FlexSim Knowledge Base
Announcements, articles, and guides to help you take your simulations to the next level.
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FlexSim 2021 Update 2 Beta is now available (Updated 26 July 2021) 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 21.2.0 Release Notes Added a Template system for inheriting properties from other objects. Added new manipulation handles for moving, rotating, scaling, and connecting objects in the 3D view. Added ability to delete connector lines. Added a StateTable object. Added a getstatetableutilization() command. Added a Pass-through parameter type. Added a checkbox so transporters can move their forks separate from traveling. Added more Task Executer shapes. Improved treenode.getPath() to return a relative path to nodes that aren't a direct ancestor. Added a Frustrum Culling checkbox in Visuals. Agent Added an AgentSystems property. AGV Allowed the user to define some basic routing cost multipliers, including: An option to divide by speed, allowing for fastest path routing (instead of shortest path) An option to define a custom path-based multiplier to the cost Added Path Conditions, which allow you to "close" certain paths, based on either model state or agv state, etc. Added a Prioritize Control Point Lookahead option. A* Added the capability to have oblong grid node sizes. Allowed barriers to be inside visual tools. Added the ability to add dynamic barriers to the A* system. This is done by calling AStar.navigator.addDynamicBarrier(), then AStar.navigator.removeDynamicBarrier() to remove those barriers. Added several triggers to A* objects: AStar.Navigator: OnGridChange: called when dynamic barriers are added or removed AStar.Traveler: OnCalculatePath: called just before a traveler's path is being calculated AStar.Traveler: OnNavigatePath: Called just before a traveler runs the algorithm to define kinematics and cell allocations for traveling its path. Also allows the ability to override the default behavior and define your own. Made several additions to AStar.Traveler API, AStar.Navigator API, etc. Added a TravelPatterns property. Backwards Compatibility Note: The following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Improved the deadlock recovery algorithm. Now it will add each traveler in the deadlock, as well as any travelers that are waiting on those travelers, as dynamic barriers. Then it will go through each traveler in the deadlock, remove it from the dynamic barriers, add any additional travelers that are adjacent to that traveler as barriers, then try to recalculate the path to the traveler's destination. If it finds a traveler that can still travel all the way to its destination, that traveler will be rerouted. Otherwise, if it finds a traveler that can travel at least on grid square, it will reroute that traveler. Otherwise, it will give a notification of unrecoverable deadlock. GIS Added the GIS module to the Flexsim Installer. Process Flow Added a ProcessFlows property. Added a ProcessFlowVariables property. Backwards Compatibility Note: The following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Removed instance object editing from Object Process Flows.
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Attached is a simple model that implements functionality for "pallet moles." These are small vehicles that move pallets forward in a racking system. The targeted behavior is a FIFO storage mechanism like what you would see in gravity flow racks. However, for incredibly deep storage, a gravity flow mechanism would result in unacceptable pressures exerted on the pallets at the front of the rack, especially when pallets collide with each other as they roll down the slot. These pallet moles solve these issues. They provide the forward movement that enables FIFO storage, without the unacceptable pressures that come with gravity flow. The functionality is implemented as two object process flows, one for the rack, and one for the pallet mole. As such, it is scalable to higher numbers of racks and moles. Just add the set of racks/moles that your model uses, and then make sure those objects are attached as instances of their respective object process flow. Moles can be moved between different slots in the racking system. If a mole needs to move to a different slot, it will request transport from a team of fork lifts. The fork lift picks the mole up from the slot, and moves it to the destination slot. RackMole.fsm
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Flexsim 2021 Update 1 is now available for download. You can view the Release Notes in the online user manual. For more in depth discussion and videos of the new features, check out https://www.flexsim.com/news/flexsim-2021-update-1-pre-built-agv-logic-bottle-shapes-and-more/ 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.
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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.
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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.
