FlexSim 2019 Beta is available. (Updated 21 December 2018) 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 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.

As many of you have seen from our youtube video, we recently released an early beta version of a new FlexSim Agent module. This module can be downloaded from the Downloads section of your FlexSim account, under the Modules tab. Note that the Agent module will only work properly with FlexSim 20.1.1 or later. Here I'm posting some of the models I created and showed on the video. BasicProximitySystem.fsm TwoPhaseAGVSystem.fsm OnePhaseAGVSystem.fsm Boids.fsm AStarSystem.fsm RoomEvacuation.fsm HallwayTravel.fsm The AGV models aren't perfect (there's some tweaking needed, and there are some bugs that need to be fixed), put I'm putting them out there anyway. Since this is a beta version, I'm going to just upload unannounced module updates to the downloads section, so you can check the dates/versions on the downloads page against the version you have installed if you want to get the latest and greatest.

FlexSim 2018 includes functionality for creating a custom table view GUI using a custom data source from within FlexSim. This article will go through the specifics of how to set this up. The Callbacks Custom Table Data Source defines callbacks for how many rows and columns a table should display, what text to display in each of the cells, if they're read only etc. If you require further control of your table you can use a DLL or module and sub class the table view data source in C++. An example of how this data source is used can be seen in the Date Time Source activity properties. In the above table, the data being used to display both of these tables is exactly the same. The raw treenode table data can be seen on the right. The table on the left is displaying the hours and minutes for each start and end time rather than the the start time and duration in seconds. In FlexSim 2018, there are a number of tables that currently utilize this new data source. They can be found at: VIEW:/modules/ProcessFlow/windows/DateTimeArrivals/Table/Table VIEW:/pages/statistics/ChartTemplateProperties/tabcontrol>variables/tabs/StatePieOptions/SplitterPane/States/Table VIEW:/pages/statistics/ChartTemplateProperties/tabcontrol>variables/tabs/CompositeStatePieOptions/SplitterPane/States/Table VIEW:/pages/statistics/ChartTemplateProperties/tabcontrol>variables/tabs/StateBarOptions/SplitterPane/States/Table Copying one of these tables can be a good starting point for defining your own table. The first thing you have to do in order for FlexSim to recognize that your table is using a custom data source is to add a subnode to the style attribute of your table GUI. The node's name must be FS_CUSTOM_TABLE_VIEW_DATA_SOURCE with a string value of Callbacks. Set your viewfocus attribute to be the path to your data. This may just be a variable within your table. It's up to you to define what data will be displayed. If you want to have the default functionality of the Global Table View, you can use the guifocusclass attribute to reference the TableView class. This gives you features like right click menus, support for cells with pointer data (displays sampler), tracked variables (displays edit button) and FlexScript nodes (displays code edit button). If you're going to use this guiclass, be sure to reference the How To node (located directly above the TableView class in the tree) for which eventfunctions and variables you can or should define. At this point you're ready to add event functions to your table. There are only two required event functions. The others are optional and allow you to override the default functionality of the table view. If you choose not to implement the optional callback functions, the table view will perform its default behavior (whether that's displaying the cell's text value, setting a cell's value, etc). These event function nodes must be toggled as FlexScript. The following event functions are required: ---getNumRows--- This function must return the number of rows to display in the table. 0 is a valid return value. param(1) - View focus node ---getNumCols--- This function must return the number of columns to display in the table. 0 is a valid return value. param(1) - View focus node The following event functions are optional: ---shouldDrawRowHeaders--- If this returns 1, then the row headers will be drawn. The header row uses column 0 in the callback functions. param(1) - View focus node ---shouldDrawColHeaders--- If this returns 1, then the column headers will be drawn. The header column uses row 0 in the callback functions. param(1) - View focus node ---shouldGetCellNode--- Allows you to decide whether you want to override the table view's default functionality of getting the cell node. param(1) - The row number of the displayed table param(2) - The column number of the displayed table If shouldGetCellNode returns 1 then the following function will be called: ---getCellNode--- Return the node associated with the row and column of the table. param(1) - The row number of the displayed table param(2) - The column number of the displayed table ---shouldSetCellValue--- Allows you to decide whether you want to override the table view's default functionality of setting a cell's value. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the displayed table param(3) - The column number of the displayed table If shouldSetCellValue returns 1 then the following function will be called: ---setCellValue--- Here you can set your data based upon the value entered by the user. param(1) - The row number of the displayed table param(2) - The column number of the displayed table param(3) - The value to set the cell ---isCustomFormat--- Allows you to decide whether you should define a custom text format for the cell. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the displayed table param(3) - The column number of the displayed table If isCustomFormat returns 1 then the following functions will be called: ---getTextColor--- Return an array of RGB components that will define the color of the text. Each component should be a number between 0 and 255. [R, G, B] for example red is [255, 0, 0]. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the displayed table param(3) - The column number of the displayed table param(4) - The text to be displayed in the cell param(5) - The desired number precision ---getTextFormat--- Return 0 for left align, 1 for center align and 2 for right align. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the displayed table param(3) - The column number of the displayed table param(4) - The text to be displayed in the cell param(5) - The desired number precision ---shouldGetCellColor--- Allows you to decide whether you should define a color for the cell's background. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the displayed table param(3) - The column number of the displayed table If shouldGetCellColor returns 1 then the following function will be called: ---getCellColor--- Return an array of RGB components that will define the cell's background color. Each component should be a number between 0 and 255. [R, G, B] for example red is [255, 0, 0]. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the displayed table param(3) - The column number of the displayed table ---shouldGetCellText--- Allows you to decide whether you want to override the table view's default functionality of getting a cell's text. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the displayed table param(3) - The column number of the displayed table If shouldGetCellText returns 1 then the following function will be called: ---getCellText--- Return a string that is the text to display in the cell. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the displayed table param(3) - The column number of the displayed table param(4) - The desired number precision param(5) - 1 if the cell is being edited, 0 otherwise ---shouldGetTooltip--- Allows you to decide whether a tooltip should be displayed when the user selects a cell in the table. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the selected cell param(3) - The column number of the selected cell If shouldGetTooltip returns 1 then the following function will be called: ---getTooltip--- Return a string that is the text to display in the tooltip. param(1) - The cell node as defined by getCellNode param(2) - The row number of the selected cell param(3) - The column number of the selected cell ---isReadOnly--- Return a 1 to make the cell read only. Return a 0 to allow the user to edit the cell. param(1) - The row number of the displayed table param(2) - The column number of the displayed table

