FlexSim 7.7 Beta 1 Available

FlexSim 7.7.0 Beta 1 is available. You can download it from the account section of the website or the links below. As this is a beta, there are a few known issues listed at the bottom of this post.

If you have bug reports or other feedback on the software, please email [email protected] or reply to this thread.

https://www.flexsim.com/sw/installer..._installer.exe
https://www.flexsim.com/sw/installer...0.b1_notes.txt


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Release Notes

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--- FlexSim 7.7.0 (July 22, 2015) ----------------------------------------------

• Added a Process Flow module for handling complex logic using flowcharting.
• FlexScript now has a var type which can be any of the current variable types (number, string, treenode, intarray, doublearray, stringarray, treenodearray).
• Bone Animations - Animator can now import 3d models with bone animation data and set those to FlexSim animations.
• Added Global List objects to the Toolbox (see User Manual > Modeling Tools > Global List).
• Global Tables can now store their data in a bundle rather than in nodes.
• Arrays (int, double, string and treenode) can be stored on nodes such as labels.
• Arrays are now viewable/editable as tables.
• Labels can also store pointers to other objects using the setlabel() command.
• Deprecated parnode(), parval() and parstr() and replaced with param().
• Added an arraysize() command.
• Added support for Oculus Rift.
• Added support for using Xbox 360 Controllers.
• Added a global preference for displaying the 3D view's frames per second.
• Added a Truck TaskExecuter Flowitem.
• Added a Custom Gantt Chart dashboard.
• Dashboards now have the ability to scroll.
• Added a precision property to dashboard stat widgets.
• Added a spinner object to the dashboard model input objects.
• Updated dashboard charts to rebuild their data if pointing to a group and the number of group members changes during the model run.
• Dashboard charts can now be copied and pasted.
• Removed the AVI Maker and replaced it with the new Video Recorder.
• Added an "Available at Simulation Start" option to TaskExecuters that causes the OnResourceAvailable trigger to fire at time 0.
• Removed the Edit Selected Objects modeling tool and replaced it with Quick Properties panels. This means when you select multiple objects, making changes in the quick properties applies to all selected objects.
• Improved the Rotated Selected and Flip Selected so you can click in the 3D view and select a rotation axis.
• Added a Model Layout option to the Experimenter Variables.
• Improved the Experimenter web viewer export so view can be customized.
• Task Sequences now have the ability to store their own labels.
• Improvements to FlexSim's display for non-standard DPI settings.
• Added a panel to Quick Properties that allows for saving high resolution images of the 3D view (this can also be done through the viewtofile() command).
• Updated TrackedVariables to be a simpledatatype object instead of a node with a bundle.
• Typing shift+enter in a table cell creates a new line rather than moving to the next cell.
• Changed the UI for flowitem packing methods so it makes more sense.
• Added a flowitem packing method - Layer Stacking By Item Size
• Added On State Change triggers to the BasicTE and BasicFR trigger pages.
• Got rid of the usage of FRLOAD and FRUNLOAD. USe LOAD and UNLOAD instead.
• Updated the updatelocations command so that if you pass an item in as the object parameter, it calls updatelocations on the parent object of the item.
• A lot of general improvements to drawing performance.
• Improvements to how model data is saved to remove differences in the xml files.
• Added a page to the User Manual about model repeatability (FlexSim Concepts > Model Repeatability).
• Deprecated the getmodelunitnum() and getmodelunitstr() command and replaced it with getmodelunit().
• Improvements to the License Activation window.
• The middle mouse button can now be used to pan in the 3D view and scrolling with the mouse wheel now zooms relative to the mouse location.
• Added statisticaltime() command.
• Added rangemin and rangemax attributes to an Edit field to define a range of valid values that can be entered (options have also been added to the Dashboard).
• Added all FlexScript commands as sql scalar functions.
• Adding support for the HAVING clause in the query command.
• Added the == operator to the sql parser.
  
