General remarks for the community by _TD

I started this thread because during solving my issue where I wanted to have the items placed in x direction next to each other and not in y direction these thoughts came into my head and I do not wanted to be off-topic in the thread there.

Just a few general remarks for the community by _TD:

01- My models are always marked with a _TD at the end, to show that I built these models to give the chance for feedback and questions.

02- Models with Sample_ at the beginning are models I build for Support (where I think that’s might be interesting for the Community) or as Concept Models for myself. I took some time to describe the models, make the Model Control GUI nice (not always) and also thought a bit about visualization and made it sometimes nice.

03- Models with Support_ at the beginning are models I build for Support and just solve the task. I spent not a lot of time on description (sometimes I still do), Model Control GUI, Visualization, etc. That’s the difference between my two model types.

04- Support_ Model I post in the Support Model section, because that’s the place for them. I will NEVER attach the models directly in the thread, because in my eyes they are difficult to find. That’s why we have the Support Models section now as far as I understood.

05- I try to give the model name which speaks for itself which is sometimes difficult and end up sometimes in quite long names. But having models called 1 or Model01 or A does not make much sense, I guess.

06- I read all the threads in the forum, but I do not reply to all of them (which is normal, I guess ).

07- In my eyes in the thread itself it must become clear what the task/issue is and how I already tried to solve it or what are my ideas. The idea behind this is that just by reading the thread some people already might have an idea or some hints. If I ask a question I always try to explain my issue directly in the post and not just add a model to force people to download the model and have a look at it.

08- I personally think the idea of the community is to help in General and not to fix individual models or tasks for specific people. Don't get me wrong, if people like to do this as they did in the past they still should do it. I do not want prevent people to help other people.

09- The questions, problems and issues should be asked in a general way (in my eyes) that it would be easier to find threads from the past related to current issue. And the issue should be described directly on the thread to make it understandable just by reading and not need to open a model.
I know I could also do better here, but I will try to improve this in the future.

10- I do not want to say that it is not a good idea to attach a model, because this makes is sometimes easier to understand the issue and is normally a good start for someone who likes to help.

11- In my eyes the issue model should be attached in the thread, but a solution model (general solution model) should be in the Support Model Download Section linked to the thread and described in the reply post how the issue was solved.
I did this twice so far and pretty sure everybody get the idea what I mean.

12- Maybe I am wrong, but I see the Forum as a platform for support and help. And I guess we could make it an even more efficient place.

13- I am happy to get feedback on this thread and looking forward to get your opinions. Thanks!

Hi Tom,
your way to unclutter the chaos in the waist amount of models the most of us are hosting on their own computer is a good idea.

I think the thread and the modells (whereever they are) should be found by the search function. This is what I use when I wan´t to know if anybody before me had the same issues.
So naming the subject correctly in the theard is absolutly necessary.

I won´t mark my models with initials, because I am not a brand like you...

Building modells for other people is a very social act and I had some small smaple modells fixed, by other people which was very helpful. Often you just need a hint in the right direction or an idea for a concept.

Tom,

I agree with all your points and I would like to add a few comments myself.

First about point 9. I try to help people but if they can't describe there problem clearly I'm not very interested. Opening somebody elses model and trying to find out what he or she intented takes a lot of time and if you ask time from somebody else do it as efficiently as possible.

The other remark is: before you have a question, be sure that you searched the forum and have READ THE MANUAL. The Flexsim manual contains tons of information and if you dig a little bit deeper you can find an awful lot of interesting stuff.

Steven

I got a private message and an email from somebody from the commuity asking for help for his model.
I like to publish the main bit of my reply here.

I am sorry, but I will not give „private” support for Flexsim.

In my eyes the community is the place to ask support questions. The advantage is that others can also read the questions and answer. So in this way it might be helpful for a bunch of people and not only one. Also there might be more people willing to help you and you might get different ideas and hints.
The better you describe your problem, the better you prepare you model to make it understandable for others the higher the chance to get help and answers.

I am sure that you saw all the models I uploaded at the community. This models are small models to solve different task and show how to use different model concepts in Flexsim. The idea of this models are, that I can refer to them if people have support questions. So I do not have to build specific things again and again for “private” support.
If I make a project and I am not sure how to solve a specific task, I build these little sample / concept models. If it is working in my concept model I implement it in my project model. The advantage is, that I am sure it is working and I will not penetrate my project model.
The most of these concept models I upload at the community to help others, even if it is time and effort. And I try to describe the model and put comments into the code to hopefully make it possible for others to understand the idea of the model concept.

Because Flexsim is so flexible (FLEXible SIMulation) in most cases there is not ONE solution. Normally there are different ways to build the model. In this sense my sample/concept models are just one solution. Sometimes I wish that people would give me feedback for my models, like different solutions, different ideas, suggestions, etc.
I am pretty sure, that there might be sometimes better or lets other solutions, so I don’t think my models are perfect.
But I get hardly feedback. And to be honest this is not motivating, but I like the community and try to be part in it.

Sometime I really wish more people would see the Community in the way I see it (very few do), because we would have much more models. I also wish more people would be more active. Some questions are not really hard to answer but mainly the same people reply. But I guess that’s like every community works.

Anyway, I suggest, that you build a small concept model to focus on your question and to make it understandable for others. It is always helpful if the object have names which indicate their functionality (SourcePallets, SourceItems, QueuePallets, QueueItems, etc.).
Describe what you want to model, what your ideas are, what you already tried, etc.
The better you describe your task the more help you can expect.

If you get help and your model works, you could upload this model to the community and it might be helpful for others. I personally think there are no simple, easy, bad models. And if people have a look into your model, they might give you feedback with some more hints and suggestions.

Beside the concept model section there is a support model section. So far I am the only one who used it. That’s the place where I would upload your model after you solved your task. Of if you think it is a more general modeling concept I would upload it at the concept model section.
There is a thread where I describe how I see the differences between the two sections.
In this thread, I will post part of this email, because I like to publish this information at the community.