FlexSim 2018 Beta is available. (updated 8 Dec 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 Added a new People module. (Try out the Sample Models) Added new dashboard chart templates to quickly collect and display statistics. Legacy charts are hidden by default in the Library and can be enabled through Global Preferences. Removed the basic Person flowitem and renamed the TaskExecuterFlowItem to Person. Added functionality to the List's pull method to allow you to pull an object/node directly (without writing SQL). Updated ODA to be compatible with DWG 2018 shapes. Updated Assimp to be compatible with the latest FBX file format. Added a RegExResult class for iterating over the matches in a regular expression. Lists can now use arrays as partition ids. Added a mechanism for automatically setting the reset position of objects after moving them by setting their resetposition variable to 1. Added a By Lazy Interval update mode to the calculated table. Improved calculated table performance by reducing the amount of table updates. Improved statistics collector performance by reducing the number of updates to Always columns. Table views can now be set as read-only using the grayed attribute. Added an Ignore Warmup option to statistics collectors. Updated OptQuest so that it can run more than 10,000 solutions. Added a pick option for restoring default values in the Global Table's On Reset trigger. The Query test field is now a multi-line text box. The Source now adds labels to items before calling the OnCreation trigger. Updated the table selection for the Excel Import/Export. Improved color options in various dashboard charts. Changed the model update dialog to be able to autosave the model with an incremented number. Added many new animations for the operator and the person flowitem. Updated many stochastic pick options to use getstream() as the default stream parameter. Updated the TaskExecuter to connect to the DefaultNavigator when created. Improved the Group UI. Updated the Library view to not change when clicking on the User Manual view. Changed the Tree view's Explore > As Code so that it closes the tree's edit view. Fixed a bug with list initial contents having old values in label fields. Fixed a bug with the statistics collector chart interface checkboxes. Fixed an OnDropWindow exception. Fixed some exceptions in the Table View when viewing an Array that no longer exists. Process Flow Added a Date Time Source activity. Added a Wait for Simultaneous Arrivals Before Entry option to the Zone. Added autocomplete for instanced flow labels (current). Added a zoneistokeninsubset() command. Conveyor Added a Round Robin destination option to the Send Item pick option. AStar Added a visual option to show the travel threshold for objects. Improved the draw performance and fixed the timing of some graphical updates. Fixed a bug caused by using the distancetotravel() command in conjunction with collision avoidance. AGV Fixed a bug with redirecting AGVs at times other than On Pre-Arrival of way points.

