Question about Conveyors

I’m trying to model conveyors that cannot queue up. So, if downstream is blocked, then the conveyor will not transport the flow item because it can’t “hold” anything. Yes, you can do it by turning on and off ports etc…. However, I got a lot of traffic to manage and this would be really sweet.

I'm not sure I totally understand what you're asking but have you tried un-checking the Accumulating check box on the conveyor. Would that do what you want? And maybe setting the Maximum Content to 1 (or whatever)?

Thanks Jeff,


It doesn't work, I guess its not possible.

Gavin,

I'm sure Flexsim can do whatever you are trying to get it to do, but you aren't describing what you want it to do well enough for any of us to be able to help you.

I guess what he wants is that a conveyor stops if the downstream object is blocked. So if this is the case I would think about using stopobject() and resumeobject(). The tricky bit is to prevent deadlocks and fire events to the right time. A stopped object can not fire received messages so I guess a self-made control object is needed.
If the task is “just” to not pass items to the next conveyor if this guy is blocked, than closeoutput() and openoutput() is the way to go. I made once a model where OnConveyEnd I checked the state of the next conveyor. If this was blocked I closed the output of current. The downstream conveyor always send a message to the upstream conveyor (current) if items leaving. In this message I opened the output of current. This worked fine.

Anyway, you all right, it would be nice to have described the problem more precise. I also agree that there will be a solution in Flexsim, the questions is only how much effort it is to implement the solution.

I believe that stopped objects can fire delayed messages just as long as they are sent after the stopobject command is fired. So, you could call stop object and resume obect.

You are right, I checked it. You can send delayed messages to and from a stopped object.
I thought I had it once not working, but maybe that was another situation.
Thanks for clarify this.