FlexSim Knowledge Base
Announcements, articles, and guides to help you take your simulations to the next level.
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A number of questions on the forum involve racks being service by a combination of shuttles and elevators. There are solutions involving network, Astar and AGV navigators, but for this example we’re just going to use TaskExecuter FlowItems and conveyors. The elevator system in particular, as described to me, seemed it would benefit from the flexibility conveyors offer – particularly spacing options, and the possibility of having dog/power-and-free based travel. For the pick face we can just use the slot and item locations to give the task executers travel command, and we can use kinematics for loading and unloading tasks. This removes the need for network nodes or control points at each location and allows fine positioning of a ‘two spot’ shuttle in front of the slot. The system has been put into a container to represent the cell/aisle and it is this object that is the instance member of the ShuttleSystemProcess process flow. The cell is designed to be duplicated with each cell becoming a new member instance of the single process flow. It comprises two racks, two elevators (conveyor loops), and a shuttle return queue (also a conveyor but with no roller visual). The system assumes that by the time an inbound item arrives at the pickup position it has been assigned a slot in one of the racks in the cell – so you should assign a slot in the normal way before it reaches a shuttle. You can additionally request items for picking out of the racks by pushing the item to the global list ItemsToPick. Currently each shuttle will store and/or pick one item in one trip with a dedicated position for each. When doing both in a single trip, the order in which this happens will depend where along the level the slots are located. In the event that there are no remaining tasks but items still need to exit the cell, the shuttles at the front of the queue will be asked to circulate empty through the system, thereby allowing the outbound items to advance to the exit position. The number of shuttles in the system is a process flow variable. In the example system there are elevators at each end of the rack(s) with a number of carriers to transport shuttles to the levels. Both elevators have a process flow variable for the number of carriers to be generated. Shuttles are not allowed to pick from the same level at the same time but in order to keep the up-elevator moving the carriers can unload the shuttle to the level even if another is active on that level. The shuttles only travel along the face of the rack in one direction towards the down-elevator and once are collected by a carrier the next shuttle on that level can start its operations. It is possible to run the system with only one rack should you wish to view the operations without the second rack obscuring your view. Since different applications will use different rack dimensions the cell has a label method called “configureToRack” which will align the conveyors and decision points to Rack1 based on the level heights and size of the racks that the user has set for Rack1. There may be some limits to very small sizes when the conveyor decision points overlap. The second rack will be configured during this method call to mirror Rack1. Here’s an example invocation of this method for an instance of the cell: Model.find("RackShuttleSystem").as(Object).configureToRack The shuttles need levels to be the same height along the length of the rack. Some effort was made to configure the system based on the shuttle and carrier sizes, so you can try adjusting those to suit your needs and hopefully the alignment will work as needed. The elevator conveyor and shuttle speeds are not set by the alignment method so you can edit those in the usual way. This is an example for both learning and perhaps as a starting point for any project should you find the approach suits your application, modelling style and skills. ShuttleLiftAndRack.fsm Time taken: 1 day to build the working model - plus another to work around holes api for auto-alignment code. 17Nov Updated: to initalize shuttles at the load point (via fast entry) added shuttleQheight label for use to set the returnQ height in the cell (used by the alignment method) added a process flow variable 'shuttleLoadTime' for the time to un/load items. aligned shuttle kinematics to the speed and acceleration of the TE FlowItem.
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Visually represent the number of times any AGV enters a segment of the AGV path
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Playing Multiplayer Tag in FlexSim! TagServer.fsm TagClient.fsm This is a side project to show off some fun things FlexSim can do using sockets. Sockets are just one possible way that one instance of FlexSim can communicate with another. In its simplest sense, a socket is just a port number and an IP address that computers use to send information to each other. For example, whenever a computer visits a website, it uses sockets to create a connection to the webserver's IP address on port 80 (HTTP) or port 443 (HTTPS). All of this occurs within the framework of the TCP/IP network. Similarly, FlexSim can establish socket connections to communicate with another FlexSim as long as you know the IP address and choose a port for both instances to connect on. Establish Socket Connection In this game of tag, the model that acts as the server uses these commands to set up socket connection with the client: socketinit(); servercreatemain(8002); serveraccept(0); Note: All of the commands in this article can be found in the documentation The client then runs the following to connect to the server. The HostIP should be the IP address of the device running the server model (or 127.0.0.1 if running both client and server on the same machine). socketinit(); int a = clientcreate(); int a_con = clientconnect(a, HostIP, 8002); On both the client model and server model, these commands are in the OnRunStart trigger and the server creates 5 socket connections for each player. 