To go along with the launch of Flexsim 2018, we've put together a few sample models to show some of its features. Internet Cafe internetcafe.fsm This model shows off several of the new animations added to the Operator and Person flowitem. It also demonstrates how the Create Person activity can be used to attach a Person flowitem to an Instanced Process Flow. People with yellow shirts are attached to the ComputerUsers flow. They acquire a computer desk and then have an employee bring them over to their computer. Those in orange shirts are attached to the FoodCustomers flow. They buy drinks or snacks at the counter and then hang out at the tables. Casual Restaurant casualrestaurantredux.fsm Clinic clinic.fsm Grocery Store grocerystore.fsm Airport Security airportsecurity.fsm Bus Stop busstops.fsm

Cams Module flexcon-cams v17.0.zip This module permits to place cameras in the model and so to follow an object using the nearest camera. How to install it: put the "Cams Module" folder into the Flexsim "modules" folder run Flexsim This module adds: the "Camera"object into the "Visual" section of the Flexsim standard library "Cams" menu button How to use it: insert cameras into your model where you want and adjust z locations (it's not important where camera is looking) highlight the object (maily a task executer) you want to follow click on the Cams menu voice: "Set Cam focus to highlighted" click on the Cams menu voice: "Camera activate" run the model the nearest camera to the focused object follows it click on the Cams menu voice: "Hide Cams and Camera Manager" to hide or unhide cameras Example:

FlexSim 2019 Update 2 Beta is available. (Updated 28 August 2019.) 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 Added a Storage System object to improve warehouse modeling. Improved the Rack object. Added more types of racks to the library. Updated the Sketchup SDK to load newer skp file versions. Added a ray tracing render mode. Added a Color Palette tool. Improved the color picker popup. Updated dashboard charts to use color palettes. Added options for showing column names to charts. Added options for showing multiple Y-axes on timeplots and histograms. Updated box plot options for categorizing and coloring data points. Added an option for reordering axis categories on timeplots, histograms, and box plots. Added additional line styles and visualization options to timeplots. Added Table methods for using indexed columns. Added a resetvalues attribute. Added Object getVariable() and setVariable() methods. Updated the SQL IS keyword to work with expressions. Improved performance of SQL queries on tables with indexed columns. Added an array parameter to Math.max() and Math.min(). Added a binary bundle field type. Added a button to Model Settings to export embedded media. Changed the default Person flowitem into separate Man and Woman flowitems. Added options for using the object's color to Person Visuals. Added a changepersonvisuals() command and pick options. Updated the Model Background properties window. Added a right-click option to show/hide model backgrounds from the Toolbox. Added pick options for using lists to the Pick Operator field on the processor. Updated various pick options to use generic label references. Added options to the List for special handling of SELECT values. Added Text options to Quick Properties. Added mean and standard deviation to the statistical distribution popup. Added icons to various pick option menus. Improved the Copy Variable function of Edit Selected Objects. Added the location coordinate system button to the General tab of object properties. Removed the Build menu; its options can still be added to the user toolbar. Changed the run speed slider to behave as a ratio of real time instead of model units per second. Fixed a bug with deleting array data from a node. Fixed an exception with cloning a table without rows. Fixed a bug with applying experimenter triggers. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Improved the rendering performance of some imported shapes by optimizing their meshes by material. Some mesh customizations may apply differently for some shapes. Charts now ignore null values instead of trying to categorize or plot them. Changed the FlexScript + operator to concatenate numbers with strings. Fixed some FlexScript math operations with numbers and null variants. Fixed an issue with FlexScript downcasting not always type checking properly in certain expressions. For example, "Object obj = param(1);" will now correctly throw an exception if param(1) is a treenode without Object data. Updated the Rack's place offset to be the actual location that the item will be placed. Fixed a bug with labels added during events at time 0 not being deleted on reset. Fixed a bug in Color.random(). Process Flow Changed the scroll wheel to zoom instead of panning the view up and down. Removed the extra outline around stacked blocks. Changed the default option for Release Batch on max wait timer and max idle timer to have Failed unchecked. Organized the ProcessFlow list on the toolbar based on the Toolbox folder structure. Changed Event-Triggered Source and Wait for Event panels to be collapsible. Added an edit field for the number of arrivals on the Scheduled Source. Added a getlastacquiredresource() command. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Updated Move Object's Preserve Global Position checkbox to preserve location and rotation. People Added an experiment variable for changing the number of objects in a People group. Added a visual indicator to show when objects are acquired by the shift schedule. Added A* dividers to waiting lines and other objects. Adjusted the Staff's walk back to reset position so that it is preempted if acquired by something else. Added a custom window for People Down Behaviors. Added a Keep Person on Transport checkbox to the Transport Person activity. Changed the default Arrivals activities to randomize the created person's visuals. Updated activity subflows so travelers synchronize their speeds when traveling together. Moved copying token labels to the created person to after the people settings labels are added so values aren't overwritten. Added state history tables. Conveyor Improved naming of various objects. Fixed a bug with the height of decision points when created with certain model units. Added a chain texture to conveyor belt visual options. AGV Updated curved path quick properties to be able to specify start and end points. Improved naming of control points and areas. A* Added the A* Navigator to the Toolbox. Updated the A* Navigator Properties window.