• Fixed Time Plots in the dashboard so they clear their data after the warmup time is complete.
• Fixed a bug with the visual tool inner connections not surviving copy/paste correctly in certain cases.
• Fixed the visual tool so it can have multiple internal connections go through each other.
• Fixed the Elevator so the delivery platform properly lines up with wherever the item is being dropped off at.
• Fix for Task Executers so the endspeed works for offset travel.
• Fixed fly paths to run in real seconds when not running with the simulation time.

--- Backwards Compatibility Note -----------------------------------------------
--- the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave ----

• Fixed resource item state variables are now stored with a custom data structure instead of
  being stored directly in the tree. This means that if you previously
  accessed an item's fixed resource state directly through the tree instead
  of using the commands getitemstate(), getitemsendto(), getitemvar(), etc.
  your model will need to be updated to use those commands.
• Previously, drawfont() would only change the font for one call of drawtext(). Now, calling drawfont() will change the font and leave it that way until it is changed again.
• The following commands now take/return Variants instead of doubles:
  
  nodefunction()
  sendmessage()
  function_s()
  function_n()
  userfunction_s()
  userfunction_n()
  nodefunctionlisten()
  delayednodefunction()
  addbundleentry()
  applicationcommand()
  
  The implications for these changes are as follows:
  
  nodefunction(x, tonum(current)); // BAD CODE
  nodefunction(x, current); // GOOD CODE
  
  The problem here is that if you cast it into a number, and on the other side
  someone wants a node, the Variant thinks it's a number so it won't give
  back a valid node.
  
  Additionally, all flexscript and c++ code nodes now return a Variant
  instead of a double. This also has implications.
  
  return tonum(centerobject(current, 1)); // BAD CODE
  return centerobject(current, 1); // GOOD CODE
  
  Here again, if you put something into a number, and then on the other
  side it wants a node, the variant realizes it's holding a number and won't
  give back a valid node.
  
  We have implemented an update script that will search the model for this
  type of code and will update the code to not use tonum(). The update script
  logs any changes made, putting the log in the node MODEL:/Tools/CodeUpdateLog.
  
  The update script will make the following changes:
  
  return tonum(...);
  changes to:
  return (...);
  
  For each of the above mentioned commands, the update will search the
  model for calls to this command, and will update the parameters
  as follows:
  
  nodefunction(theNode, tonum(...), tonum(...));
  changes to:
  nodefunction(theNode, (...), (...));
  
  However, the update script will NOT catch the following:
  
  double myVal = tonum(...);
  return myVal;
  
  or,
  double myVal = tonum(...);
  nodefunction(theNode, myVal);
  
  In saying this, please realize that leaving number casts in these areas may
  continue to work properly, particularly if you the user control both sides
  of the pass-off, i.e. you have implemented both the caller side and the
  callee side. For example:
  
  Caller side:
  nodefunction(theNode, tonum(theObj));
  Callee side:
  treenode myVal = parnode(1);
  
  This example should actually work properly. We have deprecated parnode(),
  parstr(), and parval() and replaced them with a single param() command
  that returns a type-safe Variant. However, the deprecated commands will
  essentially try their best to take whatever was passed in and put it
  into whatever you want. So parnode() will see a number, and try to get it
  into a treenode. This is the same for returns:
  
  Callee side:
  return tonum(myObj);
  Caller side:
  treenode myObj = tonode(nodefunction(theNode, ...));
  
  Again, this should work, because tonode() and tonum() will essentially
  try to take whatever is there and put it into a number/node.
  
  Where this will break is where one side is using the
  type-safe method while the other is not.
  
  Caller side:
  nodefunction(theNode, tonum(theObj));
  Callee side:
  treenode myVal = param(1); // WILL NOT WORK BECAUSE param(1) IS A NUMBER NOT A NODE
  
  On FlexSim's side we have moved all (or most) of our code over to using
  the type-safe method. Thus any calls that interact between FlexSim
  code and your code should use the type-safe method. We hope that the
  proactive update script will resolve this for 99.99% of cases.