4 for inputs (up, down, left, right) and 1 for passing in their player name from the client. The server model will freeze and wait for all sockets to be set up. For example, if there are 3 players, the server model will wait until 3 clients have successfully ran the client model and connected. After all clients have connected to the server, we can use clientsend() and serverreceive() to send information from client to server. An example of this is sending movement inputs from client to server. This is what that looks like: Client // MOVE if (iskeydown(87)){ clientsend(2, "up"); } if (iskeydown(83)){ clientsend(3, "down"); } if (iskeydown(65)){ clientsend(4, "left"); } if (iskeydown(68)){ clientsend(5, "right"); } Server string up1 = serverreceive(token.Rank * 5 - 3, NULL, 100, 1); string down1 = serverreceive(token.Rank * 5 - 2, NULL, 100, 1); string left1 = serverreceive(token.Rank * 5 - 1, NULL, 100, 1); string right1 = serverreceive(token.Rank * 5, NULL, 100, 1); // token.Rank is the number of the player (1,2,3 etc.) and is used to reference the right // socket for each player's inputs //reset coordinates te.X = 0; te.Y = 0; te.Stop = 0; if (up1 != ""){ // up W meaning the server received an input on this socket te.Y = 1; // this accounts for getting multiple messages from client like "upupup" } if (down1 != ""){ // down S te.Y = -1; // this label is later used in a travel activity } if (left1 != ""){ // left A te.X = -1; } if (right1 != ""){ // right D te.X = 1; } Note: In a typical game environment, the server is also sending information back to the clients, but in this example, all visuals and logic occur on the server. Game Logic All game logic is found on the server process flow. Setup and Order of Models To play Tag, follow these steps: Note: If there are certain firewalls or security groups on your network that doesn't allow traffic into FlexSim outside local networks you may be limited on who can connect to play tag 1. Open TagServer model and change NumPlayers parameter to the desired number of players 2. Open TagClient model and change both global variables (HostIP and EnterNameHere). Again, if everything is running on the same device, use 127.0.0.1 as the HostIP global variable value. 3. Reset and Run the TagServer model first 4. Reset and Run the TagClient model. You should get this output if connection was successful 5. Run clients one at a time for each player until all players have connected and the server will run automatically. This is the output on the server upon successful connection 6. Enjoy!
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This article lists off application models of Material Handling: Material Handling Systems, Logistics & Supply Chain
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This article lists off application models of Process & Utility Examples: Visualization, Utility and Specialized Tools, Process Flow Logic.
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FlexSim 2025 Update 2 Beta is now available.   FlexSim 25.2.0 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. 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 create a new post in FlexSim Forums.
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So you were trying to record a video and the Video Recorder crashed. Here is a step by step guide on how to debug the video recorder: Step 1: Is there a stop time in your model? In some older versions of FlexSim (2022 and older), if there is a stop time in your model that occurs during the model recording time, the video recorder will stop indefinitely at that time. Try removing any stop times that occur during the recording. Step 2: Are your graphics drivers up to date? (!!!!!!!!) This is the most common problem we see as to why the video recorder is not working. To start debugging this issue, check what graphics card FlexSim is using. If you open a model then go to Help->About FlexSim from the top toolbar, you will open this screen: The highlighted text that starts with OpenGL tell you what graphics card FlexSim is using. Now you might need to do a little research to find what graphic driver that card is using and then update it, but we've found in most cases updating the graphics card driver fixes video recorder issues. There's an article here the explains more on how to update your graphics driver (it's a very helpful read that also deals with some special cases on certain graphics cards). Make sure you're downloading either directly from the makers website or for your specific computer type, your computer will not be able to tell you if they're out of date. Step 3: Can you record a simpler video? If you make a very simple model (Source -> Queue -> Processor -> Sink), can you record it without issue? If you can then at least you know your video recorder can work, it is just having a issue with running a bigger model. If this is the case you might be running out of VRAM or the bigger model is taking so long to run that an outside manager is forcing it to close. If that is the case, here are some things to try: Update your graphics drivers (this is always the biggest issue). Revert your graphics card settings back to their defaults (for example, in the Nvidia Control Panel). For the next two suggestions go to the toolbar and click File -> Global Preferences -> Graphics Turn off Shadows and/or record a smaller resolution video to see if that helps. If it does, then the issue is likely that FlexSim is trying to use more VRAM than your graphics card supports. Make sure you are using the Recommended OpenGL Context and not the Generic (No GPU acceleration) or Core Profile contexts Step 4: Did your model crash previously while recording a video? There may be some corrupted data stuck in your recorder. It's an easy fix, you just need to delete your video recorder from toolbox and then re-add it: Step 5: Are you using a much older version of FlexSim? In a few of the older versions (2019.1 and older), temporary nodes from previous recordings caused the Video Recorder object to crash. To fix it all you need to do is clear the nodes Open your model, execute the following script, and then re-save your model: Model.find("Tools/VideoRecorder>variables/active").subnodes.clear(); Step 6: None of the previous steps worked, what now? If none of the above steps worked you can create and check debug log files, check the filepath, check various computer settings, and see the VRAM allocations to start solving the problem. Check the filepath FlexSim is putting the video from the video recorder into, if it is trying to put it in a strange place that can cause issues. FlexSim uses ffmeg to encode the captured frames into a video file, which leaves an ffmpeg_log.txt file in the directory where the video was created. That file might have something in it that might explain what is happening. You can create fslogfile.txt and exfslogfile.txt files in your FlexSim 20XX Projects directory that FlexSim can write debugging information into. Sometimes you might be able to get exception information in those files in certain cases: Check your settings in Windows or Group Policy or other IT software. It's possible something on your machine separate from FlexSim is noticing that the FlexSim process is taking a long time to respond and then killing its process because it thinks it is hanging. Try clicking the Record button and then not clicking any more anywhere on your machine until the recording is done. Or try recording a shorter timeframe to see if that helps. In Windows' Task Manager, you can add the Dedicated GPU memory column on the Details tab to see how much VRAM FlexSim is using. If FlexSim tries to use more memory than your graphics card supports (or if the total usage of FlexSim and all the other programs currently running exceed your hardware's limit), then FlexSim will likely crash the next time it tries to allocate and use any graphics objects stored in GPU VRAM (such as output buffers used by the Video Recorder, textures, 3D meshes, etc.). You can use Window's "dxdiag" tool to see how much VRAM your graphics card has: If you tried all of these suggestions and nothing worked, feel free to ask a question on the Q&A board and we can work to see if we can find a different solution for you!