The attached model provides an example of how to record and display overtime hours worked by staff in a small clinic. The following screen capture of the model after a 30 day run shows the various dashboards displaying information about the working hours of the staff in the model. The code snippet shown for the Activity Finished Trigger of the final exit activity in the patient track is used to record information on a couple global variables and then trigger a recording event on the OT_DataCollector. The code snippet is documented in detail, so hopefully you will understand what is being done. As you can see by the Data Collector properties window, nothing special is going on there except to record the two global variables named GV_Overtime_Hours and GV_TotWork_Hours. The third and final piece to the puzzle is to create some User Defined dashboard widgets to display the information captured by the data collector in a few different ways. clinic-overtime-example-with-custom-data-collector.fsm

Attached is an example DLL Maker project that calls a Java function using the Java Native Interface (JNI) from C++. The steps for how this works are outlined below: 1. Install the Java Development Kit (JDK). In creating this example, I used OpenJDK installed via Microsoft's special Installer of Visual Studio Code for Java developers. 2. Write a Java program. In my example, I created a simple Hello class with an intMethod() as described in IBM's JNI example tutorial. 3. Compile the .java file into a .class file. I did this using the Command Prompt and executing the following command: javac Hello.java 4. Configure the DLL Maker project to include the JNI library: In VC++ Directories > Include Directories, add the following two directories: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.8.0_131\include C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.8.0_131\include\win32 In Linker > Input > Additional Dependencies, add jvm.lib In Linker > Input > Delay Loaded Dlls, add jvm.dll 5. Include jni.h in your code. (Line 51 of mydll.cpp) 6. Create a JVM in your code. (Lines 61-102 of mydll.cpp) 7. Get a handle to the method you want to call and then call it. (Lines 118-126 of mydll.cpp) 8. Connect a User Command in FlexSim to fire that C++ code that executes Java code. See the dll_maker_test_model.fsm included in the attached zipped directory. * Note: this example was built with 32-bit FlexSim because the JDK I installed was 32-bit. Using a 64-bit JVM is beyond the scope of this simple example and is left as an exercise for the user.

In this phase You will be introduced to shared assets, specifically, zones. Post Office: Phase 3 Purpose Learn about Zone Shared Asset Description Restrict access to the waiting line queue so that only 5 Customers can be present at a time. Follow Up What happens to the 'Customers' that show up when the Zone is at capacity? How can we add Customer behavior that says if the waiting line is already full, they leave the post office? Video of Post Office: Phase 3 build: If you'd like to download the completed Post Office: Phase 3 model, you will find it here.

In this phase You will be introduced to Tasks, Tasksequences and Task Executors. In order to build Phase 2, you will need to start by having Post Office: Phase 1 pulled up in FlexSim. Tasks and Tasksequences Task A single instruction or action to be performed by a TaskExecuter object (ex. LOAD flowitem) Tasksequence A series of tasks to be performed in sequence. (example tasksequence with tasks below) Post Office: Phase 2 Purpose Modify our model to increase visual appeal. Description Create visuals so that the "Customer" flowitem looks and behaves more like a person standing in line, IE is able to walk to each location we send them to. Follow up How can the use of labels and resources help us easily add additional service desks? Video of Post Office: Phase 2 build: If you'd like to download the completed Post Office: Phase 2 model, you will find it here.

