Tokens and Flow Items can be very difficult to add to a chart. This is true because they don't exist on Reset, making them difficult to select. This article shows how you can use a Process Flow to allow a Statistics Collector to record a token's changing label value, and also to chart that value over time: The model for this example is attached (graphlabeldata.fsm). It is a very simple model: The Scheduled Source creates three tokens, each of which create a label called data. This label is created by choosing "Add Tracked Variable" for the value, which opens this dialog box: The reason we want the label to be a Tracked Variable is that Tracked Variables emit an OnChange event. We want to listen to that event. If you use the time interval collection method, discussed later in this article, you don't need to make the label a Tracked Variable. Each token then goes through a loop, where it waits, and then updates the value. This is meant to represent a much more complicated model, where the token travels through many activities, any of which could change its label value. For this example, the model randomly changes the value on the label. Now that we have a token and a label whose value is changing as the model runs, we can work on making a chart. We want to eventually make a Statistics Collector, but Statistics Collectors can only listen to events of objects that exist after the model has been reset. Tokens and FlowItems (along with their labels) are destroyed on reset, and so we can't listen directly to them. However, some Process Flow activities can listen to events on tokens and flowitems, and the Statistics Collector can listen to those events. For that reason, we make a second Process Flow: This flow has an Event-Triggered Source, which listens for tokens to leave the "Init Tracked Variable" activity in the first flow. When that happens, the source creates a token, and that token immediately gets a reference to the label node (note that this is different than the value of the label node). Next, the new token goes to a Start activity. The Start activity called "Log Change." This activity is just a placeholder. While you could technically live without this activity, it makes things a little clearer, as we will discuss later. Other than providing OnEntry and OnExit events, the Start activity has no internal logic whatsoever. After passing through the Log Change activity, the new token waits for the label value to change: In order to listen to this event, you can first sample a Tracked Variable in the Toolbox. This provides the OnChange event. Then you can update the Object field to the code shown above. Notice that every time this event happens, the token simply passes through the Log Change activity, and then resumes listening. When the original label value changes, it emits an OnChange event. When that event fires, the token listening to that even travels through the Log Change activity, which emits OnEntry and OnExit events. We can use these events in the Statistics Collector. The key to this technique is that we used Process Flow, which is good at listening to token and flowitem events, to generate Activity events, which can be used in the Statistics Collector. In the attached model, the first Statistics Collector is configured like this: It simply listens to the On Entry of the Log Change activity. The columns are defined as follows: The first two columns are simpler; the Time column uses the Model Date/Time option: The second column gets the ID of the token as an integer: The third column gets the current value of the Data label: Now that the Statistics Collector is set up, we can configure the chart to use this collector, and split by the Token ID. The process to record the label value every interval (rather than on every change) is very similar. The downside is that the data is less granular, but the upside is that a label doesn't have to be a Tracked Variable to be charted. The example model simply uses a Split activity to copy the data from the Event Triggered Source, and sends it to a similar listening loop: Instead of waiting for the value to change, the second token waits for a fixed time interval. A similar Statistics Collector will allow you to create the following chart: This approach works for every token created by the scheduled source. No matter how many tokens you create, each will show up on the chart:

The ideal way to access the User Manual is by viewing an electronic copy either online or inside the software. Online User Manual The User Manual is available online at docs.flexsim.com. There you can select a software version and manual language. We hope to provide additional languages in the future. In-software User Manual There are two ways to open the manual inside FlexSim: Click the User Manual button on the main toolbar. Click the Help menu and then click User Manual. Why the electronic manual is preferred The online / in-software version of the User Manual is better than a print or PDF version for many reasons, including: Regular updates - The electronic version keeps up with every new FlexSim release. A printed manual unfortunately goes out of date every four months with each new release of FlexSim. The online manual allows you to also view older versions of the manual. Animated GIFs - Animations enhance communication by making it possible to see FlexSim in real time. Animated GIFs won't work in a printed copy. Better search - The online version allows you to search the manual using Google. The in-software version also has a search program which is easier than trying to find relevant keywords within a large document. Styled and reflowable tables, images, and tip boxes - While these elements look good on the web, print or PDF versions don't always correctly format their placement within the document. Better organization - A printed manual won’t always maintain the same organization as the online and in-software manual, making it more difficult to navigate. Mini-table of contents - Each topic has easy navigation within each topic via inner-links. A printed or PDF mini-table of contents (found in most topics) can't function as a clickable index, making it difficult to easily skip to relevant sections within a topic. Printing topics from the User Manual While we don't recommend printing the entire manual, you can easily print individual topics for later reference. Print from the online manual Visit docs.flexsim.com using your favorite modern web browser. Use the table of contents in the left navigation bar to visit the topic you want to print. Use the printer button in the upper right of the topic window to print the page: Print from the in-software manual In FlexSim, open the User Manual and browse to the topic you'd like to print. Press the 'world' button to open the topic in your web browser. Choose the print function inside your web browser - depending on your browser, you may be able to right-click the web page and choose Print, or you can use the keyboard combo Ctrl+P.