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FlexSim 2025 Update 1 Beta is now available. FlexSim 25.1.0 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. 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 create a new post in the Bug Report space or Development space.
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Last year a teacher asked me how to simulate public bus transportation, so I created a small sample model of a bus line in Nantes (France). Although all input and output data in the model are labeled in French, I thought that it could be nice to share it here with the worldwide community as 3D visualization is a universal language. Here is the model updated for FlexSim 2023: public_bus_23_0.fsm To set the travel times between the bus stops, and the stop times, I used the bus timetable that was available online in this document: Depliant-L-95-Web-2e.pdf You can check in the simulation if your bus arrives on time: Among the parameters, you can set how many buses are available at each terminus at the beginning. Be careful, if you don't have enough buses, you will not be able to stick to the timetable ! The road is built with network nodes. A checkbox allows you to show/hide the map. A listbox allows you to switch between the 3 network view modes (all details shown / edges only / hide all network).
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This article demonstrates how to use the Statistics Collector and Calculated Tables to create three utilization pie charts: a state pie chart an individual utilization pie chart a group utilization pie chart Example Model You can download that model (utilizationdemo.fsm) to see the working demonstration. The model has a Source, a Processor, a Sink, a Dispatcher, and several operators. The operators carry flow items to and from the processor, as well as operate the processor. The operators are in a group called Operators. State Pie Chart First, we need to make a Statistics Collector that collects state data for the operators. The easiest way to do that is to use the pin button to pin the State statistic for any object in the model. Use the pin button to pin a pie chart to a new dashboard. The pin button creates a new Statistics Collector, as well as a new chart. Open the properties for new Statistics Collector (double click on it in the toolbox), and change its name to OperatorStatePie. On the Data Recording tab, remove the object from the Enumerated Rows table. Using the sampler, add the Operators group (you can sample it in the toolbox). Now, when you reset and run the model, the state chart should work. Utilization Pie Chart Often, users need to combine sever states into a single value that can be used to determine the utilization of an object in the model. In order to gather this data, we can use a calculated table. Make a new Calculated Table, and give it the following query: SELECT Object, (TravelEmpty + TravelLoaded + Utilize) / Model.statisticalTime AS Busy, 1 - Busy AS NotBusy FROM OperatorStatePie This query sums the time in several states into a total, and then divides by the statistical time. Be sure to set the name of the table (the part after FROM) to the name of your Statistics Collector. Run the model for a little bit of time, and then click the Update button on the properties window. You should get a table like the following: Instead of viewing the data as just numbers, change the Display Format of each column to better represent the data. On the Display Format tab, set the Object column to display Object data. Then set the other two columns to display percentages. When you switch back to the Calculations tab, the data will be formatted: Once we get the query right, set the update mode to Always. This will updated the data in the table whenever the data is needed, including every time the chart draws. If updating the table is computationally expensive, you can use the By Interval or Manual options. Generally, a small number of rows (1-100) is small enough to use the Always mode. Regardless of the update mode, we can make a chart based on this table. In the dashboard, create a new Pie Chart. For the Data Source, select the calculated table. For the Pie Title, select the Object column. For the Center Data, select the Busy column. Be sure to include the Busy and NotBusy columns. This should show you a pie chart, comparing the operator's busy and not busy time. Group Utilization To make the final utilization chart, make a second calculated table. The query for the second table should be as follows: SELECT AVG(Busy) AS AvgBusy, AVG(NotBusy) AS AvgNotBusy FROM CalculatedTable1 Again, use the Update button to be sure the query is correct. Once it is, set the update mode to Always. Finally, you can make the pie chart for this data: Things to Try If you feel comfortable with this model, you can try a couple extra tasks, such as: Remove one of the operators from the group, reset, and run. The charts will update accordingly. Add the Processor to the group, reset, and run. The state chart should work automatically.
