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Tips and Techniques
Here is the PKG file that is used with this tip: On Screen Counters. You must have a version of ProModel in order to run this file.

Adding nice on-screen variable tables

If you are going to be making presentations with your simulation models, you need them looking nice. Oftentimes, you would like to have tables of variables on your model layout so that you can see how everything in the model is going while the model is running. How can you make your variable tables look professional? Try the following technique.

Let’s say I would like to track the throughput of 50 different products while the model is running. Here’s what I would do.

1) Create the frame and labels for the 50 products in Excel. I will have a column with labels and another column that I leave empty where I will place my variable counters. It looks nice if you put thin-line borders around every cell and a thick-line border around the entire table. Like this:

2) Copy the entire set of records. Open ProModel (or MedModel or ServiceModel) and go to the module “Background Graphics” > “Behind Grid”. From the “Edit” menu select “Paste WMF”.

3) You will see your table appear quite small in your layout. Select the table and from the “Graphics” menu choose “Group”. This allows you to resize the graphic proportionally.

4) From the “View” menu choose “Show Grid”. You may want to resize your grid so that it is the size that you want your variable counters to be. Todo this, choose “View” > “Layout Settings” > “Grid Settings”.

5) Move and resize the table so that it aligns with the grid.6) f you have not created your variables, you should create them now. This is a good opportunity to use ProActiveX.xls to create your variables.

7) Go to the “Variables” module and select your first variable. Click on the layout in the first cell. This will place the variable counter on the layout.8) Edit the graphic so that it is the right size, has a nice background color and font color, and set the frame type to a rectangle with no border.

9) After setting the graphic for the first variable, the remainder of the variables should look identical. Go through the list of variables placing the variable counter that corresponds to each label.

10) After all graphics have been placed, close the variables table and select all the variable counters by drawing a box around them. Use the arrow keys to adjust the position one pixel at a time. Your finished table should look something like this: