Modeling a smoking area

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craig-dickson asked Feb 1, '24 Jason Lightfoot commented Feb 7, '24

Modeling a smoking area

I have a model, built using people (not operator TEs). Some of the people go to a smoking area during breaks. (This is not a healthcare model LOL)

I modeled the smoking area using a Floor Spot Location object. However, the smokers all travel to the center of the area; I'd like each of them to go to a random location within the area. I looked at the Multi Location object, but the options all have chairs, and I don't want them to sit down.

Any suggestions?

Software Version:

FlexSim 23.1.1

people module floor spot

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Jason Lightfoot ♦♦ commented · Feb 07 at 02:04 PM

Hi @craig-dickson, was Felix Möhlmann's answer helpful? If so, please click the "Accept" button at the bottom of their answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

If we haven't heard back from you within 3 business days we'll auto-accept an answer, but you can always comment back to reopen your question.

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Answer 1 · 2024-02-01T07:10:27Z

Felix Möhlmann answered Feb 1, '24 Felix Möhlmann commented Feb 2, '24

You could determine a random location within the boundaries of the Floor Spot and have the people travel there with a 'Travel To Loc' activity.

random-position-in-location-fm.fsm

random-position-in-location-fm.fsm (42.6 KiB)

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craig-dickson commented · Feb 01 at 09:46 PM

@Felix Möhlmann Question though: If I do not check "Ignore inactive ..." in the A*, the floor spot seems to have a capacity of exactly one. Is there a way to give a floor spot a specific (larger) capacity?

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Felix Möhlmann craig-dickson commented · Feb 02 at 07:28 AM

The Floor Storage only encopasses a finite amount of grid cells, depending on its size and the granularity of the grid. If two or more people generate coordinates whose closest cell is the same, obviously only one person can stand there at a time. The same is true if the route to reach the destination point leads through a cell where a person stands. The A* navigator will not route around those, so the people are stuck until the blocker moves on.

One way to work around this might be to:

- Discretize the available spaces, so a cell is only assigned once.
- Assign them in order from farthest to closest to avoid blocking:
- Also use preferred paths to further avoid standing people blocking others that have not reached their target yet.

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1706858708802.png (61.6 KiB)

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