Hi everyone, I had a discussion with @Jordan Johnson recently and I also wanted to share with the distributors group some thoughts about the autosave feature: Comment #1: there is no autosave if your model is in a run state every 10 minutes When a user reads this checkbox, he thinks that FlexSim will "autosave a model backup every 10 minutes" exactly as it is written. But it does not. As explained in the user manual: "AutoSave will only save your model if it is reset and not running." (https://docs.flexsim.com/en/20.1/Reference/GeneralModelSettings/GlobalPreferences/#environment) Let's take an example: a user saves his model file at 10:00 am. The first autosave is scheduled at 10:10 am. The user starts building his model, then runs his model between 10:09 and 10:11. As at 10:10 am his model was running, there was actually no autosave. So the first autosave is postponed at 10:20 am. The user does some modifications in his model, then resets and runs his model between 10:19 and 10:21. As at 10:20 his model was running, there was actually no autosave. So the first autosave is postponed at 10:30 am. And so on... So after 1 hour of work, a user could actually have no autosave of his model. And I already have seen this with some users. If FlexSim crashes, then the user looses his work since he forgot to regularly save his model. So he looks for the autosave file, but there is none, even after 1 hour. You might answer me that users are supposed to save their model more regularly, but if they would do so then there would be no need to have an autosave feature. Idea: if the model is in a run state when the autosave is scheduled, the autosave should not be postponed in 10 minutes, but instead the autosave should be triggered at the next model reset. Comment #2: there is no autosave if you save your model at intervalls less than 10 minutes Let's take an example: a user saves his model file at 10:00 am. The first autosave is scheduled at 10:10 am. But the user saves his model at 10:09. So the first autosave is postponed at 10:19 am, there is no autosave at 10:10. Then the user saves his model at 10:18. So the first autosave is postponed at 10:28 am, there is no autosave at 10:19. And so on... So after 1 hour of work, a user will also have no autosave file if he saves regularly his model. I am not shocked by this behaviour, but again when a user reads that FlexSim will "autosave a model backup every 10 minutes" , he thinks that FlexSim does autosave a model backup every 10 minutes as written on the checkbox. If saving the model postpones the next autosave, then the label of this checkbox should be more precise. And there should also be at least a tooltip on the checkbox and one more sentence in the user manual to explain that the autosave is postponed everytime the user saves his model. I know that you are all experienced users and you save regularly your models. But I would be interested if you have already seen some of your users loosing their work, and then when looking for an autosave file there was none, or the autosave file was much older than 10 minutes. Don't hesitate to add comments to this post.

FloWorks 22.2.0 is now available (31 August 2022). This version of FloWorks is intended for use with FlexSim 2022 Update 2. If you are using FloWorks with FlexSim 2022 Update 1, please use FloWorks version 22.1.1. If you are using FlexSim 2022 (LTS) please use FloWorks version 22.0.2. All versions 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. 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 FloWorks 22.2.0 New: Added a Flow Gauge object to measure and visualize the flow through a connection New: Added a Time Series object to the Toolbox as a source of daily, weekly or monthly changing values Improvement: Added several alternative shapes for Flow Source such as Plant and Well Improvement: Level Triggered Event now has an OnTriggerFired event that ProcessFlow can await Bug fix: Some additional issues with incorrect scaling when not using meters Bug fix: Flow tank level triggers issue with multiple levels (not) firing All bug fixes in FloWorks 22.0.2 below. Backwards Compatibility Note: The following change may change the way updated models behave. Flow Impact Event has been deprecated and may be removed in the future. Picklist options for applying impact factors have been added to FlexSim's own MTBF/MTTR and Timetable. As an improvement, the same picklist options are also available in Down Behaviors. FloWorks 22.1.1 All bug fixes in FloWorks 22.0.2 below. FloWorks 22.1.0 (12 May 2022) All bug fixes in FloWorks 22.0.1 below. FloWorks 22.0.2 Bug fix: FlowMixer.loadRecipe can handle re-ordered product tables Bug fix: Statistics are now correctly initialized for flow tanks created during run. FloWorks 22.0.1 (12 May 2022) Added support for Object Property Tables Bug fix: incorrect MassFlowConveyor content Bug fix: LoadingPoint issue with not-released positions (and status) Bug fix: Object created at incorrect scale when not using meters

Attached is an example model that simulates a Kiva system. kivasystem.fsm See Dev Talk: Kiva System Modeling for the steps I took in building the model.