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The instructions below are for offline/Manual XML licensing. If your server successfully connects to the Internet and to FlexSim's main license server, you can try our simpler online 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 returning/upgrading by highlighting the Fulfillment ID and pressing Ctrl+C. Generate return request If your license server cannot connect to the Internet, you need to return manually. In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, select Tools > Manual Activation > Generate Request. Choose the Return option. Paste the Fulfillment ID into the field using Ctrl+V. Browse to select a location and file name for your XML return request. Press the Generate button. Repeat for all licenses you wish to upgrade. This creates a return request XML file for each license you are upgrading. Copy the XML return request files to a location with Internet access. Log in to your FlexSim Account. Use the top page navigation to select your Licenses page, then choose Manual XML in the Licenses submenu: Drag your XML requests onto the dropzone (alternatively you can click the dropzone and browse to a file to upload). Your XML request will be uploaded and processed. If there are any errors, you will get more information about the problem which you can use in contacting your local FlexSim representative for help. If the XML request is successfully processed, you will be prompted to download the response XML file. Download your XML responses and transfer them back to your license server. Process each response XML file by opening flexsimserveractutil.exe and going to Tools > Manual Activation > Process Response. Browse to each response XML file and Process. Your licenses should be successfully returned. 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.
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tl;dr   must be stable and persistent, always able to maintain a constant connection with the client software don't use a user's personal computer as a license server use a currently supported Microsoft OS bare-metal hardware, virtual hardware, cloud hosted - all are fine if the hardware meets the OS specifications, it meets the license server specifications configure your network and firewalls to allow the client-server communication   Use an always-on, accessible server (not a user's PC)   Your license server should be on a stable, persistent system that is always on and always accessible via a stable IP address or fully qualified domain name. A user’s personal system is not a good license server, unless they are only serving licenses to themselves, in which case please consider contacting your local FlexSim distributor to exchange for a standalone license.   Operating System   Hosting FlexSim licenses requires a currently supported version of Windows (desktop or server versions are supported). FlexSim and FlexNet do not support Windows operating systems that have reached their end-of-life. See Microsoft guidance on product lifecycle.   You should perform all Microsoft Updates so that your operating system is fully patched prior to installing the license server software.   In the future we hope to allow FlexSim licenses to be hosted on Linux or Mac license servers, in addition to Windows. Work toward multiplatform is ongoing. We do not currently have an estimated timeline.   Server Hardware   If your license server hardware meets the specifications required for the chosen Microsoft OS, it will be adequate to run the license server software. Hosting licenses is generally NOT a demanding workload.   Please do not confuse these minimal license server hardware requirements with the different and more demanding system requirements for running FlexSim Simulation Software.   Cloud Hosting   Your license server could be hosted by a cloud provider or on premises, on a virtual machine, or a bare-metal OS.   Keep in mind that your license server should be a stable, persistent server that client PCs can remain connected to. If your server setup works by creating and destroying new instances of a virtual machine each time you reboot, it is NOT suitable for use as a license server. You will lose your Trusted-Storage-based FlexSim licenses when the virtual machine is terminated.   Networking, firewalls, connectivity   For the client software to remain licensed, it must maintain a constant network connection to your license server. The exact details of such a configuration are up to you.   If you want to limit client-server connections to the local network, allow access to the license server worldwide over a VPN, or make your licenses available over the public Internet, these are all decisions you must make and configure your network and firewalls accordingly such that your FlexSim client PCs can maintain a constant connection to the license server.   Further networking guidance, including information regarding firewalls and port numbers, is found in the individual instructions for lmtools or lmadmin.  
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Neste exemplo passo a passo iremos demonstrar como fazer uma otimização em seu modelo no FlexSim, utilizando o Optimizer, ferramenta OptQuest da OptTek, a qual é um add-in opcional no FlexSim. Com esta ferramenta você incorpora Metaheurísticas e orienta seu algoritmo para Otimizar, buscar as melhores soluções. Essa abordagem utiliza soluções funcionaram bem e as recombina em novas e melhores soluções. Vamos lá! Assista o vídeo em nosso canal do YouTube e acompanhe a montagem do modelo passo a passo abaixo: Modelo de Otimização Passo a Passo Para este tutorial, vamos examinar uma situação muito simples. Um único operador carrega o item de uma fonte para um processador. Depois que o item é processado o operador o carrega para um segundo processador que leva mais tempo para processar do que o primeiro. Após o segundo processador termina de processar o item, o