Article space for Production Engineer Book including FlexSim Examples from Brasil Este material de apoio faz parte do Livro Administração de produção e operações, manufatura e serviços: uma abordagem estratégica, dos autores Henrique Correa e Carlos Correa, em sua 5º Edição. Para auxiliar o aprendizado, este livro conta com exemplos em vídeo e modelos de simulações de processos disponíveis em diversos capítulos. O acesso ao material é gratuito e pode ser acessado através dos links abaixo nas descrições de cada capítulo. Aqui você encontrará o conteúdo detalhado, referente aos arquivos dos modelos de simulação (*.fsm) e os links dos vídeos no YouTube. Dessa forma, o leitor poderá usufruir dos arquivos de simulação criados para facilitar e enriquecer o seu aprendizado. Capítulo 10 Projeto do Produto e Seleção de Processos (Bens e Serviços) Call Center download modelo clique para assistir o vídeo Restaurante download modelo clique para assistir o vídeo Clínica download modelo clique para assistir o vídeo Loja de conveniência download modelo clique para assistir o vídeo Segurança de um aeroporto download modelo clique para assistir o vídeo Terminal Rodoviário download modelo clique para assistir o vídeo Hospital clique para assistir o vídeo Estacionamento clique para assistir o vídeo Capítulo 13 Localização e Arranjo Físico de Unidades da Rede de Operações Layout Celular clique para assistir o vídeo Layout em Linha clique para assistir o vídeo Layout por Processos (em breve) Layout Posicional (em breve) Capítulo 14 Capacidade Produtiva e Filas em Unidades da Rede de Operações Teoria das Filas download modelo clique aqui para assistir o vídeo Capítulo 15 Teoria das Restrições em Redes de Operações TOC Princípios 1-9 download modelo princípio 1 download modelo princípio 2 download modelo princípio 3 download modelo princípios 4 e 5 download modelo princípio 6 download modelo princípio 7 download modelo princípio 8 download modelo princípio 9 clique para assistir o vídeo Sistema Drum-Buffer-Rope (Tambor-Pulmão-Corda) download modelo clique para assistir o vídeo Capítulo 17 Gestão de Estoques na Rede de Operações Simulação de Reposição Periódica / Contínua (em breve) Capítulo 19 Sequenciamento, Programação e Controle de Operações Sequenciamento de Produtos e Otimização download modelo clique para assistir o vídeo Job-Shop download modelo clique para assistir o vídeo Capítulo 20 Just in Time (JIT) e Operações Enxutas (Lean) Produção Puxada vs. Empurrada download modelo clique aqui para assistir o vídeo Cartão Kanban Assista o vídeo e veja na prática um exemplo de simulação do sistema kanban. download modelo clique aqui para assistir o vídeo Desperdícios do Sistema Toyota de Podução (Lean) download modelo clique aqui para assistir o vídeo Setup Assista o vídeo da simulação de um processo de troca de piso da quadra de uma arena multiuso, utilizada para partidas de hóquei e de basquete. clique aqui para assistir o vídeo Informações Adicionais Os modelos de simulações e os vídeos apresentados foram construídos com o Software FlexSim, plataforma digital, a qual possui uma versão gratuita, FlexSim Express, disponível para download através da URL https://www.flexsim.com/pt/ Vídeo passo a passo download e instalação do FlexSim Express Vídeo requisitos de sistema hardware para utilizar o FlexSim Express Contatos [email protected] / @Rodrigo Lamas / @Michael Machado

FlexSim 2018 Update 1 Beta is available. (updated 28 March 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 [email protected] or create a new idea in the Development space. Release Notes Added a Database Connector tool and Database FlexScript API. Updated the Emulation module and added it to the toolbox. Updated object triggers to be dynamically added and executed to improve performance and flexibility. Added an option to store StatisticsCollector bundle data on the hard drive. Added a global preference for date and time formats, which will default to the system's locale settings. Updated the stick() command to be able to get information about the VR headset by passing -1 for the stick number. Added a Box Plot chart type. Added a visual Walls object, which can be connected to A* as a member. Added an option to reverse rows on a gantt chart. Updated how the gantt chart handles colors. Added a time window option to several charts. Improved axis title options on several charts. Added a y-axis range option to the time plot. Output, system, and compiler consoles now wrap lines. Fixed a bug with using local variable "a" within FlexScript lambda commands, such as findmatch(). Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Removed FlowNode, Reservoir, WatchList, and other unused library class objects. Changed transportincomplete() to be more fail-safe so that it only affects the object when called correctly. Fixed an issue with the Rack sometimes receiving items out of order when the upstream object is using a transport. Process Flow Added a Variable shared asset. Updated the Event-Triggered Source and Wait for Event activities to be able to match values. People Added a Waiting Line object and a Wait in Line activity. AGV Fixed a bug with preempting an AGV during a pre-arrival event. Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Improved AGV proximity detection for stop-space-based accumulation. Fixed an issue with reversing direction on accumulating paths. A* Added a routing mode for traveling at right angles only. Added an option for stopping and turning when changing directions. Added an option for routing by travel time. Improved the usability of creating and editing barriers and dividers. Added an option for snapping dividers between grid points. Fixed some visual issues with various components. Fixed a bug with distancetotravel(). Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave. Improved the accuracy of the calculation of which grid points are affected by dividers. The mechanism for recovering from deadlock has been changed. The path costing system was slightly changed to allow for travel-time-based routing.

