The fluidmixer is used to combine products together into a single, new product. The different materials can either be pulled sequentially or in parallel. The Mixer always works in batches. It does not send any material until it has received and processed all the material that it was set to receive.
Details
The fluidmixer pulls material from one or more input ports and mixes it together. The modeller defines the ProductID of the material that is released by the Mixer. The sub-components of the mix will be a mixture of the sub-components of the material that was pulled in. The sub-component percentages are based on how much of each incoming product is mixed together.
The modeller defines a series of steps that the Mixer will go through. These steps are defined in the Step Table. Each step can pull material from zero or more input ports at the same time. A delay time can also be defined that begins after all the material for the step has been collected. The next step will not begin until after the delay time is over. In addition, the modeller is given a trigger that fires before the delay at a step a trigger that fires after the delay (but before the next step starts). These triggers can be used for things like calling an operator to perform work during the delay. The modeller can assign a text description to each of the steps in the table. This description is displayed near the object's name in the model view window. It does not affect the behavior of the object.
The modeller defines how much material comes in by using the Mixer's Recipe Table. Each row of the table represents material coming from a single input port during a single step. Each row has four columns: the ingredient name, the port number, the step number and the amount. The name is a string that describes the material being pulled in by that row. It is for the modeller's benefit only. The Mixer ignores the value. The port number is the input port that the material will be pulled from. The step number is the step in the Step Table the Mixer must be in to pull this material. Once the Mixer has pulled the correct amount for a given row, it will not pull any more material for that row, even if the other rows in the same step are not complete yet. The amount is the actual amount of material that will be pulled from the specified port during the specified step.
Different materials will be pulled in parallel if they have the same step number. They will be pulled in series if they have different step numbers. It is possible (and often very useful) to have a recipe that calls for some ingredients to be pulled in parallel and others to be pulled in series. There is no limit on the number of steps or ingredients that can be defined. There is also no limit on the number of ingredients that can be pulled during any single step. If the modeller wishes to have material pulled from the same input port during multiple steps, they have to define multiple rows in the Recipe Table.
Because the Mixer controls which ports it will pull from at any point in time, the modeller does not have access to the input port scale factors. They can, however, edit the object's maximum input rate and maximum port rate. It is very important that they make sure that the maximum object rate is high enough to allow input from multiple ports if their recipe requires that. Once the delay after the final step is complete, the user has control over the output rates and scale factors. They can change these values with the AdjustOutputRates function. This function is not called until the Mixer has finished collecting everything. Once the Mixer is finished collecting and processing a batch, the function is called during every tick. It is not called while the Mixer is still working through the Step Table.
The Mixer provides a visual display of the material that has been received at any point in the process. The level indicator bar will not show the Mixer's color until the delay time of the last step is complete. Before that time, the level indicator is a series of layers of different colors. There is one layer for each ingredient in the Recipe. The colors of the layers are the colors of the upstream objects that the Mixer is receiving material from. The size of each layer is the percentage of the total batch that has been pulled for that ingredient. This multi-color bar is a good indicator of what is happening in a Mixer at any given time.
States
Empty - The Mixer has nothing in it and is waiting to start step 1.
Filling - The Mixer is receiving material for its current step.
Starved - The Mixer has not completed its Step Table, but there is no material coming into it.
Releasing - The Mixer has completed the Step Table and is sending the finished product downstream.
Blocked - The Mixer has completed the Step Table, but is unable to send material downstream.
Properties pages
Mixer
Steps
Triggers
FluidLevelDisplay
Labels
General