operador leva-o para a saída. Agora vamos supor que queremos aumentar a Produção (que também está vinculado à receita) deste sistema, ajustando a posição dos processadores. Se cada processador pudesse ser movido até três metros à direita ou à esquerda, onde cada um deveria ser colocado? Seria muito difícil intuitivamente saber como colocar ambos os processadores para maximizar a produção. A fim de resolver este problema com precisão, vamos usar o Otimizador. Agora, obviamente este é um cenário drasticamente simplificado, mas muitas vezes na vida real você tem situações em que você quer ver como vários layouts afetam a Produção geral. Esta é uma implementação muito simplista de tal experiência. Passo 1: Construindo o Modelo Modelo Crie um novo modelo usando Segundos, Metros e Litros para unidades. Objetos Crie um Source, dois Processors, um Sink, um Dispatcher, e um Operator. Coloque esses objetos como mostrado abaixo e faça as conecções. Posições Defina a localização dos objetos de acordo com a tabela abaixo: Dispatcher e Operator não precisam estar em um lugar específico, mas não devem estar alinhados com o resto dos objetos. Lógica Defina a seguinte lógica: Selecione no Source1, Processor2, e Processor3 para usar transporte (Use Transport disponível no menu de propriedades rápidas (Quick Properties). Selecione o tempo de processo para o Processor2: normal(10, 2) (também disponível no disponível no menu Quick Properties). Selecione o tempo de processo para o Processor3: normal(12, 3). Defina a posicão inicial do Operator na sua posição atual. Passo 2: Definindo o Experimento O restante deste tutorial trata do uso do Experimenter, encontrado no menu Statistics. O Otimizador usa a maioria das funcionalidades já presentes no experimentador. Criando Variáveis Abra a janela Experimenter. Posicione a janela para que você possa ver os processadores no modelo, bem como a janela. Em seguida, para Processor1 e, em seguida, Processor2, siga estas etapas: Clique no processador na vista 3D. Clique no botão Referência de Posição nas Propriedades Rápidas e defina a referência de posição para Direct Spatials. Clique na seta para baixo ao lado do botão +. Selecione Sample no menu variables. Isso coloca o cursor no modo de Amostra. Selecione uma amostra do campo de posição X no menu Propriedades Rápidas clicando nele. Isso adiciona uma nova variável no Experimenter. Defina o valor para o Cenário 1 da nova variável clicando duas vezes na célula e digitando o novo valor. Defina o nome da variável clicando duas vezes no nome atual. Defina o nome sendo Proc1X para o Processor1 e Proc2X para o Processor2. Criando Performances de Medida Selecione a aba Performance Measures na janela do Experimenter, então: Clique no botão + para adicionar uma nova medida de desempenho. Nomeie a nova medida de desempenho Produção. Clique no botão e selecione a primeira opção Statistic by individual object. Selecione o Sink para o objeto e Input para a estatística. Para selecionar o objeto simplesmente digite "/Sink" (sem aspas) no campo do objeto ou faça o seguinte: Clique no botão +. Selecione o Sink através da lista de objetos do modelo. Após clique no botão Select quando você terminar. Otimização Além de utilizar o Experimenter para definir explicitamente cenários, você pode usar o Otimizador. O Optimizer criará automaticamente cenários e, em seguida, testará esses cenários, tentando encontrar um cenário que melhor atenda a um objetivo. Projetando a Otimização Vá para a guia Design do Optimizador na janela do Experimenter. Você verá que as duas variáveis criadas anteriormente estarão presentes; Isso ocorre porque o experimentador e o otimizador compartilham as mesmas variáveis. No entanto, o otimizador precisa de informações adicionais sobre essas variáveis. Especificamente, você deve especificar: Type - O tipo de uma variável determina quais tipos de valores são possíveis para uma determinada variável. Variáveis contínuas podem ter qualquer valor entre o limite superior e inferior. Lower Bound - O limite inferior especifica o menor valor possível que o otimizador pode definir para a variável. Upper Bound - O limite superior especifica o valor mais alto possível que o otimizador pode definir para a variável. Step - Para Variáveis Discretas e Design, o passo especifica a distância entre valores possíveis, começando pelo limite inferior. Group - Para as variáveis de permutação, o grupo especifica qual conjunto de variáveis de permutação essa variável particular pertence. Para esta otimização, queremos permitir que os processadores se movam três metros para cada lado. Como não estamos limitados a posições específicas dentro desse intervalo, ambas as variáveis de posição são Contínuas. No entanto, precisamos definir os limites inferior e superior de cada variável. Para editar valores na tabela, clique duas vezes na célula de interesse e insira o novo valor. Insira os valores mostrados abaixo: O passo final do projeto é definir a função objetivo. A função objetivo está presente, mas em branco. Edite seu nome para Faturamento. Em seguida, clique no campo da função de seta. Um botão aparecerá no lado direito. Clique neste botão para exibir uma lista de todas as variáveis e medidas de desempenho. A função objetivo é um valor derivado de qualquer um ou de todos esses valores. Selecionar Produção, Isso irá adicionar essa medida de desempenho para a função objetivo, e colocar o cursor para a direita e para o final. Adicione o texto * 500 para que a receita seja igual o [Produção] * 500. Deixe a direção em Maximize, porque queremos maximizar o Faturamento. Como temos apenas um objetivo, o modo de pesquisa pode permanecer em Single. Passo 3: Executando a Otimização Vá para a aba Optimizer Run na janela do Experimenter. Então: Defina Run Time sendo 10000. Este é o tempo que o otimizador executará cada configuração do modelo (potenciais soluções) para a avaliação. Defina o Wall Time sendo 0. Normalmente, isso