The "Simple Question" Thread

Lin,

Is there a specific reason you cannot use a dummy queue at the exit of the rack, which will batch 5 flowitems and then release to your destination queue?

Obviously you don't even need to display the dummy queue, just keep it there to batch after dwell time at the rack.

Good luck, GY

Here is a model doing batch processing for rack object using its End of Dwell trigger. Maybe for some statistic reasons you do not want use a dummy queue object as items will still go into the dummy queue one by one.

All the critical code are in the triggers of rack object. And you have to choose "do not release item" for Send To Port. Note releaseitem command won't work for rack somehow.

Hi,
I couldn't find my objects in either ortho or Persp view. I believe I still have the objects in the model because I can see them in the tree window. Please help me to get my objects back!
Attached is the movie clip (AVI) to show what invisible objects mean.

Thanks,
Sung

Your model node is togggled as a flexscript node. Right click on the model node, point to build, and select toggle node as flex script.

Hi, Tyson.
Thank you for the tip. However, I still have a trouble to get objects in ortho view. I tried not only "Toggle node as Flexscript" but also all other options , but none of them bring them back.
What did I missed?

Thank you.

Make sure it is not toggled as anything. If the icon is still a brown circle instead of a square, triangle and circle, execute this in a flexscript window:

nodeadddata(model(),DATATYPE_OBJECT);

Then try saving and reopening the model.

Hi, Alex,
Thank you for the script. Yes, the node still remains brown squre box. I ran the script, but it wouldn't change. Maybe I changed so many times for the build options?? It looks like several letters are overlapped in the little brown boxes. (G, C, S,...)

If the letter is there, toggle it so that it is not there.

Hi, Alex,

I am sorry but I couldn't change the build option at all (to change the letter to squre, triangle, and circle icon)
The brown box seems to show not only one character but also other characters together. It is now barely readable. Looks like G, S, C characters are overlapped together.
Either the script or the Tyson's toggling build option still would not change the node (consequently, no objects in view window)
Please help me.

Thanks,
Sung

FYR, Here is the video clip that I tried to follow Tyson and Alex instruction.

Execute this script, which should turn off all the toggles except the G:

switch_cppfunc(model(),0);
switch_dllfunc(model(),0);
switch_flexscript(model(),0);

, then toggle it as Global C++ if the G is still there.

YES!! now I got the objects back!!
Thank you very much for your help, Alex and Tyson!

Hi,
I have a very simple question that's bothering me presently:

How do I write the object name that I want to make an operation on outside of the current object ?

In all exemple of coding, the operation is made on the current object (like "closeoutput(current)"). If I wan't to close the output of the object "Conveyor22", do I write it this way: closeoutput("Conveyor22") ?

Thank you !

Simon

Hi Simon,

Take a look at the node command.

If you use node the closeoutput will look like this

closeoutput(node("/Conveyor22",model()));

Lars-Olof

I would like to write code that writes text into the fsmacros node. Is there a command that would let me write values into this node? I tried using setnodestr() but it didn't work.

treenode fsmacros = node("/1/fsmacros",model());
string append = "\r#define joeallen 1234";

setnodestr(fsmacros, concat( getnodestr(fsmacros), append));

// refresh the macros
refreshglobalvariables();
buildnodeflexscript(model());

I was missing the last 2 lines. Thanks a lot Phil! You are the man!

Does anybody have a sorting algorithm that would rank the model objects in the tree alphabetically?

Joe,

I do not have such an algorithm, but I like to give a comment.

Keep in mind, that the order in the tree is also the order how events will be executed. So if you have two events at the same simulation time, e.g. OnReset, than the order in the tree defines the order in the event list. So sometimes it might be useful to have some objects in front of others.

The order also influences the visualization of objects in this sense that an object at rank 1 has higher “priority”. If you for example have a Visual Tool as screen billboard and you want that this one is always shown and not hidden by other objects the VT should be at one of the first ranks.

I always organize my tree in the order the material flow is ordered, even if this is sometimes not really clear. But at least I try to structure it to make it more organized and hopefully understandable. Visual Tool screen billboards are normally at a low rank.
If you have a look into my posted models you might get an idea what I mean. I always take the time and effort to do this, because I think it makes the model better understandable and objects are easier to find. Sometimes I also included empty nodes to have sections in the tree or I use Visual Tools as containers.

Anyway, I hope it is understandable what I mean and if you are already aware of these things, than please just forget this post.

I was not already aware of those. Thank you for a very informative post. You saved me from screwing up the order of my model objects.