Table Of ContentARENDG-RM001D-EN-P_Ttlepage 11/30/07 4:08 PM Page 1
Arena®
TEMPLATE DEVELOPER’S GUIDE
PUBLICATION ARENDG-RM001D-EN-P–November 2007
Supersedes Publication ARENDG-RM001C-EN-P
Contact Rockwell Customer Support Telephone — 1.440.646.3434
Online Support — http://www.rockwellautomation.com/support/
Copyright Notice © 2007 Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in USA.
This document and any accompanying Rockwell Software products are copyrighted by Rockwell Automation
Technologies, Inc. Any reproduction and/or distribution without prior written consent from Rockwell Automation
Technologies, Inc. is strictly prohibited. Please refer to the license agreement for details.
Trademark Notices Arena, Rockwell Automation, and SIMAN are registered trademarks of Rockwell Automation, Inc.
Other Trademarks ActiveX, Microsoft, Microsoft Access, SQL Server, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual SourceSafe, Windows, Windows
ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Adobe, Acrobat, and Reader are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the
United States and/or other countries.
ControlNet is a registered trademark of ControlNet International.
DeviceNet is a trademark of the Open DeviceNet Vendor Association, Inc. (ODVA)
Ethernet is a registered trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel, and Xerox Corporation
OLE for Process Control (OPC) is a registered trademark of the OPC Foundation.
Oracle, SQL*Net, and SQL*Plus are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders and are hereby acknowledged.
Warranty This product is warranted in accordance with the product license. The product’s performance may be affected by system
configuration, the application being performed, operator control, maintenance and other related factors. Rockwell
Automation is not responsible for these intervening factors. The instructions in this document do not cover all the
details or variations in the equipment, procedure, or process described, nor do they provide directions for meeting every
possible contingency during installation, operation, or maintenance. This product’s implementation may vary among
users.
This document is current as of the time of release of the product; however, the accompanying software may have
changed since the release. Rockwell Automation, Inc. reserves the right to change any information contained in this
document or the software at anytime without prior notice. It is your responsibility to obtain the most current information
available from Rockwell when installing or using this product.
Version: 12.00.00 (CPR9)
Modified: October 8, 2007 12:10 pm
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Contents
1 • Welcome 1
What is Arena simulation software? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Intended audience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About this guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Where can I go for help? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Reference the user’s guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Explore our examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Get help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Use the SMARTs library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Access the Arena Symbol Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Get phone support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Get Web support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Get training. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Get consulting services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Contact us. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 • Arena Template Development Overview 7
Modeling with Arena—An overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Templates and panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Module definitions and instances. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Defining a module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Panel icon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
User view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Dialog design and operands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Logic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Elements and properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Arena hierarchy and SIMAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Flowcharts and data modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Use of templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
General modeling tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Industry-oriented environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Application-focused tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Improving modeling productivity and sharing modeling technology . . . . . . . . . 26
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3 • Module-building Tutorial 29
Module overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Getting started—A new template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Dialog Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The dialog design window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Adding the module’s dialog operands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Adding the module's entry/exit point operands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Arranging the Dialog form layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Logic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
The logic window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Overview of the Printer module logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Receiving entities and seizing the printer—The Queue and Seize modules . . . . 42
Deciding whether to changeover the printer—The Decide module. . . . . . . . . . . 44
Changeover logic—Assign, Process, and Assign modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The print logic—Delay and Release modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Defining the Printer module elements—Queues and Variables elements . . . . . . 50
User View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Panel Icon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
A sample model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Preparing the template for use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Single printer simulation model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4 • The Template Window 65
The template menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Creating a new template window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Loading an existing template panel file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Closing a template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Saving the template panel library file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Creating and editing modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The module definitions list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Opening module definition windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Preparing the template panel for use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Checking the template panel for errors and warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Reviewing errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Template panel file reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Generating the template panel object (.tpo) file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Other template panel information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Changing the version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Template options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Defining required modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
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Defining data modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Defining a name operand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Creating copies of module definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Compatibility of existing module instances. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5 • The Dialog Design Window 77
Dialog Design Window overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The Operand Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
The Toolbox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
The dialog form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
The Design Properties grid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Using the Toolbox controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Using the Text control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Using the GroupBox control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Using the Line control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Using the TextBox control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Using the ComboBox control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Using the RadioButtonGroup control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Using the CheckBox control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Using the DialogButton control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Using the RepeatGroupDialog control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Using the RepeatGroupTable control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Using the DateTimePicker control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Using the DatePicker control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Using the TimePicker control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Using the FilePicker control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Using the HiddenOperand control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Using operands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Specifying the Name property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Specifying the LogicProperties property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Specifying the Value property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Specifying the DataType property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Specifying the SwitchName property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Specifying the InUserView property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Hidden operands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Using repeat groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Specifying the Name property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Specifying the LogicProperties property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Repeat group definition depth and reference rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Accessing the number of tuples and the tuple number. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Combining repeating operand values into a single value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Using repeatable modules in the logic window with repeat groups. . . . . . . . . . 107
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Using accelerator keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Dialog Design toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6 • The Logic Window 109
Simulation logic and module design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