significa quanto tempo o otimizador pode ser executado em tempo real. O valor 0 significa que não tem limite de tempo. Defina Max Solutions como 50. Isso significa que o otimizador tentará não mais de 50 soluções diferentes para encontrar a solução ideal. Clique no botão Optimize. A janela do Experimenter alternará automaticamente para a guia Resultados do Otimizador, Optimizer Results. O otimizador então começará a executar a seguinte sequência: Determinar valores para Proc1X e Proc2X. Executar um modelo com esses valores para 10000 segundos. Avaliar as variáveis e medidas de desempenho. Calcula a função objetivo. Classifique esta solução. Usa as informações desta solução para criar uma nova solução - novos valores para Proc1X e Proc2X. Repete novamente a partir do passo 2. O otimizador pode avaliar várias soluções ao mesmo tempo. À medida que a otimização progride, o gráfico de Resultados do Otimizador é atualizado e mostra o progresso do otimizador. Uma vez que o otimizador avalie 50 soluções, uma mensagem aparecerá indicando por que o otimizador parou. Neste caso, ele dirá que o otimizador atingiu o número máximo de soluções. Se algo der errado, a mensagem conterá informações sobre o erro. Passo 4: Analizando os Resultados Assim que a otimização for concluída, o gráfico de resultados do otimizador será semelhante a este: O Eixo Y é chamado de "Single Objective". Para este exemplo, é sinônimo de Faturamento. As melhores soluções são destacadas. Os círculos com uma borda mais clara ao seu redor representam melhores soluções. Para um único objetivo, as 10 melhores soluções são marcadas desta forma. Como a otimização progrediu, o otimizador ficou melhor e melhor na criação de boas soluções, de modo que as últimas 15 soluções foram todas muito boas. Isso é chamado de convergência, e é uma maneira de saber se uma otimização é concluída; Se o valor objetivo não tiver melhorado por um tempo, pode ser que ele não melhore com mais pesquisas, e a melhor solução atual deve ser usada. Respondendo à Pergunta Inicial O objetivo dessa otimização foi descobrir onde posicionar os dois processadores. Agora podemos encontrar a resposta a esta pergunta com muita facilidade. Passe o mouse sobre a melhor solução (o maior círculo azul) no gráfico; Uma pequena janela aparecerá. Clique nesta solução para selecioná-la. Agora, no painel Opções de gráfico, altere o Eixo Y para Proc1X e o Eixo X para Proc2X. A melhor solução (e todas as outras melhores soluções) é encontrada onde Proc1X é maior, e onde Proc2X é menor. Lembre-se que todas as 10 melhores soluções produziram os mesmos resultados; Neste caso, ter os dois processadores próximos um do outro é a melhor configuração para este modelo. Configurando o Modelo para a Melhor Solução Pode ser muito útil configurar o modelo para visualizar a melhor solução. Para fazer isso, clique no botão Export Scenarios. Este botão leva todas as soluções selecionadas e cria cenários para elas. Volte para a guia Scenarios na janela Experimenter para ver a nova solução. Agora, a partir do menu suspenso " Choose default reset scenario" na extrema direita, selecione o novo cenário. Em seguida, resete o modelo para aplicar esses valores ao modelo 3D. Segue o modelo referente ao artigo: modelo-optimizer.fsm Inscreva-se e acompanhe nosso canal de videos no YouTube FlexSim Brasil
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First things first   Sometimes the easiest method for fixing a standalone license is to simply activate the same license again. No need to return first. Just get the full activation ID for any broken licenses and activate them again.   Look for the broken licenses within FlexSim by going to Help > License Activation > View Licenses tab and pressing the View Licenses button. Scan the license information for licenses that indicate they are **BROKEN**. For licenses that are broken, look up the full activation IDs in your online FlexSim Account. Using the full activation IDs for each broken license, activate the licenses normally within FlexSim by going to the Activate tab and pasting and activating each activation ID in turn. No need to return the licenses first. In case you need more detailed activation instructions, see: Standalone - Activation - Online Standalone - Activation - XML / Offline   If you completed the 3 steps above but encountered error messages, it is time to manually repair your licenses.   Okay, time to repair   Standalone licensing does not have a method for repairing online. Here are the steps to manually repair your license. These instructions apply to FlexSim 2016 and later. If you are using an older version of FlexSim, please download FlexSim's latest version and follow these instructions. You can manage your older FlexSim licenses from the latest software - the License Activation window will still show your older licenses and you'll be able to complete all these steps for your broken pre-version-16.0 licenses.   Open FlexSim as an administrator by right clicking the program icon and selecting Run as Administrator. From the main menu, go to Help > License Activation. Go to the Advanced tab, then the Repair tab. For each broken license listed in the License selector box, click the Generate XML Request button. Save each XML file to a convenient location on your computer. Log in to your FlexSim Account. From the top navigation header click the Licenses link, then choose Manual XML in the Licenses submenu. Upload your XML files by dragging them onto the drop zone. Your uploaded XML requests will be processed. Upon completion, you will be prompted to download each XML response. In FlexSim (your instance opened above in step 1 using Run as administrator), you should still be on the same License Activation > Advanced > Repair tab. Process each response by pressing the Process Response button and browsing to an XML response. FlexSim should successfully repair the license. After repairing it should be usable and returnable.