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FlexSim 2021 Beta is available. (Updated 19 November 2020) 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 Model Parameter Table tool. Added a Performance Measure Table tool. Added an Empirical Distribution tool. Added a Web Page tool. Upgraded html views from WebKit to Chromium Embedded Framework. Added a Map FlexScript API. Added a JSON FlexScript API. Added Object.getProperty() and Object.setProperty() methods to the Object FlexScript API. Moved dashboard properties windows into the context sensitive Properties window. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. The Experimenter and Optimizer now use Model Parameter and Performance Measure Tables. Existing experiments and optimizations are no longer compatible and are discarded by the model upgrade process. Fixed the PowerPoint.Presentation.create() and PowerPoint.Presentation.open() method syntax. Due to Chromium's multi-process architecture, the FlexScript command callwebscriptmethod() and JavaScript function fireFlexsimEvent() are now asynchronous and do not return values directly. To get the return value of fireFlexsimEvent(), you can now pass a callback function as the last parameter: fireFlexsimEvent("myEvent", param1, param2, function(result) { alert("result: " + result); }); AStar Added a Strict Diagonals setting to make travelers travel better around corners. Conveyor Added a Mass Flow Conveyor. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Removed Conveyor Types. People Added a Remove Statistically Only checkbox to the Remove Person activity. Updated the Statistics Properties panel to display HC states.
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Greetings, I would like to share my latest FlexSim creation with the community, HUGE thank you to the flexsim overlords for creating such an awsome software https://youtu.be/WyfNS6vfLZE. G
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I have created the following model to use elevator for different floor. I am not sure what I have missed out that the elevator is not working. Please advise me. Thanks multi-floor.fsm David
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What is ODBC? FlexSim can use ODBC, and ODBC can connect to many different kinds of data sources, including files (like Excel) and databases. It allows you to use SQL queries to get data from any supported data source. ODBC uses a driver determine how to get data from a given data source. A driver is translator between ODBC and whatever data source you are querying. For example, there is a driver for Excel files. If you have that driver on your system, you could use ODBC to query data from Excel files. As another example, there is a driver for SAP HANA, the database for SAP. If you have that driver, then ODBC will know how to talk to SAP. This means that if the correct driver is installed, and is working correctly, that you can use FlexSim to query any ODBC data source. Using the Database Connector FlexSim has a tool called the Database Connector. You can use it to configure a connection to a database. This article uses that tool. For more information, see https://docs.flexsim.com/en/20.2/Reference/Tools/DatabaseConnectors/ As an example, let's say that you want to connect to Excel using ODBC. Assuming you have the Excel ODBC driver installed on your system, you can configure a Database Connector to look like this: Note that you must specify the full connection string. In the connection string, you can see that the driver and the file are specified. Then you can query the data in a given sheet with a query like this: SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$] You can find more information on querying Excel files at websites like this: https://querysurge.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205766136-Writing-SQL-Queries-against-Excel-files-Excel-SQL- If you use Office 365, you may need to install the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable. This includes newer drivers for Excel and Access Be sure to install it with the /quiet flag on the command line. Instructions can be found in this troubleshooting guide: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/access/cannot-use-odbc-or-oledb Note that FlexSim has an Excel tool, which is usually easier to use. This tool requires Excel to be installed, but does not require the ODBC driver for Excel to be installed on your computer. For more information, see https://docs.flexsim.com/en/20.2/Reference/Tools/ExcelInterface/. Excel makes a good example because most people have it, and it's easy to get the driver for it. Connection Strings Different kinds of connections require different connection strings. The following list has an example connection string for a few data sources: Excel Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb)};DBQ=Path\To\Excel\File.xlsx Access Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)};DBQ=Path\To\Access.accdb SQLite Driver={SQLite3 ODBC Driver};Database=Path\to\sqlite.db SAP HANA DRIVER={HDBODBC};UID=myUser;PWD=myPassword;SERVERNODE=myServer:30015 Checking for Drivers Note that each connection string specifies a driver, and then additional information. The additional information depends on the driver you are using. In order to determine which drivers are on your system, you need to open the ODBC Data Sources Administrator window. To do that, hit the windows key, and then type ODBC. Then choose the option called ODBC Data Sources (64 bit). If you are running 32-bit FlexSim, open the 32 bit version. Go to the Drivers tab. Here is what my Drivers tab looks like: You can see I have drivers for Access, Excel, SQL Server, and SQLite3. I don't have drivers for SAP HANA. If I did, you'd see a driver named HDBODBC in the list. To access that kind of database, I'd need to install that driver. You can also see that the name of the driver used the the connection string must match exactly to what is shown here. Other Info You may see an exception appear when you test the connection to your database. If the view shows that the connection succeeded, then it has succeeded. The exception happens because FlexSim tries to get a list of tables from the database that it's querying. FlexSim may not guess correctly for your particular data source. That exception can be safely ignored. If you used the old db() commands in the past, consider upgrading to using the Database Connector. It will be orders of magnitude faster to read in an entire table.