--- Known Issues -------------------------------------------------
--- the following are known issues with this beta release ------

• The Process Flow module is lacking in many picklist options. Many of these will be added over the course of the beta period. If you have a request for a predefined picklist option for an activity please send us your code/request.
• Process Flow stats are not working 100%.
• DWGs sometimes render in the wrong location when using shaders.
• Dashboard widgets don't snap properly when dragging/resizing.
• VRML importer has changed significantly, if you have a shape that renders differently, send it to [email protected] so we can fix it.
• List backorder reevaluation is still under construction.
• Video Recorder sometimes crashes.
• Bone animations are not currently being used but there is a new interface in the animation editor to utilize bone animations which should work.

Hi Matt,

thanks for the post.

Some spare question:
- I could try Flexsim 7.7 with Oculus Rift: how do I setup Flexsim 7.7 to work with it?
- I tried to use setlabel() passing it a stringarray: the lable is set as a simpledata type but into the tree view I cannot see the content, is write "Error: cannot display because SimpleDataType::bind() exception thrown"
- the new commands ( like param(), stisticaltime()) have not available help. Right?
- also Global List has no help reference.

Thanks,
Luciano

Luciano did you try setting VR Mode under "More View Settings..." ?

Not sure if you need quad-buffering from the Global Preferences - that might just be for windowed stereo 3D views.

Your Oculus Rift should be in "Direct HMD Access from Apps" mode and turned on. Then press the VR Mode button in the View Settings window to send the display to the Oculus Rift headset. The display will also be mirrored onto the 3D view that it is drawing.

You need to have at least 75 FPS with the DK2 to avoid judder (headache-inducing animation blur that happens at low frame rates). We added a FPS counter to the 3D view so that you can tell whether your model is running at 75 FPS for ideal Oculus Rift rendering. You can turn on the FPS counter through FlexSim’s global preferences window (File > Global Preferences > Graphics > Show FPS Counter).

VR Mode ignores your stereoscopic view settings. It doesn't use quad-buffered OpenGL. It has custom code to set up the scene view based on the orientation of the headset and the settings defined in the Oculus Configuration Utility. It works similarly to the side-by-side stereo 3D, but it more closely mimics the view frustums of human eyes and applies compensation for the lenses used by the headset (distortion correction and chromatic aberration).

I installed the beta. But I could not find the Process Module in the library grid, as mentioned in the note. I think I selected every module during the installation. How can I load Process Module?

Thanks,
Alan

Never mind. I found ProcessFlow module. It is in Toolbox. Add->Process Flow. :-)

You guys have been working hard! I have plenty of positive things to say about the many additions but for now I want to focus on the moving the Edit Selected Objects tools.

Switches/Flags have moved to the right-click Edit menu, I think I will grow to like it better.

Rotate Selected – impressive, but can you add a snap on 90 degree rotation increments? Otherwise it does not handle most of the situations in which I used the old rotate tools.

I can’t find the equivalent of the following tools in the new version, hopefully I have simply missed them:
1. Group and re-ranking tools in Tree view
2. Rename objects with appending numbers starting at [#]
3. Copy ALL labels, literally copying the “labels” node. I see the small icon button on the Quick Properties works ok for single labels, but does not replace the tree.
4. Connection creation buttons [A to HO], [A from HO], [S with HO] etc. I use these a lot in large models.

Luciano,

Can you send us a model where you are having the issues with stringarray? We can't duplicate the problem.

The documentation for param and statisticaltime were not updated. Here it is:

statisticaltime()
Returns the current simulation time with respect to when stats were last reset, such as since the warmup time has passed in an experiment or since resetstats() was executed.

param()
This command is used inside a function that is called by the nodefunction() command. It returns the parameter passed to nodefunction specified by index as a node (or treenode), string, int, double, stringarray, intarray, doublearray or treenodearray. The first additional parameter passed to nodefunction() is parameter 1, the second is parameter 2, etc.
Example:
If a trigger/field is called with: nodefunction(thefuncnode, item) then within the trigger/field, getting access to the item passed as the first additional parameter would be done with: treenode item = param(1);
Other examples include:
double quantity = param(2);
var value = param(1); //In this example value could be used as any type

Yes, there is no documentation for the list as of yet.

Kris,

Yes, we can update the rotate tool to allow you to snap to 90 degrees.