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Does your license server randomly stop serving your FlexSim seats? When you check the logs, do you see error messages like the following? 5:34:42 (flexsim) Trusted storage binding change detected! Vendor daemon is being shutdown. 5:34:42 (flexsim) EXITING DUE TO SIGNAL 65 Exit reason 42 5:34:47 (lmgrd) flexsim exited with status 65 (Trusted storage binding change detected.) 5:34:47 (lmgrd) Vendor daemon shutdown - trusted storage binding change detected. Hosting your license server on a VM Many organizations host their license servers on virtual machines and this is a perfectly fine and fully supported way to host your licenses. However, you should be aware that some common virtual machine workflows can disrupt your license server. For instance, you may encounter the errors above if you restored your VM's state to a live snapshot. A live snapshot takes a snapshot of memory as well as disk. Hyper-V is an example of a hypervisor that allows live snapshotting. If a virtual machine does a revert-to-live-snapshot operation, restoring the memory and disk to a previous state, it can interrupt the integrity of your server's trusted storage. To prevent any corruption of your Trusted Storage state, Trusted-Storage-based license servers poll Trusted Storage every 90 seconds to determine if a snapshot restore has occurred. Hence, within at least two minutes of a Trusted-Storage-based license server being reverted, it will shut down, with server log messages similar to the log block above. This shutdown helps preserve the integrity of your license server's local trusted storage. Restoring functionality As you can see at the bottom of the error message, the resultant state of your license server is that your vendor daemon is shut down. This means that your license server is no longer serving FlexSim seats. To restore full functionality, simply start (or restart) the service from Windows services: Or if you're hosting your licenses with lmadmin, start (or restart) the vendor daemon:
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FlexSim 2023 Update 2 Beta is now available. (Updated July 21) FlexSim 23.2.0 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. 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 [email protected] or create a new idea in the Bug Report space or Development space.
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The following article applies to FlexSim versions 26.0 and older. For Autodesk FlexSim 2027 and onward, please visit Autodesk analytics programs | Autodesk   You might be wondering what data is collected when you use FlexSim simulation software. How is it sent to FlexSim? How is it stored? What is it used for? Can you opt out?   Below you'll read all about it, but for those who can't be bothered:   tl;dr: Our customers have complete control when deciding what data is sent to FlexSim. Any data gathering is easily circumvented, disabled, or avoided.   If that interests you, read below for the details.   Introduction There are four ways your data may be sent to FlexSim, and there are workarounds you can implement for each to avoid sharing any data. Each link jumps to its section below: FlexSim Accounts (contact information) Licensing your software or your local license server (license and computer information) Online communications from the software (license and computer information) Support or model building services (customer-sent data) You can also jump to the Conclusion.   FlexSim Accounts We receive user personal contact information when someone signs up for a FlexSim account, or when an account is created for a person in order to give them a license. FlexSim Account information includes required fields (name, email, organization, country) and optional fields (including title, address info, phone). These data are submitted to FlexSim through web forms. Our website is only accessible via HTTPS, with TLS 1.2 or higher enforced. FlexSim's databases are hosted in United States data centers, and this data is encrypted at rest with AES-256. Data is encrypted in transit with TLS 1.2. FlexSim US's CRM is HubSpot, and US contacts are saved there. HubSpot ensures that your data is encrypted at rest. HubSpot's sites and services are accessed via HTTPS and we've configured our account's security settings to require TLS 1.2 or higher. Contacts from outside the United States are forwarded to their regional FlexSim distributor, who operate independently and may use a different CRM. Our websites track usage information to help us improve our marketing and fix site issues. Basic web browsing logging data is collected, such as IP/location information, browser type, session duration, etc. Additionally, if you are logged in to your FlexSim account, we keep download, license, and profile logs. Check out Autodesk's privacy policy. Workaround A FlexSim Account requires a person's contact information for convenience only. If a customer wishes, an account can be set up with a generic name, like "CompanyXYZ FlexSim Rep," and a generic email, like "[email protected]". Having a real name and email of an actual person is convenient, but also optional. As long as we have a way to communicate with a customer, that works!   Licensing License codes When a client PC communicates with our main license server to activate or return a standalone FlexSim license, it does so over secure HTTPS.   When licensing a local license server using the licensing utility flexsimserveractutil.exe license codes are transmitted in plaintext over HTTP. This means that license codes are transmitted in the clear. The risk to a licensed user is that if your online communications are being monitored your license keys could be compromised, allowing someone else to obtain your FlexSim license keys and potentially use them to activate your FlexSim licenses and consume your seats, leaving you without the ability to activate those seats normally.   If there is ever an issue where a license should be available but for some reason is not successfully activating, customers can contact their local FlexSim distributor for licensing support. These situations can be handled quickly.   License codes are stored in plaintext in FlexSim's main Flexnet Operations server database.   Additional license history information When a license is activated over the Internet, whether by a client PC (standalone license) or when configuring a license server (server license), FlexSim also receives the Windows username of the person logged in doing the action, and the Windows computer name where the license is being activated. When activating a standalone license this information is first AES-256 encrypted before transmission over HTTP. For a license server the username/computer name are transmitted in plaintext over HTTP. Once received by FlexSim, the Windows computer name and username are stored in our database which is LUKS encrypted at rest and are displayed to the customer in their account's license history. The license history allows customers to track license usage and location - a useful feature requested by our customers to help manage standalone licenses shared among multiple people.   When activating a standalone license over the internet, the software also sends basic operating system and FlexSim software version information, which, like the Windows username/computername, is AES-256 encrypted before being transmitted over HTTP. This additional information is AES-256 encrypted at rest.   