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FlexSim 2020 Update 2 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 run speed slider so you can customize the ratio of display units to real seconds. Moved object properties windows into the context sensitive Properties window (formerly known as Quick Properties). Added a new Quick Properties window that appears next to your cursor when double clicking on an object. Added a pop-out button to the Labels panel of the Properties window. Added a Dark theme for FlexSim's UI. Removed help manual from the installer and linked help to docs.flexsim.com. Created a separate installer for a local help manual. Added Unit edit buttons to more edit fields. Updated the Quick Library to match the current state of collapsed and expanded panels in the main library. Removed the View Settings window and moved all its options into the Properties window. Improved performance of Properties window and various other UIs. Added Object Property tables. Added Object class properties and methods to the Variant class in FlexScript. This removes the need to use .as(Object) if you know the treenode pointed at by a Variant is an Object. Added Object.resetPosition property. Added capture groups to the string.replace() method. Enabled several SQL clauses - NOT, NOT IN, DELETE FROM, INSERT INTO, and LEFT JOIN/LEFT OUTER JOIN. Added ARRAY_VAL() sql function for accessing a value in an array. Added unit conversions to the convert() command - convert(4.5, "ft/min", MODEL_UNITS). Improved performance of loading media by making it multi-threaded. Updated the default web server 3D view to stream using WebGL data instead of video. Added Color.fromPalette options to several Set Color popups. Added a pickoption for the Source's On Creation trigger for attaching items to an Object process flow. Disabled the beeping noise when pressing Enter in edit fields. Fixed the Create Object edit mode sometimes not creating objects and just exiting (like when clicking on the library when the User Manual was active). Fixed a draw issue with tables drawing bold text sometimes. Fixed a bug with window docking. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Changed updatehotlinks() to only repaint the view if it applies a node with a viewsyncupdate attribute of 1. The keywords VALUES an DELETE were added to the sql parser. This means that previous models that use the term VALUES, Values, values, DELETE, etc. will get an error because sql now sees it as a special keyword. If you get this error, just wrap your term with square brackets: [Values] to tell the parser to not interpret it as a sql keyword. Agent Added the Agent module to the Flexsim Installer. Enabled A* walls as static agents. Added a neighbors() function to the Agent API. Fixed social forces for agents not in model space. Fixed bugs with using A* bridges. AGV The join tool now joins in all cases, defaulting to a straight path if it can't solve for a curved path. Conveyor The join tool now joins in all cases, defaulting to a straight conveyor if it can't solve for a curved conveyor. Emulation Added Allen-Bradley connections. People Improved performance of state history tables. Fixed listening to travel events on a person created with the Create Person activity. Process Flow Added new Kinematics activities. Added new Warehousing activities. Added an Enabled checkbox to the Source activities so that you can turn them off. Consolidated Fixed Resource and Task Executer process flow types into a single "Object" type. Added a right-click menu option to the 3D view so a user can right-click on an object and add an Object process flow directly. Added an Object Flow field to the Create Object activity and added a pickoption for attaching items to an instanced flow. Changed double clicking on an activity to be more consistent with the 3D view and now opens the activity's properties window. This window now has a name edit field so you can still easily rename the activity. You can also slow double click to only open the old name edit field. Improved performance of activity properties windows.