We'll update the Node Properties panel to allow you to group and rerank multiple objects at once.

You can rename/number objects by selecting the objects you want to rename and typing a new name in the General Properties panel. When you hit enter a popup will appear giving you a field to enter a number to append to the names.

I don't think it's working, but you will be able to select all the labels on the highlighted object and use the duplicate button to push those to all the selected object. As for copying the labels attribute node to all the selected objects, we've removed that ability and for no have no plans to put that back in. We are going to update the duplicate button to allow for removing labels as well as that functionality has been completely removed. Hopefully this is sufficient for you.

We removed the A to HO, A from HO etc from the Edit Selected as that functionality as available through A clicking in the 3D view. We didn't feel that it was used much and so removed the duplicated functionality.

Hi Matt,

Originally Posted by Matt Long

Yes, we can update the rotate tool to allow you to snap to 90 degrees.
We'll update the Node Properties panel to allow you to group and rerank multiple objects at once.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Matt Long

You can rename/number objects by selecting the objects you want to rename and typing a new name in the General Properties panel. When you hit enter a popup will appear giving you a field to enter a number to append to the names.

Great! I suggest that the default value is 1 and not 0.

In regards to copying labels:
A. When dealing with objects with many labels you start to care about the order that they appear for organizational purposes. Also, I typically use macros to reference the labels by rank. Currently the duplicate button adds the chosen label simply to the end of the labels node of the selected objects (does not preserve rank). Not good, hence the request for a complete Labels node copy which also takes care of the delete label function.
B. I also found that the duplicate button does not copy label table structures. Likely an oversight.
C. The old "All Labels" button would copy the “Automatically Reset Labels” setting and the labelreset node accordingly. Very important.
D. When the Statistics, Selected Objects, and Edit Selected panels are open on the Quick Properties view, the General Properties panel is now partially off-screen and the Labels panel is completely off screen (1080), slowing work flow.
You asked me if it’s "sufficient", but I would think the goal should be “better” if the existing Edit Selected objects view is being removed since it is such an important part of efficient advanced modeling. I see extra clicks in the work flow on many of these Edit Selected tool changes and it feels like a regression. IMO if the goal was to make these tools more discover-able, then simply docking the Edit Selected Objects view behind the Quick Properties may have been sufficient for this release, especially considering all the other significant and excellent changes made.

Originally Posted by Matt Long

We removed the A to HO, A from HO etc from the Edit Selected as that functionality as available through A clicking in the 3D view. We didn't feel that it was used much and so removed the duplicated functionality.

Maybe it's just me, but I disagree. It depends on what industry you are modeling. In large scale models I often need these buttons to efficiently make connections from one side of the model (site?) to the other (using the Tree + the old buttons it is easy). I have attached a 6400 grid of objects so you can try your hand at connecting a single object to a group of selected objects (or a single object) far away from each other. You will find that you can't scroll while performing a connection and you have to deal with the draw latency of the connection line in larger models. Now image the single object was in a tight group with others and difficult to accurately click from high above. True you can make connections across two 3D views.

Thanks for considering my views, I trust others will click the Thanks button if they agree.
Kris

Hi Matt,

the exception is raised if you forget to initialize the array:

stringarray strrry = makearray(10);
setlabel(current,"myarray",strrry");

No problem if array is initialized.

Kris,
We've discussed your comments and here's what we're thinking we can do:

1. We'll update the append value to default to 1. As well instead of showing that popup when you hit enter, we're going to have a popup display as soon as you click to edit the name so it's more obvious how to renamed selected object.

2. For labels, the current duplicate button will remain and have the functionality of completely copying all labels from the highlighted to all selected objects. We'll then add a second button which will allow you to copy (or remove) only selected labels (which is the functionality the button currently has now).

3. We'll add the A to HO, A from HO etc back into the Edit Selected Objects panel.

As for the size of Quick Properties and the number of clicks to move around, I'm not sure that it's very different as having a separate window for Edit Selected Objects behind Quick Properties still requires you to switch back and forth between tools. There may be something to be said about switching between two panels and collapsing/expanding a quick properties pane. We could go back to having the Edit Selected Objects panel be its own dockable window but I don't think we would have it opened by default. I don't think most users use that window, I'm not even sure that it's taught in training. What are your thoughts?