FlexSim 2024 is now available for download. You can view the Release Notes in the online user manual. FlexSim 24.0.0 Release Notes For more in-depth discussion of the new features, check out the official software release page: FlexSim 2024: Workspaces, Person Visuals, USD Support, and more If you have bug reports or other feedback on the software, please email [email protected] or create a new idea in the Bug Report space or Development space.

FlexSim 2025 is now available for download. You can view the Release Notes in the online user manual. FlexSim 25.0.0 Release Notes For more in-depth discussion of the new features, check out the official software release page: FlexSim 2025: Container Object, Task Sequence Queue, and more If you have bug reports or other feedback on the software, please create a new post in the Bug Report space or Development space.

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

Requirements FlexSim 25.0 or later (found in the downloads page) NVIDIA's Omniverse USD Composer Background Historically, users have used USD Stages in FlexSim to create a live connection with an Omniverse application to be able to simulate animations in Omniverse. However, this relies on a live connection between FlexSim and Omniverse. Sometimes this type of connection is sub-optimal for a user's situation. This article will explain a workflow for writing animation data to a USD file to play in an Omniverse application independent from FlexSim. Disclaimer All the data we record during this example is meant to help us write meaningful data into a .usd file so we can generate an animation in USD Composer. When I say "animation", I mean positional and rotational data along with showing/hiding flowitems. If you want to see Operator Skeletal Animations, I'll post a similar article with a few tweaks later to showcase how to do that using USD Composer's Sequencer, which uses Tracks and Asset Clips to handle small-scale skeletal animations. Example Model I've built a sample model demonstrating the changes to the USD API and how to use them. This example model is just one way to use the API -- there are other ways that users are free to explore. example_model.zip Explaining the Model When you open the model, you'll see a few different windowpanes. In the top-right corner, you'll see a Global Table. If you reset the model, you'll see column headings appear. Each column is a different piece of data we'll be writing to the USD Stage. Each row is a different entry of data to write. In the center views, you'll have a 3D view on the left side and a Process Flow (PF) on the right. At the bottom, there's a script window with a few lines of code. Those lines of code are User Commands I defined to summarize the functionality they encapsulate. The 3D View In the 3D view, you should see some queues, processors, operators, and conveyors. This is a simple workflow where items come into the queues, operators move them into the processors for processing, and then the operators send them down the conveyor lines. With this model, we'll demonstrate (1) operator movement and (2) flowitem movement on conveyors. Setting Up the USD Stage There should be a "USD Stage1" present in the model. If you click on the USD Stage, its properties will appear on the right-side of the screen. In it, you'll see a blank edit field. This is where you put the path to the USD file you want to work on have appear. If you want to save a fresh one, while the edit field is blank, click the "Save" icon next to it. Once you select where you want to place the file, name it, and close the file explorer popup, the edit field should populate with the full path to the .usd file. For more info, you can check out the docs page on the USD Stage object. Viewing the Model in USD Composer Once you've saved your USD Stage, you can open the .usd file in any software that can view .usd files. For this demonstration, we'll be using NVIDIA's Omniverse application which as a USD Composer module. The Process Flow Open up the Process Flow tab to view the simple setup. I'll walk through each part of the PF to give you an idea of how it works. Operator Movement This block of PF is in charge of recording information about Operator positions and rotations. It records information whenever an Operator starts and ends a task. You can expound on this concept and record information when specific triggers or events happen, but for this example I kept it simple and record when any task happens. User Command: RecordInfoToTable Within the "Record Info" Activity, it calls a User Command to record information to the table. This function simply takes a token as the first parameter. This is what the code looks like: Token token = param(1); // Setup row for this iteration Table animInfo = Table("AnimationInfo"); animInfo.addRow(); int curRow = animInfo.numRows; token.labels.assert("Row", 1).value = curRow; animInfo[curRow]["Object"] = token.operator; animInfo[curRow]["AnimTime"] = Model.time; animInfo[curRow]["TaskType"] = token.taskType; // Record positional and rotational data Object operator = token.operator.as(Object); animInfo[curRow]["PosX"] = operator.location.x; animInfo[curRow]["PosY"] = operator.location.y; animInfo[curRow]["PosZ"] = operator.location.z; double Z = Math.fmod(operator.rotation.z, 360); if (Z < 0) Z += 360; animInfo[curRow]["RotX"] = operator.rotation.x; animInfo[curRow]["RotY"] = operator.rotation.y; animInfo[curRow]["RotZ"] = Z; To summarize: Start by assigning the value of the token (parameter 1) to the local variable "token" We get a reference to the Global Table (AnimationInfo) and add a row for the data we're about to write Record (1) which operator this data is for, (2) what time this is happening, (3) and the type of task they're performing. The task type isn't as important - it's for finer details and debugging if necessary. Then we record the positional data of the operator. We previously saved the "operator" label onto the token, so we can use that and "cast" it to be an Object. We do this because the Object class has a "location" property which holds the x, y, z coordinates of the object. Lastly, we do the same thing with "rotation", except we need to bound the rotation to be a positive number between 0 and 360. To do this, we call Math.fmod() to get the reminder after dividing by 360. If the value is negative, we add 360 to get a positive value. Running the Model If you reset and run the model to the stop time at 200, you'll see the Global Table populate with data. There should be valid data for all the columns except the last 3. The "BoxNum", "EntryConveyor", and "Show" columns are for recording flowitem data. We'll discuss that later. Once you've got data in the table, we can run the User Commands in the script window at the bottom of the screen. They should be: ClearTimestampedData(); return WriteToUsd(); The first one "ClearTimestampedData()" is used to loop through the operators and clear all their time-sampled data. We do this so no old data is used if you change things in the FlexSim model and export new data. The second one "WriteToUsd()" is what reads the Global Table line by line, defines and finds prims, writes time-sampled data to them, and saves the information to the .usd file. View the Animation in USD Composer After running these scripts, you should get a prompt in USD Composer to "Fetch Changes". Fetch the changes. Then, open the Timeline feature (Window > Animation > Timeline). This opens an animation timeline at the bottom of the screen. You can save predefined start and end times for the whole stage using the Flexscript API if you choose. Otherwise, you can change the settings manually in USD Composer. (I've color-coded the image below to help explain the tool.) On the far-left (green circle) is the starting frame of the animation while the far-right (red circle) is the ending frame. The inner numbers allow you to set specific sections of the animation to play. If not set, it will play the whole animation. The top-right value and blue "scrubber" (blue circle and arrow) denote the current frame. When you hit your space-bar (or click the "Play" button), that scrubber should move. The value next to FPS (yellow circle) represents the "Frames per Second" the animation runs at. If you want it to play faster, then you can set it to a higher FPS. Note that this example model is built assuming 24 FPS. There is a User Command "TimeToFPS" that simply multiples the given Model time by a desired FPS, defaulting to 24 FPS. If you want to change that rate, you can set it in the code. Now that we've got the animation timeline setup, hit play and watch the animation. You may need to adjust the animation range to be 850 to 4800 so you can see the movements. Like I mentioned in the Disclaimer, if you want to see skeletal animations in the Operator, I'll have another article explaining how to add that functionality. Add Flowitem Movement on the Conveyor Let's go back to FlexSim and check out the Process Flow again. I have two other containers labeled "Box Movement: Time-based" and "Box Movement: DPs". These flows represent two different ways to record this data: either based on a time interval or based on Decision Point positions. The time-based way can be more accurate, but it adds much more time-sample data than the DP version. Choose one of the versions to test out, open the properties of their Source, and then Enable it. If you reset and run the model, you'll start seeing entries for Flowitems. They'll utilize the last 3 columns of the Global Table to keep track of (1) the Box# they are, (2) the Conveyor they entered on, and (3) whether or not to "show" their prim. Click here to learn more about prim visibility. Run the scripts to export and save the model. Then, fetch and view the changes in USD Composer. Conclusion We've covered how to use some of the new features of the USD API in FlexSim 25.0 to create stand-alone animations in .usd files. We used FlexSim to record and export data to .usd files to then display in USD Composer. You can now play a standalone animation in USD Composer without a live connection to FlexSim.

