SimEntity

The SimEntity object is the basic entity that is passed through a process flow type model.

The main feature of SimEntity is that its state can be assigned at various stages of the process flow.  Process Flow objects that can receive a SimEntity, such as Server and Queue, can assign a state to the received SimEntity using their StateAssignment keyword. For example, if the StateAssignment input for a Queue is set to "Waiting", then the state for each SimEntity received by the Queue will be set to "Waiting" when it arrives at the Queue.  The SimEntity will remain in this state until it is set to a new state by a subsequent object.

The time spent a SimEntity in each state can be accessed using its StateTimes output.  For example, the total time spent by the SimEntity in the state "Waiting" is given by StateTimes("Waiting").

Unlike other objects, the StateTimes data for a SimEntity is not cleared at the end of the initialization period (warm-up).  This is done to avoid having a Statistics object record artificially small times for some states that would be become the minimum times for those states.

SimEntity Inputs

Keyword

Description

Key Inputs

 

Description

A free-form string describing the object.

DefaultStateList

A list of states that will always appear in the output report, even if no time is recorded for this state.

InitialState

The state of the SimEntity at the start of the simulation run or when it is first created during a simulation run.

Options

 

AttributeDefinitionList, CustomOutputList

See Section 6.2.

Format

 

StateGraphics

A list of state/DisplayEntity pairs.  For each state, the graphics will be changed to those for the corresponding DisplayEntity, e.g.

{ Idle DisplayEntity1 } { Working DisplayEntity2 }

Graphics

 

Position, Alignment, Size, Orientation, Region, RelativeEntity, DisplayModel, Show, Movable, VisibleViews, DrawRange

See Section 11.1.

SimEntity Outputs

Output Name

Description

Entity and DisplayEntity

 

Name, ObjectType, SimTime, Parent, Attributes, Custom Outputs, Position, Size, Orientation, Alignment, GraphicalLength, ObserverList, NextList, PreviousList

See Section 11.1.

StateEntity

 

State, WorkingState, WorkingTime, StateTimes, TotalTime

See Section 10.3.