Simulation with Arena

Chapter 4 

Working with Arena

What We’ll Do ... 

• User interface 

• Menus (including Running) 

• Toolbars 

• Help 

• Model windows 

• Drawing 

• Printing 

• Running 

• Building the simple processing model 

Simulation with Arena — Chapter 4 — Working with Arena 

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Basic Interaction 

• True Windows 95/NT application 

– Usual behavior of mouse, keyboard, selecting, dragging, 

resizing, menus, buttons, folder tabs 

– Usual window operations — resize, reposition, layer, 

maximize, minimize, close 

• Usual file operations 

– New, Open, Save, Save As, Print, Print Preview 

• Cut/Copy/Paste 

– Within an Arena window 

– Between Arena windows 

– Between Arena, other apps (when sensible) 


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• Miscellaneous 

Basic Interaction (cont’d.) 

– Object-oriented: select an object, then act on it 

– Undo/Redo 

– Right (secondary) mouse button 

• Repeat last action 

• Bail out of current action 

– Drawing: hold Shift to constrain lines to 45 0 

, rectangles to 

squares, ellipses to circles, etc. 

– Cycle among open Arena windows: Ctrl+Tab 

– Duplicate selection: Ctrl+D — then move it, edit it 


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Menus 

• File, Edit, View, Tools, Arrange, Module, Run, 

Window, Help 

– If no model window open: just File, View, Tools, Help 

• Standard Windows operations in usual menus 

– File menu has Open, Save, Save As, etc. 

– Edit menu has Cut, Copy, Paste, etc. 

– Help menu 

– etc. 

– So focus below on Arena-specific things in menus 

• Many menu items have toolbar buttons too 


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File Menu 

• New, Open..., Save, Save As... 

• Import CAD DXF files for “backdrop” 

• Color palette 

• Print, Print Preview 

• Send mail 

– Attach .doe files 

• Recent models 

• Exit Arena 


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Edit Menu 

• Undo/Redo 

• Cut, Copy, Paste 

• Paste Link (OLE link) 

• Duplicate, Delete selected object 

• Select All, Deselect All 

• Find — searches through all modules in current 

model for text string (for slobs who forget what 

names they’ve chosen, or for poor typists) 

• Links — info, control links to other kinds of 

documents 

• Insert, edit Objects from other applications 


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View Menu 

• Zooming In (down), Out (up) 

• Named views 

– Pre-defined by Arena, you 

– Go to defined views (hot keys better) 

• Grid — display, Snap, settings 

• Layers — what model objects show up in what 

mode 

• Toolbars — what “button” collections show up 

• Status bar (check, uncheck) — state, coords. 


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Tools Menu 

• Separate applications related to Arena model 

building and analysis 

– Input Analyzer 

– Output Analyzer 

• Scenario Manager 

• License information 

• Add-Ins installed 

• Visual Basic Editor to write VBA code for model 

(see Chapter 10) 

• Options… — control many aspects of how Arena 

works, looks 


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Arrange Menu 

• For drawing objects 

• Bring selected object to Front, Send it to 

Back — for “stacking” effects 

• Group, Ungroup objects 

• Flip object around Vertical, Horizontal line 

• Rotate object 

• Snap selected object to Grid 

• Change point on object that gets snapped 


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• Connection controls 

– Connect tool 

Module Menu 

– Auto-Connect newly placed module to selected module — 

toggle on/off 

– Smart Connections — new connections in 

horizontal/vertical segments rather than one diagonal 

segment — toggle on/off 


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• Template Panel 

Module Menu (cont’d.) 

– Attach (easier to use Attach… tab) 

– Detach — even if model has modules from it 

• Show — toggle for module’s name on screen 

or just its animation picture 

• Breakpoint — attach to module to interrupt 

during run (for debugging) 


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Run Menu 

• Entries to run, check, pause, step through 

• Alternatives to watch execution, view results (or 

errors) 

• Control how run goes and is displayed 

• Most capabilities on Run or Run Interaction 

Toolbar, and will be described a bit later in detail 


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Window Menu 

• Cascade, Tile multiple open model windows 

• Arrange Icons for any minimized model windows 

• Use system Background Color — use Windows 

colors rather than Arena settings 

• List of open model windows 


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Help Menu 

• One of several ways to get into Help system 

• Arena Help Topics — TOC, Index, Find 

• Using Help — general info about Windows Help 

systems 

• List of attached templates — click to get Help on 

that one 

• Introduction… — as at startup 

• Tip of the Day 

• About Arena… version number, etc. 