Intersection with traffic lights in an AGV network This model aims to showcase how allocations of control areas can be manually controlled to achieve more complex logic than the default “first come first serve” implementation. It depicts a four-way road intersection with arriving cars being able to continue in any of the three other directions. Cars driving straight on or turning right use the right lane, cars turning left use the left lane and must give way to oncoming traffic. Traffic lights manage which cars are allowed to enter the intersection at any given time. AGV network and general concept In order to understand the logic behind it, let’s first look at how the AGV network is setup. In the screenshot below we deactivated the visualization of the roads to show the paths and areas more clearly. For each of the four directions there are two incoming paths and one outgoing path. Control points (red) are placed on the incoming paths at the points where cars must stop (based on object center) when the light is red. A single, large control area that control the entry is placed such that is encompasses the entire intersection. Within this control area, an additional control point is placed on each of the left turning paths (orange). This is the location where left turning vehicles must wait for the oncoming lane to be clear. To enforce this the four smaller, rectangular control areas are used. The lane turning left and both the straight and right turning lane coming from the other direction pass through one of these areas. We will later explain how the straight and right turning cars are given priority to allocate these areas, resulting in cars wanting to turn left having to wait until no other allocation requests are present. As all paths are one-way and the geometry is pretty simple, all things considered, the distance between cars is handled by an accumulation behaviour set on the paths. The logic controlling the vehicles is very simple. If we zoom out, we can see that cars leaving the intersection in any direction eventually just turn around and return. At the turning points control points are placed that serve as the travel destination for the cars. A Process Flow with one token per car randomly chooses the next destination when the previous travel task is finished and sends the car there. The cars will automatically use the correct lanes, since those are the shortest paths to reach their destination. For the intersection logic each combination of origin and destination (meaning every possible way of crossing the intersection) is represented as a number. These numbers are stored as global macros for ease of use. The letters represent the four cardinal directions (north, west, south, east). For example, using the intersection to travel from east to west would be represented by the ‘mode’ number 4. At the same time as a new destination is chosen for the car, the respective mode number is also written to a label on the car. In the logic that controls entries into the intersection, these modes are used to identify which vehicles are allowed to enter. Powers of two are used, so the numbers can simply be added together to get a single number that encodes which lights are green. The light phases are defined in a global table. One of the simplest sensible configurations is shown below. At first, all lights are red (no entries in the “Green” columns) for 5 seconds. Then all cars coming from the west and east directions receive a green light for 20 seconds. This is followed by another 5s of all red lights and finally the other directions are allowed to move on. The table is then repeated from the top. The phase in line two would be represented as mode 1365 (1 + 4 + 16 + 64 + 256 + 1024). This becomes a lot more obvious when the mode is written in binary: 0000 0101 0101 0101 Each bit represents one of the possible directions. Allocation logic explained The control area is set to allow 0 concurrent allocations. Meaning for a request to actually result in an allocation, we need to override the return value of the “On Request” event of the control area. This happens in the control logic for the intersection that is implemented as an Object Process Flow linked to the control area. An Event-Triggered Source reacts to the On Request event and writes a reference to the “Allocator” (meaning the car/AGV) to a label on the token. Note that the “Will Override Return Value” box is checked. The token then enters a Finish activity in whose “Return Value” field the current traffic mode of the control area is compared to the mode of the requesting car. The “&” is the bitwise-and-operator. It goes through both numbers bit by bit. If the bit at a given position is 1 in both numbers, it will also be 1 in the returned value, 0 otherwise. If the mode of the car is part of the current traffic mode (which is a sum of such modes) the result will be the mode. This non-zero number is interpreted as “true” in the if-condition and the return value of the code is to allow the request to go through. Otherwise, the request is blocked. (The “Allow” and “Block” properties return 1 and -1, respectively.) The second part of the Process Flow is a loop with a single token that reads the next traffic mode from the global table. It then ‘announces’ which phase the intersection will enter next, so that the draw logic of the traffic light objects can start the process of switching from red to green or vice versa if needed. After a delay, in which those lights would show yellow, the current phase of the control area is updated. The same code that updates the label then also searches for cars that are now allowed to enter the intersection among the pending allocation requests. Since, as far as I could tell, there is currently no direct method to refire an allocation request, those cars receive a pre-empting task sequence that uses a break task to immediately return to the previously active sequence. The restart of their travel task then causes them to try to allocate the control area again. After waiting the duration assigned to the current traffic phase, the token once more updates the mode of the intersection to an ‘intermediate’ mode. This mode is the result of another bit-wise comparison of the current and the next mode. This allows lights that need to change to red to do so, while lights that stay green remain unchanged. Once the next phase is activated, additional lights might then become green. If the next phase doesn’t have any green lights, all lights will already be red in the intermediate mode, meaning the Process Flow block that updates the mode can be skipped and the token instead just waits out the duration in the “All Red Duration” Delay activity. The logic that makes left turning vehicles give way to oncoming traffic works in a similar way. It is also implemented as an Object Process Flow, linked to the four smaller control areas within the intersection. These areas allow a single allocation by default and also have a “Mode” label. But it’s not set based on a timer and otherwise static. Instead, these areas start in mode 0 and if a request is made while the area is empty, the allocation is always allowed, and the mode is set to match that of the allocator. When another request is made, the areas mode is compared with that of the new requesting car. If they match, the request can potentially be granted. First however, the code searches other pending requests for a mode with a higher priority than that of the current request. (The mode numbers are assigned in the order straight < right turn < left turn, so they can also be used as a priority value, where lower is better.) If such a request is found, the current one is blocked, to allow for the area to empty. At that point, a token created by a source listening to the “On Deallocated” event of the control area will reset the mode of the area to 0 and sort any pending requests by priority, before those get re-evaluated. In summary, this logic allows an arbitrary number of cars with the same mode to enter the area. As soon as a higher priority request that can’t immediately enter is created, other requests are blocked; they must ‘give way’. Visualization and parameters The traffic lights are BasicFR objects that draw colored circles as lights in their On Draw trigger, depending on a label. That label is updated in the On Message trigger whenever the intersection changes its phase. The roads are drawn along the AGV paths in the On Draw code of a dummy object placed to the side of the intersection. How wide and in what interval the white lines are drawn is determined by Array labels on the paths containing all necessary parameters. The model comes with five parameters: The first controls which table is used to determine the traffic light phases, the second and third set the time it takes a light to switch from red to green and green to red. The fourth sets the number of cars and the final one switches the visualization of the left turn lights to arrows. agv-traffic-mode-intersection.fsm

