Currently for all object in FlexSim we have the red, blue, and green cones as handles we can use to resize an object.
Similarly, I was thinking that it could be useful to add the ability to specify input and output port locations for things like queues and processors, using 3D visual handles as well. This could be done either interactively with mouse, or progammatically via FlexScript or even ProcessFlow if desired.
In any case, it would be similar to how you can move (and resize) the little white Entry and Exit transfers around the edges and ends of conveyors.
For queues and processors (actually anything that has ports) it might be operationally similar to those white transfer squares and how the colored cones work.
So for example, when you turn on connectors in a view, you get little red/green triangles that point in (input ports) and out (output ports), with the black connector lines between them.
It would be convenient to be able to grab the little triangles and move them around the object in the XY plane, as well as to middle-wheel move them up and down in the Z direction.
There would also be options for showing them with black connections, or just the triangular I/O handles, or nothing at all.
What this means is that you could have flowitems showing up or departing an object from wherever on the object you desire.
A recent example is when items arrive into a Processor input port, they tend to hang off the left edge of the processor when they arrive, before they start moving across. It would be nice to move that input port location inwards such that the flowitem lands entirely on the surface of the conveyor, without hanging over the edge. Same for output port.
Then, the rate at which the flowitem traverses between the input and output port(s) is calculated by the 3D engine such that it moves across that distance in the process (cycle) time specified. I like to tell people that a flowitem moving across a processor is like a linear clock - its speed changes based on cycle time.
Matt Gillespie provided some nice OnPreDraw code that does the trick. Can that idea be promoted to more general usage case? That is, using visual handles to make the little red/green I/O port triangles moveable.