Also, in case you hadn't realized it yet, editing any values in Quick Properties while highlighting a selected object will apply the change to all your selected objects. For example the size or position of the object, color, or setting the Max Content or Processing Time.

Hi Matt,

1. Even better!
2. Perfect!
3. Appreciated!

I only guessed it was discoverability that spurred you guys to make changes to these tools, but I don't know what the reason was. I simply suggested docking the current Edit Selected Objects panel behind the Quick Properties in the default workspace because I acknowledge that these tools are not for light users and having a tab there might offer some additional discoverability to new-comers. These tools are great time-savers. Currently, I work with the windows docked beside each other, always visible and in the same spot, no digging. I am torn because I do see the advantage of editing a single Quick Property and having it pushed to all selected without further action or notice. Secondly, revealing buttons only when they apply is also a good software characteristic. On the other hand, we used to have a single button to copy all axis of Size for instance (1 click). Maybe it's just me, but if I have a group of objects to modify I usually work on one of them and leave the others as a plan B (especially an iterative 3D shape change process) until I'm happy, then copy to all. To support the same approach now we have to click on each of the SX, SY and SZ fields individually then click away (4 clicks). My instinct is to press Tab but then the cursor might move to a field that I don't want to copy. Aside, any chance you can re-rank the Pos/Rot/Size x,y,z fields so they Tab from left to right, top to bottom? (also in Properties Window) Other examples are the old Shape Factors and Color Only buttons. Now we must click on the respective Sampler and navigate back to the object and click again (3 moves). I know, "boo-hoo".

Considering I currently only have 2 Germans backing-me (thanks! ...it is Friday), I'll move-on to adapt to the new. Can you increase the button density so the Edit Selected panel uses less vertical real estate (as tight as it was)? If it's only pro users using it then you can make the button names more cryptic... the descriptive tool tips you have make-up for it.
In my opinion you could remove:
A. Save To File / Load File: Those using .t files are likely comfortable in the Tree view, right-click menu.
B. Duplicate/Delete: hopefully they teach Ctrl+C/Backspace in FlexSim 101
C. Deselect All: hopefully they also teach Shift+click empty model view. KEEP Select All, it has some smarts to avoid Navigators, etc and catch objects with hidden shapes.

...not sure if others agree, this isn't the Geisberger menu after all.

Thanks again,
Kris

I agree with Kris on most of the edit selected changes.
I use the copy from highlighted functionality a fair bit and I feel it worked great as it was.
If I want to line all selected objects up with the highlighted object in the y axis then I just pressed the y button. Now I need to go in as if I am editing the value and press enter which doesn't 'feel' right as I do not want to actually change the value and I do not want to accidently change the X or Z values.
The 'visual and shape factors' and 'color only' options will also be missed.

Hi

I found this error on robot

Flexscript Error MODEL:/Robot23>variables/pathtables/Load/Product Line 2 unknown variable "Object"

I think it should be cycle time

Regards

David

Originally Posted by David Chan

Flexscript Error MODEL:/Robot23>variables/pathtables/Load/Product Line 2 unknown variable "Object"

Can you post replication steps? What are you doing to get this error? I can't duplicate the issue.

Hi,

I´m not quite sure if it is allready on your dev list but I think it would be gorgeous if you could extend the settings for Image with "no select" and "switch layers"/ "as background". Than it would be possible to Import an Flowchart of our customer (for example as .png) and create our process flow stuff directly on this picture.

Yes I think we could add a No Select option to display objects. We do have plans to add in the ability to change layers. ie Move to Front, Move to Back, etc.

I can't seem to change the Start and End parameters while in "Default Sequence" mode of the new Video Recorder. Works fine in "Define Custom Sequences" mode. I did not test other parameters.

Also, FlexSim crashes when I use the H.264 Lossless Codec, but maybe that's just my machine. The other H.264 settings worked well!

Are you able to modify dates and times in other GUIs? Is it just the date and time in the video recorder?