The logic window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Differences between logic and model windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Running simulation models (model window) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Referencing operands (logic window) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Switching module instances (logic window) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Defining repeatable logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Module connections in the logic window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Attaching template panels while working in a logic window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Display of animation objects (logic window). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
“Fields” and “operands”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Referencing module data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Referencing operands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Special access for check boxes, radio button groups, and combo boxes . . . . . . 120
Switches in logic window module instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Defining transfer of entities into and out of a module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Referencing non-repeating operands from a repeat group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Referencing repeating operands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Defining repeatable exit points in a module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Repeatable modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Example 1: Parallel logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Example 2: Serial logic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Example 3: Defining alternate outputs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Customized options using radio button and check box controls . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Module connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Using graphical connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Defining multiple connections from a single exit point. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Repeating exit points in the logic window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Switching module instances. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Attaching and detaching switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Effect of switches in the logic window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Using Arena’s utility modules (from utlarena.tpo) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Defining module trace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Logic definition rules and guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
7 • The User View Window 157
Module instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
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Module-related objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
The module handle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
The Module Text Options dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Entry and exit points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Displayed operands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Draw objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Animation objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
User View switch use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
8 • The Switch Window 169
Defining switches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Switch names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Switch definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Switch definition rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
9 • The Panel Icon Window 175
Creating the panel icon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
10 • Elements 177
Defining elements in modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Creating elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Element lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Use of elements and properties in module definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Access to properties in a model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Displaying element lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Defining elements via hierarchy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Element operands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Defining element operands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Sub-lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Defining and referencing elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Property operands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Defining Property operands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Defining repeating properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Defining an element/property using a hidden operand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Switches and elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Special element types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Fixed-length elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Hidden element list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
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Inverted elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
A • Template Design Guidelines 205
Dialog box design (dialog design window) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Operand objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Helpful hints for defining objects in the dialog design window. . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Panel icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
User view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Module logic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Naming conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Template documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Trace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Statistics and reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
B • Tables 211
Elements and properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Standard elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Inverted elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Fixed-length elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Data type definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Connection point data types and SIMAN blocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Entry/exit point types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
C • Creating Online Help Files 269
273
Index 273
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Welcome
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What is Arena simulation software? e
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Arena is an advanced simulation system that provides an interactive environment for e
building, graphically animating, verifying, and analyzing simulation models. With Arena,
you can design a unique Arena template that is specific to your particular project,
company, or industry. The template development features build on Arena’s natural
hierarchical structure enabling you to create new simulation tools in a graphical, easy-to-
use environment.
Within Arena’s template-building area, you create complete simulation building blocks,
called modules. These modules may be very simple, such as one that counts customers as
they leave a bank. Or you might build a highly complex module that captures all of the
activities at a shipyard dock. In fact, Arena’s hierarchy encourages you to take apart the
systems you study into their critical, basic elements, then combine these basic elements
into the more complex components and subsystems to be simulated.
The modules that you build are collected into libraries, referred to as templates. You may
use these templates in support of your own simulation activities, or you may share these
simulation tools with other modelers.
By encouraging this sharing of technology, Arena offers the opportunity for you, as a
simulation modeler, to create completely customized environments, without writing any
programming code. Novice modelers can access the power of simulation as a decision
support tool by working with terminology, modeling logic, and graphical animation that
are specially developed for their needs. Experienced simulationists can improve their
productivity and share the knowledge they have gained by capturing essential simulation
logic and quickly packaging it into a verified, reusable building block for future models.
As mentioned above, within Arena you have the ability to define new modeling
constructs, called modules, and to store them in libraries, referred to as Application
Solution Templates (AST’s), or templates.
If you are familiar with Arena’s model-building and analysis environment, you will find
that the template development features build on the concepts and interface you already
have learned. When you run Arena, you will simply open a Template Window (instead of
a Model Window). Select the File > New menu option or press the New File toolbar
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button. In the dialog that is displayed, select Template Window and click OK, as shown in
Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1 Arena’s Template Window selection
This template window serves as a “home base” for the activities involved in building a
template. The windows that you work with to define modules are displayed on the same
desktop as Arena model, input, and output windows. You interact with these windows
using the standard Arena user interface.
Intended audience
Before you begin to access the capabilities of template building, you should already have
developed a good understanding of the basic Arena modeling interface and the either the
SIMAN template or Arena’s Basic Process, Advanced Process, and Advanced Transfer
templates. This guide assumes that you are familiar with Arena modeling concepts and
terminology, which are presented in the Arena User’s Guide and online help.
About this guide
The Arena Template Developer’s Guide is designed to serve as both an instruction manual
for building templates and as a reference guide for the template-building features. We start
by presenting two chapters that familiarize you with the concepts and terminology
employed in Arena and walk you through a simple module-building tutorial. Following
this, we provide a description of the template window, then of each of the five windows
that you employ to build modules. Next we present Elements, the final concept related to
the definition of Arena modules. Appendix B of this book contains reference tables.
To begin your experience with template development, we recommend that you read
Chapter 2, “Arena Template Development Overview,” to become familiar with Arena
concepts and terminology. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions provided in the
module-building tutorial in Chapter 3. While you are building your first module, you may
want to refer to concepts presented in Chapter 2.
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Description:Arena is an advanced simulation system that provides an interactive environment for building, graphically animating, verifying, and analyzing simulation models.