Workaround We have an alternate method of licensing that applies to both standalone PCs and license servers where a user generates XML requests and manually submits them to FlexSim's website over HTTPS using TLS 1.2 or higher. Licensing by XML avoids the following potential issues: License codes sent in plaintext over HTTP FlexSim receiving Windows username and computer name information, and in the case of standalone licensing, additional operating system and FlexSim software version information. Manual licensing is somewhat less convenient and more time consuming than online licensing - instead of just a button push there are several steps to follow in sequence, including generating requests, uploading requests, downloading responses, processing responses. It is up to you to decide whether easy-online or manual-XML licensing is most appropriate for your organization.   License operations, both automated/online or manual/XML are documented in our article Licensing Procedures.   Online communications Start page FlexSim software has a web-based start page that by default sends basic computer information to FlexSim to request introductory content to display when starting the software. This information includes FlexSim version, and general Operating System properties including Windows version, language, and country. These are used to display appropriate content to the user. For instance, we have localized versions of the start page depending on the country and language settings sent by the client PC. If a computer is licensed, the license information along with Windows username and computer name are also sent, again for a history of license use, and also in the case that FlexSim needs to display specific information only to licensed users, such as expected maintenance windows for FlexSim's main license server, etc.   The start page is enabled by default. The above-described information is AES-256 encrypted and then transmitted to FlexSim over HTTPS using TLS 1.2 or higher. The data remains AES-256 encrypted at rest.   Telemetry A user can also enable additional telemetry as an opt-in feature. This sends additional operating system and hardware information such as CPU, RAM, screen resolution, GPU type and driver version, all of which helps us build an aggregated view of the computer capabilities of our user base. This is useful for development decisions, to make sure we target the simulation software to hardware that is generally available to a majority of our user base. This telemetry info is AES-256 encrypted, transmitted to FlexSim over HTTPS TLS 1.2 or higher, and stored in AES-256 at rest.   Workaround: The start page can be disabled with an in-software setting. Additional telemetry is an opt-in feature. You can read more about online communication in our Sofware License Agreement, item 15. Online Communication. The in-software settings are configured from FlexSim simulation software's main menu > File > Global Preferences > Dynamic Content tab.   Support In the course of using FlexSim simulation software, your simulation engineers may send models or other data to Autodesk's FlexSim support team for help via email, or by posting to this online community. Your employees should only do so according to whatever applicable policies you have in place.   In this online community, questions are asked publicly, allowing our worldwide community and partners to help solve problems and provide answers, insights, and experience. Any information or attachments posted to this community are public.   Workaround Don't post or email confidential data. If you need support but your simulation model contains proprietary/confidential/secret information, you could: Pose a general question without including any attachments. Post a sample model you create that demonstrates the question or issue at hand without using any confidential information. If you have a current maintenance contract, you can also contact your local FlexSim distributor for live phone or web meeting support. You could share your screen so that our support staff could help troubleshoot your issues directly on your PC. In this way you could get the help you need without ever transferring any files or data off your computer.   Conclusion Any data that FlexSim might receive is described above, and any data gathering can be circumvented, disabled, or avoided using the provided workarounds. Our customers maintain complete control when deciding what data is sent to FlexSim. In addition, we're happy to delete any information we may already have on your company or your users. We are responsive to our customer's requests and wish to assure you of our commitment to your privacy and security. Simply contact your local FlexSim distributor with any requests about what data we have about you or to request any deletions.   Thank you for your patience in reviewing this long article! Contact your local FlexSim distributor if you have any questions or concerns.
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FlexSim 2025 Beta is now available. FlexSim 25.0.0 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. 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 create a new post in the Bug Report space or Development space.
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This model demonstrates a method of giving a task executor a set of tasks (or jobs) to accomplish in a specific sequence by referencing information stored in a global table. In this case, an operator needs to move boxes between queues in a very specific order. The global table defines the order of operations, with each row representing one job. The row contains necessary information about the job: the item to be moved and its destination. These jobs are to be carried out in order, row by row. First, Product1 will be moved to Queue1, then Product2 to Queue2, Product3 to Queue3, Product1 to QueueOut, and so on and so forth. Any modifications made to this table will directly modify the model’s behavior. The logic behind the process flow is relatively simple: a single token loops through a task sequence, with the operator completing a job with every loop. Assign Labels activities are used to get information about the job from the global table and attach that information to the token. The “Assign Labels: Get Table Data” activities reference the current row in the global table to access and store information about the current job (the item name and its destination). The “Assign Label: Item” activities use custom code to search through a group containing all the queues in the model until it finds the item matching the item name from the global table. The task sequence directs the operator to travel to the item’s queue, load the item, travel to the destination, and unload the item. The token’s labels contain the information that is needed for these activities. After this sequence is completed, the label “row” is incremented so that the next row in the table will be used for the following job. Although this demo model shows an operator moving boxes between queues, this method of acquiring data from global tables to define an order of operations can be used in a variety of other applications. GlobalTableDemo.fsm
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FlexSim 2023 Update 2 is now available for download. You can view the Release Notes in the online user manual. FlexSim 23.2.0 Release Notes For more in-depth discussion of the new features, check out the official software release page: FlexSim 2023 Update 2: NVIDIA Omniverse, USD, Restricted Models, 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.
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