The Input Editor allows the user to modify inputs for existing objects or assign inputs to new objects. When an object is selected, its parameters appear in the Input Editor window, grouped under a number of tabs. If a keyword has a default value assigned, it is shown in the Default column.
Hovering the cursor over a keyword will display a tooltip containing a brief description of the keyword and an example input.
The input for a keyword can be modified by clicking on the entry in the Value column and entering a new value with the appropriate units. If an entry is made in the Value column, it will overwrite the default value shown in the Default column. If an input is not valid, an error message will be displayed showing the cause of the error.
The Input Editor uses the same editing conventions as a spreadsheet such as Excel. A cell in the Value column can be either selected or edited:
· If the cell is selected, a new value can be entered that replaces the previous value or it can be deleted by pressing the delete or backspace key. Its value can be copied to the system clipboard by pressing Ctrl+C. A value saved on the system clipboard can be pasted to the cell by pressing Ctrl+V. Model changes can be undone and redone by pressing Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y, respectively. If the input value is an object name, it can be found by pressing Ctrl+F or its 'Help' information can be obtained by pressing F1.
· The value in the selected cell can be edited by clicking or double-clicking on the cell or by pressing F2. The edited value is accepted by pressing the 'Return' key, selecting another input, or by clicking elsewhere in the model. Editing can be aborted by pressing the 'Escape' key.
Depending on the object, different keyword values will have different data types as shown in the following table.
Data Type |
Description |
Examples |
Numbers without units |
A number with or without a decimal point. |
5 5.0 |
Numbers with units |
A number followed by a unit separated by one or more spaces. The unit can be enclosed by square brackets, if preferred. |
1000 mm 1.0 m 0.001 km 0.001 [km] |
Times |
Times can be entered normally as a number and time unit or it can be entered in date/time format. The following formats are supported: hh:mm hh:mm.ss hh:mm:ss.sss, 'YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm' 'YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss' 'YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss.sss' YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sss If the date/time format includes a space, the entire text must be enclosed by a pair of single quotes. |
30.4 h 30:24:00.0 '0000-01-02 06:24:00.0' 0000-01-02T06:24:00.0 |
Vectors and Points |
Values for the three components followed by a unit. One or more spaces separate the values and unit. If only two values are entered, the z-component is assumed to be zero. The unit can be enclosed by square brackets, if preferred. |
2.0 1.0 0.0 m 2.0 1.0 m 2.0 1.0 0.0 [m] |
Expressions |
A formula containing object outputs and/or mathematical functions. Expressions are described in detail in Section 6.1. |
'1 + 2*[Queue1].QueueLength' '2[s] + [Queue1].QueueTimes(1)' |
Booleans |
A value of either TRUE or FALSE (case-sensitive). When entered through the Input Editor, these inputs can also accept t, T, or 1 for TRUE and f, F, 0 for FALSE. |
TRUE FALSE |
Colours |
A colour can be specified by a colour keyword or by RGB values. A list of named colours and their RGB equivalents are given in Section 0. Transparency can be specified by adding a fourth number after the RGB values. |
pink 255 192 203 255 192 203 125 |
Strings |
Text enclosed by a pair of single quotes. The single quotes can be omitted if the text does not include any spaces. |
'Quick red fox' Quick_red_fox |
Objects |
Specified by the object's name. |
Server1 Queue1 |
Braces are used to delineate distinct entries in a list. For example, a list of two points would be entered as { 0.0 1.0 0.0 m } { 1.0 1.0 0.0 m }. When an input has only one set of inner braces, it can be entered without the inner braces. For instance, { 1 2 3 } can be entered as 1 2 3.
A drop-down menu is available for most types of inputs.