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Attached is a sample model that tracks social distancing metrics. I just grabbed one of our testing models, so it's not necessarily eye popping as far as visuals, but the basic concepts of social distancing metric tracking are in there. This model is implemented in the new 20.2 beta. It uses the new Agent module to detect proximity between objects. I added a proximity system, and added each operator as an agent in the system. I created an object that draws a "heat map" where proximity points happen. This is a visual tool called "HeatMap" in the model. If you send a message to the object it will add a "hot point" at the location of the sending object. I implemented the object's OnReset, OnMessage, and OnDraw triggers to do this. Once the heat map is set up, I have the proximity system send a message to the HeatMap from the involved agent object as part of it OnEnterProximity trigger. Second, I do some statistical tracking using a statistics collector named ProximityTimes. This listens to the agent proximity system's OnEnterProximity and OnExitProximity events, and collects data accordingly. The trickiest part to setting this up was sampling the actual event. For now (hopefully we'll get a better system in the future) you have to sample the event in the tree. In the Events tab of the statistics collector, press the sampler button, then in the tree navigate to the node at MODEL:/ProximitySystem>variables/behaviors/Proximity Behavior and hover the cursor over it to get the list of events. The ProximityTimes statistics collector collects individual times. This allowed me to add the "Time In Proximity" dashboard chart. For the other charts, I needed a calculated table to aggregate the values. The ProximityAggregates table aggregates the data needed for the other three dashboard charts: Total Proximity Time, Proximity Count, and Average Time In Proximity. SampleSocialDistancing.fsm
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FlexSim 2020 Update 2 Beta is available. (Updated 22 July 2020) 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 Updated the run speed slider so you can customize the ratio of display units to real seconds. Moved object properties windows into the context sensitive Properties window (formerly known as Quick Properties). Added a new Quick Properties window that appears next to your cursor when double clicking on an object. Added a pop-out button to the Labels panel of the Properties window. Added a Dark theme for FlexSim's UI. Added Unit edit buttons to more edit fields. Updated the Quick Library to match the current state of collapsed and expanded panels in the main library. Removed the View Settings window and moved all its options into the Properties window. Improved performance of Properties window and various other UIs. Added Object Property tables. Added Object class properties and methods to the Variant class in FlexScript. This removes the need to use .as(Object) if you know the treenode pointed at by a Variant is an Object. Added Object.resetPosition property. Added capture groups to the string.replace() method. Enabled several SQL clauses - NOT, NOT IN, DELETE FROM, INSERT INTO, and LEFT JOIN/LEFT OUTER JOIN. Added ARRAY_VAL() sql function for accessing a value in an array. Added unit conversions to the convert() command - convert(4.5, "ft/min", MODEL_UNITS). Improved performance of loading media by making it multi-threaded. Added Color.fromPalette options to several Set Color popups. Added a pickoption for the Source's On Creation trigger for attaching items to an Object process flow. Disabled the beeping noise when pressing Enter in edit fields. Fixed the Create Object edit mode sometimes not creating objects and just exiting (like when clicking on the library when the User Manual was active). Fixed a draw issue with tables drawing bold text sometimes. Fixed a bug with window docking. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Changed updatehotlinks() to only repaint the view if it applies a node with a viewsyncupdate attribute of 1. The keywords VALUES an DELETE were added to the sql parser. This means that previous models that use the term VALUES, Values, values, DELETE, etc. will get an error because sql now sees it as a special keyword. If you get this error, just wrap your term with square brackets: [Values] to tell the parser to not interpret it as a sql keyword. Agent Added the Agent module to the Flexsim Installer. Enabled A* walls as static agents. Added a neighbors() function to the Agent API. Fixed social forces for agents not in model space. Fixed bugs with using A* bridges. AGV The join tool now joins in all cases, defaulting to a straight path if it can't solve for a curved path. Conveyor The join tool now joins in all cases, defaulting to a straight conveyor if it can't solve for a curved conveyor. Emulation Added Allen-Bradley connections. People Improved performance of state history tables. Fixed listening to travel events on a person created with the Create Person activity. Process Flow Added new Kinematics activities. Added new Warehousing activities. Added an Enabled checkbox to the Source activities so that you can turn them off. Consolidated Fixed Resource and Task Executer process flow types into a single "Object" type. Added a right-click menu option to the 3D view so a user can right-click on an object and add an Object process flow directly. Added an Object Flow field to the Create Object activity and added a pickoption for attaching items to an instanced flow. Changed double clicking on an activity to be more consistent with the 3D view and now opens the activity's properties window. This window now has a name edit field so you can still easily rename the activity. You can also slow double click to only open the old name edit field. Improved performance of activity properties windows.