The instructions below are for Internet-connected license servers.   If your server cannot connect to the Internet or to FlexSim's main license server, try our offline/Manual XML license return instructions.   Assumed configurations   All steps below assume that you followed the installation instructions as described in our license server installation instructions, and that all FlexSim's license server files were extracted to the location C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS. Throughout these instructions we will reference files inside that folder.   Find your fulfillment ID   On your license server, run the flexsimserveractutil.exe program (C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS\flexsimserveractutil\flexsimserveractutil.exe) by right-clicking and selecting Run as Administrator.     In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, go to Tools > View License Rights.     Copy the Fulfillment ID for the Activation ID you are upgrading by highlighting the Fulfillment ID and pressing Ctrl+C.     Attempt online return   When your license server returns a license over the the Internet, flexsimserveractutil.exe will communicate with the following FlexSim servers via HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443):   www.flexsim.com sw.flexsim.com sw1.flexsim.com license.flexsim.com   In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, select Connect > Return.     Paste the Fulfillment ID into the field using Ctrl+V, and press the Return button.     After a few seconds and several status messages, you should receive an indication of success.     If you have any questions or problems, please search our Answers Community for possible solutions. There is a good chance someone else has already asked your question. Still not finding what you're looking for? Submit a new question and we'll check it out. If you're including any confidential information, such as license codes, be sure to mark your question as private! You can also contact your local FlexSim distributor for live phone, web, or email help.