Building a Model In this training section we will introduce to you how to begin a modeling project. To begin, you need to gather all available information that describes the system, from how it looks to how it behaves. To build a model we take an incremental approach to the design and implementation of the model; think layers. We will be building a model in the following 5 steps: Create a 3D layout (this includes a CAD drawing, if available) Create a flowchart of the process steps Define the logic for each step, testing as you go Revise Logical steps as needed Run the model View results Post Office: Phase 1 Purpose Gain familiarity with Abstraction in models, Flowcharting steps, basic ProcessFlow activities Description Customers arrive at a post office every 45 seconds, on average. The statistical probability distribution which best simulates the inter-arrival pattern is an exponential distribution with a location value of 0 and a scale value of 45. The service time at the one and only service window in the post office is lognormal2(45,3.1,0.5) seconds. When the delay for service is complete, Customers leave the post office Follow Up (see video below at time 7:16) If there is more than one Token at the Delay activity, what does that say about how many Customers can be served at once? How can we apply limits to Tokens at activities? Video of Post Office: Phase 1: If you'd like to download the completed Post Office: Phase 1 model, you will find it here.

The FloWorks module has been updated for FlexSim 2017 and is now available (December 2016). Update 1: Bug fix update 1 was released on Jan 23, 2017. Update 2: Bug fix update 2 and FloWorks 17.1 for FlexSim 2017 Update 1 were released on Apr 11, 2017. 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. For any questions, please email support@talumis.com. Release notes FloWorks version 2017.0.1 (Jan 23, 2017) Bug fix: Missing names and items in Flow Item Bin fixed. Bug fix: Properties window for Flow Tank flow item now opens correctly. Bug fix: Resolved some minor issues with "Add to dashboard" pins. FloWorks version 2017.0.0 (Dec 22, 2016) FloWorks updated for FlexSim 2017 Flow Mixer now has a manual mode, that will put it in Idle mode after each batch until you manually call StartMixerRecipe. Allow Input Rate and Output Rate to be plotted versus time. New Workability and Level Triggered Event objects added with focus in particular on modelling of ports and offshore processes. Unfilled part of Flow Tank is no longer necessarily gray but takes the object color. When Impact Events are active on a FloWorks object, they will show a box around the object similar to the "stopobject" behavior in standard FlexSim. The color of the box varies from red (0) through yellow to green (1) to black (infinity) depending on the impact factor of the event. Dropdown lists for port actions improved. For example, you can now open or close a single port (OpenFlowIp c.s.), select an individual port to open, close input and open output, etc. Increased limits on number of objects and events when running unlicensed version in FlexSim Educational version. Bug fix: Can now add Object Groups to FloWorks charts. Bug fix: When changing a Flow Task Executer from vessel to truck, the TE's flow tank is correctly scaled and positioned on reset. Bug fix: The State display in the Quick Properties did not correctly show the state of the Loading Arm. Bug fix: Arrow heads can now be dragged by holding 'X' key instead of Alt. User commands consolidated and documentation updated: ConnectFlowObjectToOtherObject command rewritten and documented. All documentation in modules\FloWorks\help\Commands reformatted and automatically generated based on actual user commands. These help pages often provide more explanation on the parameters and their optional values, the return types, and more extensive examples than the FlexSim Command Helper pages. Integration with the Process Flow module: FloWorks options added to "Listener Initialized" trigger of "Wait for event" action. Dropdown lists for port actions improved. For example, you can now open or close a single port (OpenFlowIp c.s.), select an individual port to open, close input and open output, etc. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following change may slightly change the way updated models behave. The Item To Flow's OnItemEmptied trigger is now fired before the actual item is destroyed, so that you are still able to reference it in the trigger code.

