Gas Station and Car Wash

Hi All,

I am very new to Flexsim. I need to develop a model of Gas Station and Car wash. The idea goes like this, we are keeping processors for gas pumps. The cars come to the pump while waiting at the queue and distributed evenly across gas pumps. After they are done with gas they might choose to take a car wash. They can even have a car wash without even going to gas pump.

Doubts:
How can I achieve the functionality of splitting some random cars to take a car- wash and some going to pump?

Do I need to use flow nodes to create the path for these cars?

The gas station model we are planning to build isn't a self service station. So, a operator(gas station employee) fills the gas in the car? Can I able to achieve this kind of functionality in Flexsim(showing a operator filling gas in the car and car waiting in front of the operator for a while)? If so,how?

Any inputs on the above queries would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!!

Sandylms,

welcome to the FlexSim forum. Please take the time and add information to your profile. People will be more inclined to help, if they know, who you are.
That said, if you are a complete beginner, the first step for you would be to go through the tutorial in the online help to familiarize with the software.

Looking at your modeling challenge, this is what I would do:
- Splitting the material flow in FlexSim works through the SendtoPort field in the flow tab of an object. Do the tutorial to have that explained.
- Instead of flow nodes I would use conveyors to model the ways cars are driving on. That appears to be the easiest for now.
- If you make the cars flow items which are transported through conveyors and then processed at the pumps, you can assign an operator to do the process. Again, go through the tutorial.

If you run into difficulties, post your model here as far as you got it yourself...and populate your profile

Best wishes
Ralf
FlexSim

Hi Ralf,

Thanks for your post.

Here is what I did:

I have built a model with two sources(one for trucks,one for cars). I tried setting up item type and color for these sources but I don't know why car's color aren't changed.

One more thing is I want these cars or trucks to be waited for few secs at the gas pump(processor). I tried achieving it through User Commands but it doesn't work.

Code in User Command:spenttime

treenode object = parnode(1);
int spenttime = 0;
for(int index = 1; index < content(first(object)); index++)
{
	if (getitemtype(rank(object,index)) == 1)
	{
		spenttime += exponential(0.0,30.0,0);
		}
	else{
		spenttime += exponential(0.0,14.0,0);	
		}
	}
	return spenttime;

I used this spenttime(current) in process time of processor.

As of now, the operator(gas pump employee) takes the car from pump to conveyor(road).I want this to be like a car waiting in front of the pump and this operator doing something(like filling the gas or bending), I am not sure how to achieve this.

Can you please advise?

Thanks!!

Sandy,
there is no need at all for a user command.
Did you go through the three tutorial models in the online help? All the concepts I mentioned in my previous post as being helpful to build your model are explained in there.
If you still struggle, attach the current state of your model to your next post so we have something to work with.

Best wishes

Ralf
FlexSim

Please look into the attached. Yes, Ralf I did do the three tutorials available in online help. I guess you may not get the custom objects which I used in my model. Please let me know if you need those objects(I have downloaded them from google sketchup)

Sandy,

I attached a model to hopefully guide you the right way. Of course it has to be visually adjusted to look "nice", but this is how I would go forward.

The setup for the lower pump is dislocated to better explain, how it works. The short conveyor is only to make sure, no cars bump into the one currently at the pump. Look at the trigger tabs on these small conveyors and their pump.

Hope that helps?

Best wishes
Ralf
FlexSim

The model which you sent looks good. Thanks much for the sample, I will work on that and will let you know if I need anything.

Thanks!!

Hi Ralf,

I have modified my model based on your inputs. Now I have few issues here, I have created a source and given it to 5 conveyors. But somehow I found that the flowitems leaves only through one conveyor mostly.

One more thing is after filling in the gas, a car can either exit out from the station or go to a car wash. Right now I have connected all the gas pumps to a processor and the output of this processor just goes to 3 car washes(I want one of the output to a sink so that those who don't wish to have a car wash can exit through the sink).

The same issue persists in the above processor too(cars exiting through only one conveyor when I have 3 of'em)

Can you please advise on this?

Thanks!!

Sandy,

please send your model. That allows me to be more effective since I have a clearer picture on what you are trying to do with the model in front of me.

Thanks
Ralf
FlexSim

Hi,

Originally Posted by sandylms

Can you please advise on this?

Yes, that is easy. Please, search the forum for the basic videos posted by Markus Cueva

• Introduction to Flexsim
• Port Connections
• Port Connection Rankings
• Send to Port by Label
• Send to Port by Expression

All his started Threads

Jörg

Originally Posted by RalfGruber

Sandy,

please send your model. That allows me to be more effective since I have a clearer picture on what you are trying to do with the model in front of me.

Thanks
Ralf
FlexSim

I achieved what I asked using Send to port "Round Robin if available". Functionally I think the model is fine. But I want my model to be bit visually attractive like cars going in the right direction and the floor looking like a road, the path looks bit better(as I have 5 pumps in my model, the path should look better and visually appealing.

Thanks so much for your input Ralf. With your input it was really easy for us to build the model. Any suggestions on visual(right now we are using google sketchup) lookup would be really helpful.

Thanks!!

Hello sandy,

In the General tab of the conveyor's GUI you can change the z height of your objects by setting the z size or z offset of the conveyor to -1
OR
You can hide the shape of the conveyor by unchecking the Show 3D shape box before setting zsize as 0.5 .On the exact location of the conveyer you keep the visual tool and go to its General Tab.In the 3d Textures you choose Belt conveyer png as this texture or select black colour that something looks like a road.

You can even change the direction of cars and trucks in the conveyer.There was Tab Layout in the conveyer properties which let you give the curvature of the conveyer .You can import sketchup files and wrl files in Flexsim.

Thanks for your suggestions Sagar. Yes by setting the z size of the conveyor makes the conveyor look like a road. I have did all that for my conveyors. I am trying to import a gas station skp file from sketchup and trying to adjust it into my model. Need to work well on that to look visually appealing.

Thanks!!