One of the new features in FlexSim 2018 Update 2 is the ability to use distributed CPUs for the Experimenter or Optimizer. Those cores can exist on any machine that meets the following requirements: The machine is accessible by IPv4 address The machine has FlexSim installed The machine is running the FlexSim Webserver (version 18.2.0 or later) on port 80 The machine meets hardware requirements to support running the specified number of simultaneous replications. This article describes how to use Amazon Web Services to create remote machines that meet the above requirements. Using AWS, you can launch and connect to as many servers as you want, and pay only for the time used on those instances. Anticipated Use Case Using distributed CPUs can significantly reduce the required time to run an experiment if: The time to run a single replication is high (a couple minutes or more) The number of replications to run is high If the time per replication is short, then the increased communication overhead may outweigh the benefit of using distributed CPUs. The communication overhead increases because all CPUs still report results to a single FlexSim process, and that communication occurs over the internet, rather than on a single machine. If an Experiment or Optimization completes in an acceptable amount of time, you may not need to use distributed CPUs. Financial Costs Amazon charges for its services. Costs for running instances (and transferring data out of them) are found here : https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/ Costs for storing data (including AMIs) are found here: https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing/ These instructions include steps to create an AMI, which will likely cost around $1 per month at current rates. It also includes steps for launching high-performance instances, which have an hourly cost. Suitable instances can be as cheap as $0.50 per hour. Note that there are also charges for transferring data from an instance to another computer. Step 0: Complete an EC2 Tutorial If you are not already familiar with EC2 instances, you should complete the following tutorial: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/EC2_GetStarted.html Step 1: Create a Security Group You will need to create a security group with the following rules: Allow HTTP traffic on port 80. This allows incoming connections to the FlexSim Webserver. You can choose which inbound IP addresses to accept. You should make this as strict as possible. The strictest setting is to only allow incoming connections from the current IP address. Allow TCP traffic on ports 9000-9200. This is a Custom TCP rule. Note that you can make this range smaller, if all machines that use this Security Group have fewer than 200 cores. For example, if the biggest machine launched with this Security group has 72 cores, you would only need ports 9000-9072 in this rule. Allow RDP traffic on the default RDP port. This allows you to connect to the instance using remote desktop. Name the Security Group something that shows that this group is related to running FlexSim instances, and add a description if you want. Here is an example Security Group that works, but allows all TCP traffic, and so should only be used for testing purposes: Step 2: Create a Custom Amazon Machine Image (AMI) You will need to create a custom AMI. A custom AMI allows you to launch an instance that has the software you need already installed. To create one, follow these steps: Download the FlexSim installer and the Webserver installer. If your upload speed is slow, you can skip this step. Launch the cheapest instance available, with the Windows 2016 Server Base image. There are probably free-tier instances available in the list Connect to that Instance with Remote Desktop Copy (or download, if upload speed is slow) the FlexSim installer to the remote machine, and run it to install FlexSim. You do NOT need to activate a license. Run FlexSim. This creates a directory that is needed later. Then close FlexSim. Copy (or download, if your upload speed is slow) the Webserver installer to the remote machine, and run it to install the webserver. If using the 2018 Update 2 Beta, be sure to change the Webserver configuration file accordingly. Run the Webserver. It will download a bunch of files the first time it is run. Allow both FlexSim and node.js through the Windows Firewall. To do so, use the Allow an App through the Windows Firewall tool. You will need to browse for both FlexSim and Node.js. Both are in the ProgramFiles directory. Disconnect the Remote Desktop session Go to the list of Instances in the AWS Console From the Actions menu, select Image, then select Create Image: Add a name and description. Click the Create Image button On the next dialog, click the View Pending link, or navigate to the list of AMIs: Once the image becomes Available, terminate the running instance. Step 3: Launching Usable Instances Before running an Experiment or Optimization, you need to be sure that all remote instances you will use are current running. To launch and initialize these instances, follow these steps: In the EC2 Console, choose Launch Instance Select the AMI you created, from the list of My AMIs Choose the Instance Type and quantity Set the Security Group to use the Security Group you created Launch the instance Once each instance is initialized, connect to each one with Remote Desktop. Note that when you launch an instance with a given Key File, the password for each instance will be the password associated with that Key File, so you only need to decrypt the file once. Start the FlexSim Webserver in each instance Once all instances are running the Webserver, you are ready to run an Experiment or Optimization. Author's Note: There is probably a way to make it so that when instances start up, they automatically run the Webserver, so that you don't have to manually connect to each one. I welcome any suggestions or steps for how to make that happen. Step 4: Using the Instances in FlexSim Once you have a list of running instances available, you just need to input their IP Addresses into FlexSim, on the Advanced tab of the Experimenter: Once you have input this information, you just need to click the Experiment or Optimize button. FlexSim will then use the remote CPUs for running replications. Considerations Spot Pricing Amazon offers two pricing models: On Demand and Spot Pricing. FlexSim recommends On Demand instances. Spot instances can be significantly cheaper, but they can also be shut down by Amazon and given to an On Demand user at any time, if On Demand requests exceed the number of available machines. FlexSim does not try to recover from this kind of error, and it may lead to unexpected behavior. CPU Count, RAM, and Disk Space When you pick an instance type, be sure to understand how much ram you will need. If a model requires 4 GB of RAM while running, and you use an instance with 128 cores, be sure that the instance has at least 512 GB of RAM, or don't use all 128 cores. Disk space is usually not an issue. However, if you are using the Store Data on Hard Drive option in the Statistics Collector, you will need to be sure that there is enough disk space to run the model to completion on the hard drive, multiplied by the number of cores. The amount of disk space on each instance also affects the total cost of using this service.