FlexSim 2020 Update 1 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 Updated the Statistics Collector to be simpler and more user friendly. Added a PowerPoint FlexScript API. Added an HTTP FlexScript API. Added a sorting tab to various charts. Improved performance of chart templates. Replaced the code profiler with a new Performance Profiler. Added a Memory Profiler. Added OnEntry and OnExit events to TaskExecuter objects. Added an icon to library items that launch a pop-out library of choices. Reorganized the dashboard library using the pop-out library to consolidate charts with multiple visualizations. Updated the WebServer to use the Version Selector. Added a Find/Replace UI for global tables. Added support for Ctrl-F and Ctrl-H keyboard shortcuts for various windows. Added support for renaming objects using the F2 keyboard shortcut. Added a Vec3 overload to the Object.setRotation() method. Added a stop parameter to the userinput() command which will stop code execution until a value is entered. Added a default parameter to the realtime() command that returns realtime(1)+0.001*realtime(2). Updated various pickoptions to use the TaskSequence and TaskExecuter APIs. Added tutorials for the Statistics Collector. Added a Variant overload to the Table() constructor. Fixed some issues with the importtable() command. AGV Added new Train functionality. Added offset travel functionality to the AGV network. Added a time-based trailing option. Added the routing drawing feature to a right click option. Updated Quick Properties' apply to all selected objects functionality to work with AGV objects. Made arrows bigger. Fixed several spinners in Quick Properties not applying immediately. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Changed behavior for when a TaskExecuter is connected to an AGV network, and is set to use the navigator for its offset travel. Previously, the navigator was hard-coded to find the closest control point. Now, you instead need to add an OnAGVOffsetTravel trigger to the navigator, wherein you can direct the AGV how to offset. People Added clipboard, test tube, and pill bottle flow items. Added a Max Speed property to Equipment objects. Updated Transport and Equipment objects to do low priority returns. Added the ability to install instanced People flows. Updated the LocationStaytimeHistory chart to handle people entering and exiting transports inside a location. Process Flow Added an AGV travel activity. Updated the Sink to notify parent tokens on a Run Sub Flow activity that the child token finished the subflow. Updated the Wait for Event and Event-triggered Source activities to be able to display more than one link at a time. Updated the sampler for Universal Edit fields to display process flow variables and current labels when sampling white space. Added a pop-out library for choosing the shape of Container objects. Added a pop-out library for choosing the type of travel activity. A* Updated the Heat Map to use a Color Pallete.