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Note: these demo models have been designed for the French-speaking FlexSim user community (all explanations and statistics shown in dashboards are labeled in French). However as 3D animation is a universal language, feel free to download these models whatever language you speak. Manutention de marchandises / Material handling download link: https://redirect.flexsim.fr/download_demomanutention niveau: ★☆☆ Ce modèle donne une vue d'ensemble sur les ressources disponibles dans la librairie FlexSim pour transporter des produits: AGV, opérateur, cariste, ascenseur, robot 6 axes, pont roulant, transtockeur. This model gives an overview of available resources in the FlexSim library to transport products: AGV, operator, forklift, elevator, 6-axis robot, crane, ASRS. Triage sur convoyeur / Conveyor sorting system download link: https://redirect.flexsim.fr/download_demotriage niveau: ★★☆ Dans ce modèle, des colis arrivent sur un carrousel et sont triés sur un des 6 convoyeurs de sortie en fonction de leur référence de commande. Si la cellule photoélectrique du convoyeur de sortie est saturée, les colis font un tour de carrousel supplémentaire. In this model, packages arrive on a carousel and are sorted on one of the 6 exit conveyors, according to their order reference. If the exit conveyor's photocell is saturated, packages make an additional carousel lap. AGV - Automated Guided Vehicle download link: https://redirect.flexsim.fr/download_demoagv niveau: ★★★ Ce modèle illustre une application des capacités de simulation d'AGV de FlexSim. Des caisses y circulent entre divers modules via des AGVs. This model demonstrates a subset of FlexSim's AGV simulation capabilities. Loads are transported by AGVs between several modules. Workshop download link: https://redirect.flexsim.fr/download_demoworkshop niveau: ★★★ Ce modèle présente une approche possible pour simuler des gammes de fabrication. Une gamme est assignée à chaque produit entrant dans le modèle. Le produit traverse ensuite chaque étape de sa gamme. This model presents a possible approach for data-driven product routing. Each product moves through a series of processing steps defined in a table. Clinique / Clinic download link: https://redirect.flexsim.fr/download_democlinique niveau: ★☆☆ Ce modèle est un exemple de parcours patient dans une clinique: enregistrement, triage par une infirmière, examen par un médecin, soins (ECG, radio ou IRM) et enfin présentation du diagnostic au patient avant raccompagnement vers la sortie. This model is an example of patient flow in a clinic: sign in, triage by a nurse, consult with a doctor, treatment (EKG, X-ray or MRI) and finally patient education before escorting him to the exit.
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FlexSim 2020 Update 1 Beta is available. (Updated 24 March 2020) 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 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. 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.
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A narrated video demonstration of the FlexSim Healthcare Tutorial described in the FlexSim 2020 User Manual has been released! Here is a link to the written documentation: https://docs.flexsim.com/en/20.0/Tutorials/FlexSimHC/OverviewFlexSimHC/ Here's a link to the video: https://vimeo.com/394012280
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FlexSim has been taught in hundreds of universities, both as the subject of full simulation courses and also as short course modules. Professors who teach these courses expect that their FlexSim-related assignments will be completed with a high level of academic integrity. FlexSim has also been used for many capstone, thesis, and dissertation projects, all of which fall under the university’s academic honor code (or honor system). FlexSim is committed to help maintain a high level of integrity in the academic assignments and projects that pass through our support department. We’ve created a list of guidelines for academic modeling using FlexSim: Those Using FlexSim for Academic Purposes Can... Access our extensive product documentation (https://docs.flexsim.com) Utilize the FlexSim Primer (by Dr. Allen Greenwood), which is a great starting resource for learning FlexSim and was developed specifically for academia—download it at https://flexs.im/primer Access papers, videos, and other FlexSim-related documents that are publicly available Search the entire database of questions and answers that have been posted publicly on FlexSim Answers FlexSim Will Not… Complete any portion of an assignment or project which falls under an academic honor code Write custom code as part of an academic assignment or project Share answers or model results from the textbook Applied Simulation: Modeling and Analysis Using FlexSim to anyone except educators teaching the material Otherwise aid in activities that circumvent the academic integrity of an assignment or project