This small model shows how to batch various parts together to form 'valid' combinations as they become available. This differs from a regular combiner where the component quantities are set in advance of the components being accepted in the combiner (often based on the type of item on port 1 entry). The valid combinations are shown as the quantities required for a number of products in a global table "ProductPartQuantitiesGrid": By referencing the first picture and this table, you may be able to see that the model first constructs 4x Product2 followed by one product1 and a Product3. In the background process we are creating a token for each product which is then trying to pull all the parts needed while competing with the other products. This part of the process could be constrained in some way, for example where there is a target for the number of each product to produce over a time period. So these tokens are being created in the Object Process Flow of the object we're calling OpportunityCombiner at time zero based on the table shown above: Instead of the normal array generation this model creates a table label of the required parts for a product and stores it on the token. For Product1 that looks like this: Tables aren't quite fully supported as labels yet so the syntax is a little odd when using them - in this case we do it like this: Table(token.partsTable)[1]["Part"]  // evaluates to 'F' Setting the labels up so that syntax works is a bit more complex. Note that the partsTable label is actually a pointer to the data table label on the token - called partsTableData. To get the view shown above you need to right click on the label partsTabelData and select "Explore As Table". Hopefully in the future this may be more streamlined if more people start using labels as tables. The grid table doesn't play nice with sql, so another table creates itself at reset with a structure that is sql friendly: That means the label table can be created with this query: SELECT Part,Quantity FROM ProductPartQuantities WHERE Product=$1.product What remains for the product token just involves getting the parts (a subflow) and them moving the array of all items to the combiner (a queue in the example); stacking them together and releasing to the conveyor before looping back to try and produce another. Below you see the main flow with four tokens - one for each product defined in the grid. The subflow to get parts reads the token's table of parts for its product, and tries to get the correct quantities for each. This is similar to @Jordan Johnson 's solution for pulling from multiple lists, but is instead considering the table of parts from one list rather than arrays of resource lists and quantities. The key aspects of this flow are that 1. the first loop in the check section leaves the parts on the list, while the 'commit' section removes them 2. we exit the check loop by using the pull timeout when we fail to pull the required quantity of a part type 3. those that fail listen for pushes to the parts list 4. success full product pulls insert the items pulled to the tokens label 'allItems' for later use. Attached is the model. It should be relatively simple to transfer the process and tables to another model. OpportunisticCombiner.fsm

The instructions below are for Internet-connected license servers.   If your server cannot connect to the Internet or to FlexSim's main license server, try our offline/Manual XML license activation instructions.   Getting ready   If you're configuring a new license server, please stop now and follow the complete license server installation instructions.   This shorter guide just focuses on one piece of the installation instructions: license activation. We've broken the activation step out into this standalone article for convenience in subsequent licensing procedures, like upgrading your license server.   These instructions assume that:   you followed the steps outlined in our license server installation instructions including download of all required files and installation of the FlexNet Licensing Service; FlexSim's license server files were extracted to the location C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS.   Online vs XML/offline licensing   Online activation is faster and easier, so if your license server connects to the Internet, follow the instructions below to activate your seats to your server. If your server is not connected to the Internet, or communication with FlexSim's servers is blocked, you can try the offline/XML activation method.   Endpoints, protocols, firewalls   When your license server activates a license over the the Internet the FlexSim server activation utility communicates with one or more of the following FlexSim servers via HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443):   www.flexsim.com sw.flexsim.com sw1.flexsim.com license.flexsim.com   Your license server should be able to communicate across the Internet with these addresses in order to successfully activate your licenses online.   Activate your license   On your license server, run the flexsimserveractutil.exe program (C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS\flexsimserveractutil\flexsimserveractutil.exe) by right-clicking and selecting Run as Administrator.     In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, go to Connect > Activate.     Enter the Activation ID and Count (seat quantity) for your license.   NOTE: If you have a 20-seat license but want to host 12 seats on this server and 8 seats somewhere else, you can do so. Simply enter 12 for the Count value.   Press Activate.   After a few seconds, and several status messages, you should receive an indication of success.     Repeat the steps above to activate any other license codes you are hosting on this license server.   Reread license files   If this license activation follows a license return, either as part of upgrading the license on your license server or some other procedure, don't forget to reread license files.   If you have any questions or problems, please search our Answers Community for possible solutions. There is a good chance someone else has already asked your question. Still not finding what you're looking for? Submit a new question and we'll check it out. If you're including any confidential information, such as license codes, be sure to mark your question as private! You can also contact your local FlexSim distributor for live phone, web, or email help.

