I need to model an auto repair facility. We need to use AStar for the navigator, so that we can use the heat map feature, and we like the visual of the original Elevator to represent the hoist. I am getting close to a smooth flow solution, but still have some problems.
1. It makes sense that the vehicles being repaired should be flow items, so that we can set up arrival patterns etc., but I don't see an easy way to have them move independently using AStar. A previous answer (which isn't visible right now) talked about using a "contextdragconnection" command in a trigger to add the flow item to the AStar navigator. Is this the only way to do it?
2. In the attached model I use a task executor to model the vehicle, just to get something going. I have discovered through trial and error that the only way to get a smooth transition onto and off the elevator is to have the elevator take control and use the Load and Unload activities in Process Flow. So, you are treating the TE vehicle as if it was a flow item, and that works ok. On the Unload side though I am having trouble with where the elevator should unload to, and after the unload is finished the vehicle jumps to a location on the RHS of the AStar grid.
This is using "model()" as the unload station:
Even if I follow the Unload activity with a Travel to a visual object "EndPos", it still does the jerky move first.
I tried unloading to a "FlexSimEventHandler" and picked AStarNavigator:
but this doesn't really help, and the vehicle shows up inside the navigator on the tree, which might be a problem. Similarly, if I use the visual element "EndPos" as the unload Station it ends up inside "EndPos" in the tree, but visually it jumps to a random location OUTSIDE the AStar grid area.
3. What if I want the vehicle to back out of the hoist? Can still use the Unload to do that, or do I just need to override it with a Travel command and a "Move Object" to move it out of the elevator in the tree?
Can anyone shed any light on this behavior?
Also, I could not find any documentation of the "FlexSimEventHandler" in the User Manual. Can you give me any info on why you would use this instead of just using the dropper to pick a 3D location?
Thanks
