How to Combine two items in Process flow and have them shown in the Model??

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GRodea asked Jun 14, '23 Joerg Vogel commented Jun 15, '23

How to Combine two items in Process flow and have them shown in the Model??

I am using only Process flow. I am trying to "pack" items into a Tote and I want them to be visible in the model. (I mean that a tote with 20 items inside can be seen in the 3d model) So when a Tote is full with 20 items, can then be moved to the Warehouse and stacked. And later on in the simulation, be broken down for further processing individually.

I want this to be visual, I mean, the operator to arrange the items into the tote and then grouped to be moved by a forklift.

Any clues how to achieve this?

Software Version:

FlexSim 23.1.2

process flow 3d model combine

· 2

Natalie White commented · Jun 14, 2023 at 02:20 PM

Hi @GRodea,

It's hard to know how to help without looking at your model. To receive a more accurate solution, please post your model or a sample model that demonstrates your question.

Proprietary models can be posted as a private question visible only to FlexSim U.S. support staff. You can also contact your local FlexSim distributor for phone or email help.

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GRodea Natalie White commented · Jun 14, 2023 at 02:32 PM

Thanks for your prompt answer:

Previously was not possible to upload but now I found a way to do it.

combine and shown in 3d.fsm

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combine-and-shown-in-3d.fsm (52.3 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2023-06-14T15:12:32Z

Joerg Vogel answered Jun 14, '23 Joerg Vogel commented Jun 15, '23

Combining is building a sub tree structure. A tote owns a mechanism to pack other items into subnodes. You can move items into a tote simply by the same called activity [move object] or by an unload activity. You want to let pack an operator items in a tote. Then you have to let him travel to this tote and unload items into a tote, The tote is the destination of this unload activity.
i would unload a tote into a 3D processor, change the location of the tote and stop the processor until all items are loaded into the tote then I call resume on this processor to get a process time for a statistic.

Edit links to properties and methods.

https://docs.flexsim.com/en/23.1/Reference/CodingInFlexSim/FlexScriptAPIReference/Tree/Object.html#Method-stop

https://docs.flexsim.com/en/23.1/Reference/CodingInFlexSim/FlexScriptAPIReference/Tree/Object.html#Method-resume

https://docs.flexsim.com/en/23.1/Reference/ProcessFlowObjects/TaskSequences/Unload/Unload.html

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GRodea commented · Jun 15, 2023 at 08:50 AM

Thanks a lot for the proposal. Is there any way to do it without coding? I do not know how to do the coding part in flexsim.

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Felix Möhlmann GRodea commented · Jun 15, 2023 at 10:43 AM

If you have a way to refer to the tote you can unload directly into it. In the attached model I use the expression Model.find("FinishedGoods").last for this. ".last" accesses the subnode with the highest rank (in most cases the item that entered last).

To be sure that this 'last' tote is always available and always the correct one, I create a new tote immediately after the previous one is full.

combine-and-shown-in-3d_1.fsm

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combine-and-shown-in-3d-1.fsm (52.7 KiB)

Joerg Vogel GRodea commented · Jun 15, 2023 at 01:16 PM

@GRodea, you have assigned a label MetalBox at a foreign token other then at your main process. I have transferred this reference over a list to your main process. I erased a loop structure which increments a label and moves the same product from your tote to the tote several times. This does make no sense. I keep the tote on the list, until more than 19 items are in the tote. Then there is a reference for another tote is missing. This will cause new errors.

69723-combine-and-shown-in-3d-JV.fsm

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69723-combine-and-shown-in-3d-jv.fsm (56.5 KiB)

Joerg Vogel GRodea commented · Jun 15, 2023 at 01:19 PM

@GRodea, process flow is graphical assisted programming! From time to time you have to add source code snippets to read properties and attributes.

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