WHAT’S NEW?FLEXSIM 2018

This is an overview of the new features and improvements found in FlexSim 2018, the latestversion of FlexSim’s flagship simulation modeling package. This update reflects our commit-ment to regularly develop and refine our software, and this version includes a new module forsimulating people-based systems, further improvements to data collection and analysis, andmore.

Anyone can download FlexSim 2018 at www.flexsim.com and try it out under the freeExpress license. Users with current maintenance can upgrade their license through their FlexSimAccount or within the FlexSim 2018 software.

INTRODUCTION

c© 2017 FlexSim Software Products, Inc. www.flexsim.com page 2 of 8

FlexSim latest module was designed for mod-eling non-producing systems that are basedaround people instead of items. Some ex-amples include restaurants, grocery stores,and airports—any system that has a humaninteraction emphasis can make use of thefeatures found in the People Module.

The module comes with all-new 3D ob-jects and Process Flow activities that worktogether to model these systems or systemcomponents. The 3D objects represent thelocations, staff, transports, and equipmentthat people will interact with as they gothroughout the model. The Process Flowactivities provide the logic to create, move,escort, and transport these people to wherethey need to go, which staff they will bewith, and what equipment they will use.

It is highly recommended that youwork through the People Module tuto-rials in the User Manual to get a betterunderstanding of this new feature andhow it works.

Watch a video on the new People Mod-ule at http://flexs.im/people2018.

Custom Animations

Locations and Transports have templatesalready applied that add visual realism tothe model—for example, when a person en-ters a Computer Desk location, they po-sition themselves in front of the desk, sitdown, and start typing at the computer.

You can customize these existing tem-plates to create different visual “instruc-tions” to people that enter and exit theselocations. The People Module comes withmore than 60 animations to choose fromas you tweak the template. There are alsooptions to adjust how staff members stand,move, or animate around the person.

Powerful, Flexible Activities

The People activities do quite a lot in themodel despite being a single activity in Pro-cess Flow. You can see the logic happeningin the background by diving into the In-ner Flow for each of these activities (right-click, then View Inner Flow). This SubFlow shows all the Process Flow logic that

PEOPLE MODULE

c© 2017 FlexSim Software Products, Inc. www.flexsim.com page 3 of 8

is happening behind the scenes, giving youthe option to customize the activities asneeded.

Other

• Added many new animations for theoperator and the Person flowitem (seebelow).

• Removed the basic Person flowitemand renamed TaskExecuterFlowItemto “Person.”

PEOPLE MODULE

c© 2017 FlexSim Software Products, Inc. www.flexsim.com page 4 of 8

Dashboard Templates

In FlexSim 2017 Update 2, users were in-troduced to new data collection and chart-ing tools. While these tools give fine-tunedcontrol when collecting and extracting data,there is a learning curve involved in usingthem.

Thanks to the new Dashboard tem-plates, that learning curve is all but gone.We’ve added 50 new templates that cover awide range of statistics and charting types—simply drag a template onto the Dashboard,select the objects involved, and enjoy. Thebest part is that these templates make useof the new statistics tools in the background,so you still get to enjoy easier access to thedata being used to display the chart.

Would you like to see your throughputper hour. . . by item type? It’s in there,along with plenty more. Drag out a tem-plate and explore.

Watch a video covering the Dashboardtemplates at http://flexs.im/dashtemplates.

States Options

There is a new States section in the Prop-erties Window of State Templates. Thisarea gives more control over how the vari-ous states are displayed in the chart, includ-ing name, color, and if the state is evenvisible or not. There is also an option tospecify if the state is included in the uti-lization calculation—in the example below,the change over state is excluded.

Install Template

Despite their simple interfaces, each Dash-board template is made up of several toolsworking in the background (such as Groups,Process Flows, Statistics Collectors, and Cal-culated Tables). If you’d like to use thetemplate as a starting point for your owncustomized chart, you now have the optionto “install” it (Advanced tab > Install).

Once installed, each of the componentsthat make up the template are added to

DATA & ANALYSIS

c© 2017 FlexSim Software Products, Inc. www.flexsim.com page 5 of 8

the toolbox. For here, you can adjust thedata being recorded, add event listeners,and make any other tweaks to get that per-fect data set and chart for your simulationmodel. Be aware that template installationcannot be reversed.

Other

• Legacy charts are hidden in the Li-brary by default—but they can be en-abled through Global Preferences.

• Improved performance on both Statis-tics Collectors and Calculated Tables.

• Added a By Lazy Interval update modeto the Calculated Table. This optionsets the Calculated Table to updateon model reset and then at most onceper update interval, if necessary.

• Added an Ignore Warmup option toStatistics Collectors.

DATA & ANALYSIS

c© 2017 FlexSim Software Products, Inc. www.flexsim.com page 6 of 8

Date Time Source

This new Process Flow activity creates to-kens according to an arrivals table. Youhave the option to create tokens through adate-based interface, or by a repeated dailyor weekly schedule. This activity gives sig-nificant control over arrival schedules, in-cluding how they are spaced within each ar-rival and whether the arrivals start on timeor not.

Other Process Flow

• Added a Wait for Simultaneous Ar-rivals Before Entry option to the Zone.

Excel Interface Improvements

The Excel Import/Export Interface has beenimproved, specifically where the data willbe imported to. It’s now easier to choosethe destination for your imported data, ei-ther by browsing with the green “Add atable” button or by using the Sampler topick a Global or Time Table. Once a tableis selected, you’ll see a preview of the dataalready in the selected table, along with abutton to quickly open the destination ta-ble.

Visual Compatibility

• FlexSim is now compatible with DWG2018 shapes.

• FlexSim is now compatible with thelatest FBX file format, making it pos-sible to use shapes from AutoDesk’sRevit.

Other

• Added functionality to the List’s pullmethod that allows you to pull an ob-ject or node directly, without writingSQL.

• Lists can now use arrays as partitionIDs.

MODELING

c© 2017 FlexSim Software Products, Inc. www.flexsim.com page 7 of 8

• OptQuest can now run more than 10,000solutions.

• Added a new pick option in the GlobalTable’s OnReset trigger to restore de-fault values.

• The Source now adds labels to itemsbefore calling the OnCreation trigger.

• TaskExecuters now connect to the De-faultNavigator when created.

• Updated many stochastic pick optionsto use getstream() as the defaultstream parameter.

MODELING

c© 2017 FlexSim Software Products, Inc. www.flexsim.com page 8 of 8