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Toolbars 

• Collections of buttons for “frequent” operations 

– Most (not all) are duplication of menu entries 

• Standard, View, Arrange, Draw, Color, Animate, 

Template, Run, Run Interaction, Integration 

• View/Toolbars (or right-click in a toolbar area) to 

decide which ones show up, which to hide 

• Toolbars can be torn off (“floating” palettes), or 

“docked” to an edge of screen 

• Arena remembers your Toolbar configuration for 

next time 


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Help 

• Extensive, comprehensive online system — 

replaces traditional manuals 

• Interlinked via hypertext for cross referencing 

• Multiple entry points, including Help menu 

• Welcome screen described in Chapt. 3 

• button for context-sensitive help 

• button in many dialogs 

• button (What’s This?) for info on items 

• Tool tips — leave mouse motionless on 

something, get little yellow sticky note 


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Model Windows 

• Where you build, edit, run a model 

• Can have several open at once 

• Really a “window” on the “world” — (x, y) 

coordinates in world units 

• Open existing models (default .doe extension) 

• Create new (blank) model windows 

• Save, Save As... 

• Add modeling constructs — click from template, 

drop into model 


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Drawing 

• Draw via toolbar buttons only (no menus): 

• Line, Polyline (hold Shift key for 45 0 

), Arc, Bezier 

Curve 

• Box, Polygon, Ellipse (fill, line, shade) 

• Text (font, size, style, color) 

• Visible/Hidden setting — show during animation? 

• Change position, size, color 

• By far best way to learn: just play around 


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Printing 

• Can print directly from Arena 

• Supports color 

• Big models — many pages 

• Also will print any Named Views separately 

– Print Preview, select only what you want for printing 

• PrintScreen key — sends screen to clipboard, 

paste into another application 

– Alt+PrintScreen — sends only active window to clipboard 


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Running 

• Run Menu; Run & Run Interaction Toolbars 

• Go ( ) — run simulation “normally” (depends on 

Options... selected from Tools menu) 

• Step ( ) — one “step” at a time (verify, debug) 

• Fast-Forward ( ) — disable animation (faster) 

• Pause ( ) — freeze run, resume with Go 

• Start Over ( ) — go back to beginning of 

simulation 

• End ( ) — get out of run mode 


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Running (cont’d.) 

• Check Model ( ) — like compiling 

• Review Errors — for most recent Check 

• View Results — Summary for most recent run 

• SIMAN — see, save underlying SIMAN .mod, .exp 

files generated from your Arena model 

• Command ( ) — bring up interactive commandline 

window to control run 

• Break… ( ) — set times, conditions to interrupt 

for checks, illustration 


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Running (cont’d.) 

• Trace… ( ) — generate detailed history 

(debugging) 

• Watch… ( ) — bring up a window to watch a 

variable or expression during run 

• Report… ( ) — see a numerical status when 

Paused 

• Setup… — alter run conditions (animation on/off, 

full-screen during run animation) 

• Speed — control speed of animation display (< 

and > keys easier) 


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Building the Simple Processing 

Model 

• Open a new model window 

• Attach Common template (if not auto-attached — 

check Tools/Options/Toolbars tab) 

• Drop in Arrive, Server, Depart, Simulate, two 

Animate modules 

• Double-click, edit modules as indicated in text 

• Connect logic modules as required 

• Dress up with drawing, text 

• Run 

• The “Display” notation used from here on 

– Module handle/animation, completed dialog(s), table 

showing what to enter (omitting defaults) 


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Display for the Arrive Module 

Enter Data 

Station In Door 

Arrival Data 

Time Between EXPO(5.0) 

Mark Time Attribute Time of Arrival 

Leave Data 

Connect select 


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Display for the Server Module 

Enter Data 

Station Machine 

Server Data 

Process Time TRIA(1,4,8) 

Leave Data 

Connect select 


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Display for the Depart Module 


Enter Data 

Station Out Door 

Count 

Individual Counter select 

Counter Productio 

Tally 

Individual Tally select 

Tally Flowtime 

Attribute Time of Arrival 

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Animate Module and Plot: 

Queue Length 


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Animate Module and Plot: 

Number Busy 


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Display for the Simulate Module 

Project 

Title Simple Processing System 

Analyst Desdemona Rocketship 

Replicate 

Length of Replication 15 


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Simulation with Arena

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?