FlexSim 2025 Update 1 is now available for download. You can view the Release Notes in the online user manual. FlexSim 25.1.0 Release Notes For more in-depth discussion of the new features, check out the official software release page: FlexSim 2025 Update 1: Change Object Class, Exports, AGVs, Timed Travel, and more If you have bug reports or other feedback on the software, please create a new post in the Bug Report space or Development space.

Trusted Storage   FlexSim is licensed using FlexNet's Trusted Storage. Trusted Storage is a secure storage area FlexNet creates on your license server where it keeps encrypted and hashed license information for licensing FlexSim. Before you can activate a FlexSim license to your license server, its Trusted Storage must be configured. This is done by your license server authenticating with FlexSim's main license server.   Below we'll cover configuring Trusted Storage on your license server. If you're here looking for instructions for standalone licensing, check out the article Standalone - Configure Trusted Storage.   I haven't configured Trusted Storage before - why now?   When your license server communicates over the Internet with FlexSim, this initial Trusted Storage configuration happens automatically and invisibly during the course of the license server's first license activation. The first time you activate a FlexSim license to your license server, your license server and FlexSim's main license server authenticate with each other, configuring your local Trusted Storage, and then immediately activating the requested license.   In other words:   Internet-connected activation = automatic and transparent Trusted Storage configuration.   But you're here because your license server can't communicate over the Internet with FlexSim's main license server. Consequently, your Trusted Storage configuration must be completed manually before activating any license.   Create a Trusted Storage config request   On your license server, in your extracted download folder of FlexSim license server materials, navigate into the folder flexsimserveractutil. Right-click flexsimserveractutil.exe and select Run as administrator. In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, go to Tools > Manual Activation > Generate Request. Enter a valid Activation ID. You can use our special activation ID configure-ts, but any valid activation ID can work. Enter 1 for the Count (seat quantity). Click Browse to select an Output File. Choose a filename for the saved request. We used configure-ts.xml. Press Save. Press Generate. You've just saved a new XML activation request in the location you selected. You can confirm this is a Trusted Storage config request by viewing the saved XML file in a text editor like Notepad. A configuration request will lack the TrustedHostInformation tag. If your configure.xml file contains that tag, that means your Trusted Storage is already configured. In that case, you can move on to the offline license activation steps for your license server. Otherwise, continue configuring your Trusted Storage below.   Submit your Trusted Storage configuration request   Transfer your Trusted Storage config request XML file from your chosen save location to a computer with Internet access. From your Internet-connected computer, open a web browser and login to any FlexSim Account - even a new guest account will work. Click the Licenses link in the header, then choose Manual XML in the Licenses submenu. Upload your XML request file by dragging it onto the drop zone. Your uploaded XML request will be processed. Upon completion, you will be prompted to download the XML response.   Did you get a red error message instead of a green success indicator?     A message "Fulfill count exceeded the available seat count" means that Trusted Storage is already configured on your license server. In that case, move on to the offline license activation steps for your license server. Otherwise, continue below to finish configuring your Trusted Storage.   Process your manual activation responses   Transfer your downloaded XML activation response to your offline license server. In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, go to Tools > Manual Activation > Process Response. Browse to an XML activation response file. Press Process. FlexSim should give you an indication of successful processing of your config request.   At this point your Trusted Storage should be fully configured. You are ready to activate your licenses.

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 2026 is now available for download.   You can view the Release Notes in the online user manual.   FlexSim 26.0.0 Release Notes   If you have bug reports or other feedback on the software, please create a new post in FlexSim Forums.

Attached is an example model and user library comprising commands to return an array of objects whose bounding boxes intersect, and a Collision Detection object to drop into your model. The Collision Detection has a ticker interval label to adjust the frequency of checks and will switch the colliding objects to selected. It looks for two groups - "Obstacles" containing static objects in the scene (which may be overlapping and not recorded as collisions) and "Colliders" which are the objects navigating the scene and should be checked for intersecting bounding boxes. In the example model I'm adding the flowitem when it is created using Group("Colliders").addMember(item) The detector code is on its FlexScript label, 'analyseScene', which is first scheduled to run by the object's reset trigger. collisionDetection3.fsm BBCollisionDetection2.fsl

This model shows a simple way of bringing together all the separate picks in an order to be consolidated in a putwall. It also shows a great way of tracking flowitems while on a conveyor through the use of tracked variable labels. A side concept is that the order reserves a slot in a rack for all of the picks. Conveyor-Routing-Order-Consolidation.fsm