FlexSim 2017 is available. If you have bug reports please email dev@flexsim.com or post a new question to this answers site. If you have suggestions or new feature requests, create a new idea in the Development space. Release Notes Improved FlexScript performance by compiling and executing it as machine code instead of interpreted bytecode. Added new syntax to FlexScript for accessing objects' methods and properties, including dynamic label access. Improved OpenGL compatibility by removing many deprecated function calls and adding support for the OpenGL Core Profile. Added a mechanism for loading DWG data into the tree using the Model Background object. Added a new Snap to Background setting on the 3D view for snapping to points loaded from a DWG file. Upgraded the licensing system to Flexnet Publisher 2016 R1 (11.14). Changed the network licensing system so that you can open multiple FlexSim instances using only one license seat. Added a Quick Library popup to Dashboard views. Added Travel to Location pick option to OnResourceAvailable. Added Export Results to CSV pick option to the End of Experiment trigger Fixed some issues with auto-complete not displaying correctly. Fixed a crashing bug with settablesize() on tables with bundle data. Process Flow Added functionality for snapping activities into the middle of a block. Improved the Activities window, including renaming activities, better filtering options, and locating label references. Added a Billboard setting for Text objects. Added a right-click Edit Activity Visuals option. Added an option to the Create Object activity for positioning an object at another object's location without moving into that object. Added a Preserve Global Position checkbox to the Move Object activity. Updated the Schedule Source table so that it can add labels. Updated the Release Token activity to allow numbers and strings. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. The new version of Flexnet Publisher requires network license servers to be upgraded. They need to use the latest vendor daemon and update the Flexnet Licensing Service. More information can be found in the license upgrade instructions at https://www.flexsim.com/ftp/LicenseServer/ Updated the Separator's order of events (executing OnEntry before Setup Time) to be consistent with the Processor. Users of the mesh api should update usage of GL_QUADS to use GL_TRIANGLES instead. GL_QUADS is deprecated and will not work when using the OpenGL Core Profile. Since the new FlexScript parser compiles to machine code, the order in which parameters are evaluated has changed to be aligned with the x86/x64 calling convention. This means models containing code where parameter evaluation order is important may have changed results. For example, the following code will have different results: myusercommand(duniform(1, 5), duniform(1, 10)) In the x86/x64 calling convention, parameters are evaluated from last to first. In this case, the duniform(1, 10) call will be called first. Since this call changes the state of random stream 0, changing the order of parameter evaluation changes the result. The new parser has a stricter grammar for the == and != comparison operators. The types of the operands must be the same or related. For example, the following code will now give compile errors because it is comparing unrelated types: double x = 0; treenode y = model(); if (x == y) { } This version introduces a new Array type, which is an array of variants, enabling a more feature rich array usage. In doing this, we are deprecating the old array types of doublearray, intarray, stringarray, and treenodearray. Specifically, the old array types are now just aliases for the standard Array type. This means that you can now, technically, put a string into a doublearray and vice versa, because they are all just Arrays. Hence we encourage you to just use Array in your code instead of the old array types. This change has also introduced a problem regarding the Variant type. In previous versions, the Variant could hold each of the four types of arrays, and it had a type value associated with each type, which you could get with the getvartype() command, comparing that value to one of VAR_TYPE_INTARRAY, VAR_TYPE_DOUBLEARRAY, VAR_TYPE_STRINGARRAY, or VAR_TYPE_TREENODEARRAY. Now, however, since we've merged all of those types into one, all of those values would theoretically be the same value, introducing issues if you had code that switches on getvartype(), or in some cases if you had a series of if/else compares on that value. Depending on the specific nature of that code, it would be hard to predict exactly how that code would behave going forward. Thus, we have decided to get rid of those old macros for each array type. Now there is just the macro VAR_TYPE_ARRAY. If you have existing code that uses the older macros, you will get compile errors when you open your model in version 17.0. We do this specifically so that you will be notified of code that needs to be updated. There are also several pick list options in the process flow module that use these older macros. Version 17 includes update scripts that will hopefully update all of those pick options in existing models to use the new VAR_TYPE_ARRAY macro instead of the old macros. With the new FlexScript parser, there are now some differences with how the parser compares a null variant to 0. In the old parser, the following expressions applied: (nullvar == 0) is false (nullvar <= 0) is true (nullvar >= 0) is true In the new parser, the following expressions apply: (nullvar == 0) is false (nullvar <= 0) is false (nullvar >= 0) is false This brings the <= and >= operators inline with the == operator. However, old code will evaluate differently now. The following expressions apply in both the new and old parsers: (nullvar < 1) is true (nullvar > -1) is true The param() command will now return nullvar if the parameter number is greater than the number of parameters passed to the function (previously it returned 0).

Have you received this licensing error? Operations error: 7284 Cannot perform support actions on inactive fulfillment record FID_ ... (entire fulfillment ID listed) You may encounter this error during an attempted license return or repair. This error means that the fulfillment was already returned. A fulfillment is an activation of a license. Once that activation has been returned to the main license server, the fulfillment becomes inactive. It is meaningless to return or repair a fulfillment that has already been returned. So, how do you have an inactive fulfillment still on your computer if it was supposedly returned? There are a couple of ways this can happen: Someone requested that the license be force-returned. Sometimes a license can be lost, so a client contacts their local distributor to force the license back. Later on, the license is found activated on a PC, however it will not be returnable because the license was already force-returned. You returned your license normally, but later restored your computer from a backup or otherwise rolled back to a previous state. This may break your license, but in trying to repair the old fulfillment, the main license server reports to you that actions cannot be taken on that inactive fulfillment - it was already returned. The point with this error is that FlexSim's main license server has a record that your fulfillment was already returned. The fulfillment you are trying to return or repair is inactive - no actions can be taken on it. The solution is to delete the fulfillment record from your PC: License Server - Delete fulfillment Standalone - Delete fulfillment

O link que segue leva a um vídeo no qual é apresentada uma Visão Geral sobre a ferramenta Script do FlexSim. Os tópicos abordados no vídeo são: O que é o Script? Componentes do Script? Como utilizar o Script? Quais as funcionalidades do Script. Vídeo Tutorial: Script Overview Esperamos que aproveitem mais este vídeo tutorial.