Dear FlexSim Team,
FlexSim is the third simulator I used - before FlexSim I used Arena and Plant Simulation (formerly eM-Plant). When I started using FlexSim the lack of some modes of simulation run , available in Arena and Plant Simulation, was significant for me. That's the reason I propose to extend the number of modes the user can run the model.
Currently only two modes of simulation run are available in FlexSim (please correct me if I am wrong): 1) "Run" - continuous simulation, full animation, 2) "Step" - discrete simulation, moving between model discrete states (disadvantage - the user has to click "Step" permanently in order to imitate discrete simulation).
I propose to extend the number of available modes of simulation run in FlexSim. I propose to add the following modes: 3) "Discrete Run" - discrete simulation run, without the necessity to click "Step" permanently (it's like "Run" -> "Go" in Arena); the animation shows only model view in discrete states, 4) "Discrete Run without animation", like "Discrete Run", but with no animation (in order to conduct the calculations faster; it's like "Run" -> "Fast Forward" in Arena).
Thus the actual "Run" command would be named "Continuous Run".
The lack of modes I propose to include in FlexSim is also the problem from the educational point of view. My students ask me: "OK, you explained us that simulation of processes is basically discrete simulation, but the basic simulation in FlexSim is continuous one. Why?" And I have to explain, what's going on :-| Please take into account also this issue.
Regards,
Jack Diakun
Poznań University of Technology
Poland
