Getting Started

GETTING STARTED WITH ARENA
Transfer the drawing to Arena
When you’re ready to simulate your process, it’s a simple matter of selecting the
Simulate Drawing item from the Simulate menu. This tool opens Arena and
translates your Visio process map into an Arena simulation model. When the process
is complete, you have an Arena model containing modules from the Basic Process
panel that mirror the shapes you used from the Visio Process Simulation stencil,
including the properties and connections you specified in Visio.
In Arena, you can set the simulation run length on the Run > Setup page. If you do
not define the run length, you can stop the simulation at any time by clicking the
Pause button and then the End button.
To run the simulation, click Arena’s Go button. Your entities will animate the
flowchart as the simulation proceeds, just as if you had created the model directly in
Arena. Because the process is being simulated in Arena with the standard Basic
Process modules, you have all of Arena’s capabilities at your disposal, including
reports on all aspects of your process from the Reports panel selections.
After you have simulated your process, you can save the Arena model (.doe) file to
continue work in Arena, or you can close it to return to Visio for continued
modifications. Because the transfer of the Visio drawing is from Visio to Arena (but
not vice versa from Arena to Visio), it’s usually best to return to Visio. However, you
might want to save the Arena model in case you want to review the simulation or
results as you’re refining the Visio process map.
Simulate other Visio drawings
In addition to simulating process maps using the Process Simulation add-in, you can
also simulate process maps created using other Visio stencils. Arena provides a shape
map editor to define the relationship between the shapes in the Visio stencils and the
modules in Arena’s Basic Process panel. Arena’s online help describes how to use
this feature, which is accessed by opening the Tools > Options menu and clicking on
the Visio Options tab.
180