The Fluid Conveyor is used to control fluid flow through the use of multiple input and output ports. Inputs and outputs may be placed anywhere along the length of the conveyor. The direction, speed, acceleration and angle of repose along with the length and width of the conveyor are all factors that will affect where material rests inside the conveyor and when and to which output port the material will be sent.
Details
Speed and Direction: The Fluid Conveyor cannot have a negative speed. If the target direction is changed, the Fluid Conveyor will decelerate to 0 speed and then accelerate to the target speed.
Slices: In order to simulate a moving fluid material, the Fluid Conveyor breaks all of its content up into a series of slices defined by the user. The more slices in the conveyor, the higher the resolution. This also means there is more processing required to move and repose the material through all the slices.
Inputs: Inputs are defined over a range of slices. For every tick where material moved into the Fluid Conveyor from one of the input ports, the incoming material will be spread evenly through all of the slices that fall inside the input range.
Outputs: Outputs are defined at one point along the conveyor. Each output has a forward and reverse output percentape as well as a stopped rate. The forward and reverse percentages specify the total percentage of material that should exit through that output based on the current direction. If the output cannot handle all of the material, it is either spilled onto the floor (see Allow Spillage) or it will pass the output. The stopped rate will cause material to flow through the output when the conveyor is stopped. For example, if the stopped rate is 0.1 and the material sitting on top of an output is 0.5, the output will take 0.1 fluid units per tick, until there is no more fluid available to take.
Angle of Repose: The angle of repose defines the material's steepest angle of descent of the slope relative to the horizontal plane. This angle ranges between 0 and 90 degrees. For example, dirt has an angle of repose of 30-45°, dry sand 34°, wet sand 15-30°, and water is 0°. The fluid conveyor also has a repose rate. A value of 0 will cause the Angle of Repose to be ignored.
Repose Rate: The repose rate defines how quickly a reposing pile of material will reach its natural resting state (based on the angle of repose). The repose subroutine will be run the number of times specified in this field (the larger the number, the more processing time it mell take each tick to repose). A value between 1 and 10 is usually sufficient.
Allow Spillage: If allow spillage is checked on the Inputs/Outputs page, the fluid conveyor will try to send the full percentage of material to each output. Any material that cannot be handled by the downstream object will be spilled onto the floor. Any material that is unable to leave the conveyor through on output port that reaches the end of the fluid conveyor will also spill onto the floor. The spillage amount is recorded an a total amount of material spilled.
Sensors: Similar to the Fluid Tank's Marks, sensors can be added anywhere along the length of the Fluid Conveyor. These sensors can be set up to be triggered based on the Peak Height of a section, or on the total Volume of the section. Each sensor has a Start and an End position. This marks the range over which the sensor will look for the specific values. You can also specify the low, mid, and high values for each sensor. When fluid passes one of these values, a Sensor Trigger is fired.
States
Flowing - The Fluid Conveyor has material but is stopped. Material is settling and flowing through outputs.
Releasing - The Fluid Conveyor is sending material downstream and no material is entering.
Collecting - The Fluid Conveyor is collecting material and no material is leaving.
Not Empty - The Fluid Conveyor is stopped and no material is entering or leaving.
Empty - The Fluid Conveyor is conveying but has no material in it.
Idle - The Fluid Conveyor is stopped and there is no material in it.
Conveying - The Fluid Conveyor has material that is currently being moved along the length of the trough at a speed > 0.
Properties pages
Fluid Conveyor
Inputs/Outputs
Sensors
Triggers
Labels
General
