FlexSim 2020 Update 2 Beta Available

FlexSim 2020 Update 2 Beta is available. (Updated 22 July 2020)

To get the beta, log in to your account at www.flexsim.com, then go to the Downloads section, and click on More Versions. It will be at the top of the list.

If you have bug reports or other feedback on the software, please email [email protected] or create a new idea in the Development space.

Release Notes

Updated the run speed slider so you can customize the ratio of display units to real seconds.
Moved object properties windows into the context sensitive Properties window (formerly known as Quick Properties).
Added a new Quick Properties window that appears next to your cursor when double clicking on an object.
Added a pop-out button to the Labels panel of the Properties window.
Added a Dark theme for FlexSim's UI.
Added Unit edit buttons to more edit fields.
Updated the Quick Library to match the current state of collapsed and expanded panels in the main library.
Removed the View Settings window and moved all its options into the Properties window.
Improved performance of Properties window and various other UIs.
Added Object Property tables.
Added Object class properties and methods to the Variant class in FlexScript. This removes the need to use .as(Object) if you know the treenode pointed at by a Variant is an Object.
Added Object.resetPosition property.
Added capture groups to the string.replace() method.
Enabled several SQL clauses - NOT, NOT IN, DELETE FROM, INSERT INTO, and LEFT JOIN/LEFT OUTER JOIN.
Added ARRAY_VAL() sql function for accessing a value in an array.
Added unit conversions to the convert() command - convert(4.5, "ft/min", MODEL_UNITS).
Improved performance of loading media by making it multi-threaded.
Added Color.fromPalette options to several Set Color popups.
Added a pickoption for the Source's On Creation trigger for attaching items to an Object process flow.
Disabled the beeping noise when pressing Enter in edit fields.
Fixed the Create Object edit mode sometimes not creating objects and just exiting (like when clicking on the library when the User Manual was active).
Fixed a draw issue with tables drawing bold text sometimes.
Fixed a bug with window docking.

Backwards Compatibility Note: the following changes may slightly change the way updated models behave.

Changed updatehotlinks() to only repaint the view if it applies a node with a viewsyncupdate attribute of 1.
The keywords VALUES an DELETE were added to the sql parser. This means that previous models that use the term VALUES, Values, values, DELETE, etc. will get an error because sql now sees it as a special keyword. If you get this error, just wrap your term with square brackets: [Values] to tell the parser to not interpret it as a sql keyword.

Agent

Added the Agent module to the Flexsim Installer.
Enabled A* walls as static agents.
Added a neighbors() function to the Agent API.
Fixed social forces for agents not in model space.
Fixed bugs with using A* bridges.

AGV

The join tool now joins in all cases, defaulting to a straight path if it can't solve for a curved path.

Conveyor

The join tool now joins in all cases, defaulting to a straight conveyor if it can't solve for a curved conveyor.

Emulation

Added Allen-Bradley connections.

People

Improved performance of state history tables.
Fixed listening to travel events on a person created with the Create Person activity.

Process Flow

Added new Kinematics activities.
Added new Warehousing activities.
Added an Enabled checkbox to the Source activities so that you can turn them off.
Consolidated Fixed Resource and Task Executer process flow types into a single "Object" type.
Added a right-click menu option to the 3D view so a user can right-click on an object and add an Object process flow directly.
Added an Object Flow field to the Create Object activity and added a pickoption for attaching items to an instanced flow.
Changed double clicking on an activity to be more consistent with the 3D view and now opens the activity's properties window. This window now has a name edit field so you can still easily rename the activity. You can also slow double click to only open the old name edit field.
Improved performance of activity properties windows.

Harald Emsbroek commented · Jul 31, 2020 at 11:51 AM

There are two things that I noticed:

1. When saving a model, the file size increases a lot. Just start with an empty model, add a source, and save this model. This model file is only 29kB. Now I open the "new" properties, and then save the model again. The model file is now 1.166kB! It looks like a lot of GUI information is stored in the Tools/Workspace node.

2. The help manual has been removed, and it's replaced by an online version. How do I add my own (local) manual files?

I'm using the 22-July Beta.

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Matthew Gillespie ♦♦ Harald Emsbroek commented · Jul 31, 2020 at 08:39 PM

@harald.e

1. Thanks for pointing this out. We'll look into it.

2. We will be posting a User Manual installer for those who wish to install the files locally.

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Mischa Spelt Matthew Gillespie ♦♦ commented · Aug 03, 2020 at 12:36 PM

Thanks @matthew.gillespie. Does that mean that if we create a "private" module for a customer, they will have to install the whole User Manual locally in order to create module documentation? Any suggestions how to do this for "public" modules like FloWorks?

Show more comments

Dawid Dabal commented · Jul 09, 2020 at 07:42 AM

Congrats on the new release.

Small issue I've noticed:

In code editor when using dark mode highlighting error makes code unreadable and very hard to correct.

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lightmode.png (8.7 KiB)

darkmode.png (7.8 KiB)

Jacob Gillespie ♦ Dawid Dabal commented · Jul 09, 2020 at 04:12 PM

@Dawid Dabal Thanks for testing out the Dark Mode! This will be improved in the next version of the beta.

Matthew Gillespie ♦♦ Dawid Dabal commented · Jul 22, 2020 at 09:22 PM

This issue is fixed in the 22-July Beta.

Mischa Spelt commented · Aug 04, 2020 at 10:12 AM

I noticed that the new properties popup does not do bulk editing, like the Quick Properties do:

Since these are now basically quick properties in a popup, I sort of expected it to work. Is this intentional?

properties-bulk-edit.gif (203.3 KiB)

Matthew Gillespie ♦♦ Mischa Spelt commented · Aug 04, 2020 at 03:18 PM

There's a bug in the beta that's causing the Selected Objects panel to not populate correctly the first time. Collapse that panel and then expand it again and then it populates correctly. Now the bulk editing should work.

We've fixed this issue for the next release.