Topics
Time Tables are accessed from the Toolbox. (View menu > Toolbox > Add > Time Table).
Time tables are used to schedule state changes, such as scheduled down-time, for specific objects in the model. Each Time Table may control many objects, and each object may be controlled by many Time Tables. A model may contain any number of Time Tables.
Functions
When the time table hits a down time, two sets of functions are called. First, the Down Function is fired. This happens once for each member of the Time Table. This allows you to stop the associated object, send a TaskExecuter to some specified location, etc. After all of the Down Functions have fired, the On Down function will fire once. The On Down function passes in the list of members and the table row associated with the down time.
Down State and State Profiles
For each down time you can specify the state and state profile that the members will go to during that down period. An object can be tied to multiple Time Tables and be stopped multiple times. Each object stores it's set of states each time it is stopped so the object can then be resumed and move back through the subsequent set of states.
State Profiles: When sending objects to a down state using state profiles, all members of the Time Table should have the associated state profile.
Modes
The timetable can be set up in different modes allowing for non-repeating/repeating schedules or schedules based upon date and time. The Daily Repeat, Weekly Repeat, and Date Based modes all utilize the Model Start Time and Date as defined in the Model Settings.
None
When the mode is set to none, the times listed in the table are absolute times based upon the model time units. The schedule will not repeat.
Daily Repeat
This graphical view allows you to specify the Operation Time and Down Time If you set your Time Table to repeat daily, the Model Start Time (as defined in the Model Settings). The Model Start Date does not come into effect. For example, if your Model Start Time is set to 08:00:00 AM and your Graphical Table looks like the above table, the members of the Time Table will begin the Model in an Operational state, and no functions will be fired. If however, you change the Model Start Time to 07:00:00 AM, when you reset and run your model, the Down functions will fire and the members will begin in a Down state. One hour later (based on the model time units, so 3600 seconds if the model time is set to seconds), the Resume functions will be fired and the members will begin their Operational Time.
Weekly Repeat
Setting the Time Table to repeat weekly will behave similarly to the Repeat Daily, except that the Time Table will also take into account the Model start day of the week. If the Model Start Time begins on a Tuesday at 08:00:00 AM and our Time Table is set to the above values, then the Time Table will skip all of Monday and jump to Tuesday at 08:00:00 AM with the Time Table's members being Operational. When the Model Time hits Friday at 05:00:00 PM, the members will go Down and remain down until Monday at 08:00:00 AM where the Time Table will start over.
Note: If you want to use the Graphical Time Table to build your Time Table, but you don't want to tie into the Model Start Time, you can set the Time Table's repeat time to Daily or Weekly, make your necessary changes, hit Apply, then set the Repeat time to Custom. This will auto fill the numerical table with the correct values associated with the Daily or Weekly table.
Custom Repeat
The custom repeat mode is similar to the None mode, except you now have the option of specifying the repeat time for the table.
Date Based
The date based mode allows you to set up down times where each down time is associated with a specific date. These dates are based upon the Model Start Date and Time (as defined in the Model Settings) as well as a Time Table start date and time. This mode does not repeat.
In the above image, this Time Table has been set to start at 8:00 AM on 6/30/14. The first down time is set for 5:00 PM. If the Model Start Date and Time is set to the same start date and time as the Time Table, the associated members will start operational and go down at 5:00 PM. Changing the Time Table's start time to 09:00 AM will cause the members to go down at 6:00 PM in the model's time. Changing the Model Start Date and Time will allow you to jump into the Time Table's scheduled at the specified time.
See the Reference page for more information on how to use the date based interface.