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I was recently asked how a user can implement jerk, i.e. a rate of acceleration change, in the AGV module. The AGV module uses FlexSim's kinematics API to define the motion of AGVs along paths. The kinematics API does not natively support jerk. However, the AGV module has included a hook to allow developers, and audacious end users :-), to customize the kinematics that drive AGVs on paths. Using this hook, you can approximate jerk by breaking what would otherwise be a single kinematic, with a single acceleration/deceleration, into multiple smaller kinematics that gradually change the acceleration/deceleration of the object as it progresses. There are two ways to do this. The first option is to simply do it as an end user, confining your changes to your model, by customizing nodes in the tree. The second option is to do it as a module developer, using the module SDK. Adding Jerk as a User The AGV network uses an "AGV Customization Delegate" to allow for hooks to be placed at certain points in the AGV navigation logic. There is a default customization delegate that the AGV network uses, but you can override the logic of this default delegate by adding and configuring a special node at MODEL:/AGVNetwork>variables/customizationDelegate. But before I tell you how to do it, I want to explain a little more about how it works. I've attached three C++ files. The main ones you'll want to look at are AGVCustomizationDelegate.h and AGVCustomizationDelegate.cpp. These show the definition of the customization delegate class. In the header file, you'll see the definition of AGVCustomizationDelegate class. This class includes several methods, but the main method relevant here is addKinematics(). This method takes several parameters defining the context. Its responsibility is to add one or more kinematics, in the positive X direction, that will move the AGV the target distance along a path. The AGVCustomizationDelegate class is the default customization delegate used by the AGV network. The C++ files also define a subclass called UserAGVCustomizationDelegate, which overrides the methods of its parent class by delegating the logic to FlexScript code that the user can write in the model. So, now for actually doing it in the model. We want to instantiate an instance of UserCustomizationDelegate at the node MODEL:/AGVNetwork>variables/customizationDelegate, so that we can write FlexScript code to add the kinematics. Navigate in the tree to MODEL:/AGVNetwork>variables/customizationDelegate Right click on that node, and choose Edit > Designate this Node (so) In a script window execute the script: nodeadddata(so(), DATATYPE_SIMPLE) Add a subnode to that node named sdt::attributetree and give it the text: AGV::UserAGVCustomizationDelegate. Copy the node and then paste it onto itself. This will instantiate the UserAGVCustomizationDelegate. Right-click on the addKinematics subnode and choose Build > Toggle Node as FlexScript. Right-click on the addKinematics node and choose Explore > As Code. This will allow you to edit the code for adding kinematics. The header for field should be as follows (note this is determined by the evaluate() command in AGVCustomizationDelegate.cpp at line 71). treenode kinematics = param(1); // the kinematics node to call addkinematic()/getkinematics() on treenode section = param(2); // the associated travel path section double startAtTravelDist = param(3); // the agv cumulative travel distance at this point double distance = param(4); // the distance to travel on the path section (your addkinematics() calls should add up to this distance) double startTime = param(5); // the start time for the first addkinematic() call double startSpeed = param(6); // the initial speed to start at double endSpeed = param(7); // the target end speed (should be going this speed at the end) int reason = param(8); // reason for adding the kinematic (see AGVCustomizationDelegate.h) treenode endSpeedOut = param(9); // if target end speed cannot be reached, update this node's value with the actual end speed double peakSpeed = param(10); double acc = param(11); double dec = param(12); TaskExecuter agv = ownerobject(tonode(get(kinematics.up))); // the agv At this point you can customize how kinematics are added to the kinematics node in this code. To approximate jerk you would break it up into small addkinematic() commands that each change the acceleration/deceleration. Please refer to the kinematics api for more information on how to manipulate kinematics. Note that you should only use the addkinematic() and getkinematics() commands in this field (not initkinematics() or updatekinematics()), and the addkinematic() command should only tell the AGV to move forward in the X direction. Y and Z directions are ignored by the AGV travel logic. In other words, from a kinematics perspective, the AGV network "flattens" an AGV's path into movement in a straight line along the x axis. When you're finished adding kinematics, you should return the end time of the last added kinematic. This will be the same as the return value of the last called addkinematic() command. Adding Jerk as a Module Developer To implement jerk as a module developer, you would first create a module using the module SDK. Then you would include AGVClasses.h and AGVCustomizationDelegate.h in your project (do not include AGVCustomizationDelegate.cpp as it won't compile properly. I'm including that file just to be informative in this article). Then you would subclass AGVCustomizationDelegate with your own class that overrides the appropriate methods, specifically the addKinematics() method. Once you've done that, you would replace MODEL:/AGVNetwork>variables/customizationDelegate with an instance of your customized class, using the same steps described above, but using your own class name instead of AGV::UserAGVCustomizationDelegate. If you need more header files so you can access more information, i.e. the definition of TravelPathSection, the let us know and we can get them to you. agvheaderfiles.zip
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