaboration. Additional pointers for using answers.flexsim.com: Use the latest version of your internet browser. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and other modern browsers should be fully compatible with this Answers site. For the safest, fastest, and most compatible browsing experience, please keep your browser version up-to-date with its latest release. Internet Explorer is an older browser and is not supported. Preparation We expect you to have some foundation of FlexSim knowledge and experience before asking a question. If you're new to FlexSim, before asking questions here, please take the time to go through the in-software tutorials. 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One of the most powerful features of Process Flow is the ability to easily define a Task Sequence. However, many real-life situations require the coordination of multiple workers and machines to do a single task. This article demonstrates one approach you can use with Process Flow to coordinate multiple Task Executers, or in other words, to create a coordinated task sequence. This article talks about an example model (handoff.fsm). It might be easiest to open that model, watch it run, and perhaps read this article with the model open. The Example Scenario Here is a screenshot of the demo model used in this article: Items enter the system on the left. The yellow operator must carry each item to the queue in the middle, and then wait for the purple operator to arrive. Once the two operators are both at the middle queue, then the yellow operator can unload the box, and the purple operator can take it. After this point, the yellow operator is free to load another item from the left queue. The purple operator takes the item, waits for a while, and then puts the item in the sink on the right. The interesting part of this model is the hand off. The yellow operator must wait for the purple operator, and vice versa. This is the synchronization point, and it requires coordination of both operators. The approach used in this model allows you to add more operators to the yellow side, and more to the purple side. But it still maintains that a yellow operator must wait for a purple operator before unloading the box. The Example Model In addition to to the 3D layout shown previously, there are 5 process flows in the example model. The first is a general flow, and defines the logic for each task. The second is a Task Executor flow, and defines the logic for the yellow operator. The third is also a Task Executor flow, and defines the logic for the purple operator. The remaining two flows are synchronization flows, for synchronizing between the other three flows. Synchronizing on a Task The basic approach in this model uses the Synchronize activity. This activity waits for one token from each incoming connector, before it allows any of the tokens to move on. Here is the Yellow Purple Sync flow (a global Sub Flow) from the example model: The flows for the yellow and purple operators each use the Run Sub Flow activity to send a token to this flow, to their respective start activities (you can use the sampler on the Run Sub Flow activity to sample a specific start activity in a sub flow). This is what allows both the yellow and purple operators to wait for each other. However, it is important that the yellow and purple operators are both doing the same task. In this model, there is a token that represents each item that needs to be moved. Both operators get a reference to this task token. The Synchronize activity is set up to partition by that Task token. That means that a yellow and purple operators must both call this sub flow with the same task token, ensuring that each task has its own synchronization. In the example model, this kind of synchronization happens between operators, and it happens between each task and an operator. Basically, the task must wait for the operator to finish that operator's part. The Task Flow A task token is created every time an item enters the first queue. The tasks flow puts that task on both the Yellow and Purple lists. In both cases, the task token does not wait to be pulled, but keeps itself on the list. Then, the task token waits for a yellow operator to finish with it, and then for the purple operator to finish with it. There is a zone in this flow, but its only purpose it to gather statistics for how long the whole task took. The Yellow and Purple Flows These flows are easiest to understand when viewed side by side: Recall that each task is put on both the Yellow and Purple lists at the exact same model time. The yellow operator waits to get a task (at the Get Task activity). Then the operator travels to the first queue, gets the item, and travels to the second queue. At this point, the yellow operator waits. At the same time, the purple operator is also waiting for the task. The purple operator just has to travel to the second queue before waiting for the yellow. Once the yellow operator arrives, the purple operator also has to wait for the yellow operator to unload the box. On the yellow side, once the purple operator arrives, the yellow operator unloads the box, and then synchronizes with the purple operator, allowing the purple operator to load the box. Summary The purpose of this article is to show one method for synchronizing token in separate flows. That method is as follows: Have a token for each task. As each task executor (or fixed resource) needs to synchronize, they each use a Run Sub Flow activity, putting the token in a specific Start activity. The Sub Flow (a global Sub Flow) has a synchronize activity, that requires a token from each participant for that task before releasing the tokens. This is certainly not the only way to create this model. However, there are some advantages: By forcing the task to synchronize, you can gather stats on how long each phase of the task took, as well as how long the complete task took. You can add more yellow or purple operators by copy/paste. They simply follow their own logic Each set of logic is separated; tasks, yellow operators, and purple operators each have their own flows, making each one much simpler. The exact approach used in the example model will not work exactly as it is for each model. However, you can apply the general principles, and adapt them to your own situation.

FlexSim 2022 Update 1 is now available for download. For more in depth discussion and videos of the new features, check out the official software release page: Official Software Release Page - FlexSim 2022 Update 1: Python Connector, Coroutines + more You can view the Release Notes in the online user manual. FlexSim 22.1.0 Release Notes 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.