Portfolio Simulator 6.0 released in May!

This major release of Portfolio Simulator 6.0 contains the following features and enhancements:
• Calendars
• Pre-Defined Reports
• Microsoft Project XML Imports
• Task text1-text5 now included as Attributes
• Fixed Cost now included
• Improved Random Number Management

Calendars
Calendars show up as a new item found within the Setup tab. The Calendars grid consists of a “Schedule” and two “Exception” lists.

A Schedule is defined for a week (Sunday through Saturday) which is repeated throughout the simulation.

Exceptions can be used to define non-working days or work days that deviate from the defined weekly schedule. It is useful for defining holidays and days off.

Calendars can be assigned to both Tasks and Resources.

Time Conversion Factors

Question: What does a 1 month cycle time mean?
Answer: It depends on the calendar, of course!

A Calendar defined as 24/7 usually has the days per month translated to 30.4. One defined as Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, usually has days per month translated to 21.74.

The time conversion factors and default calendars for tasks and resources are set in the Session Properties.

Pre-Defined Reports

Pre-defined reports were implemented based upon feedback dealing with data storage, disk usage, and application performance. What we found was that depending on the session, the amount of data that is stored and needed when viewing your reports could be massive. Many users of Portfolio Simulator were progressively creating larger portfolios containing more detailed projects with more resources. An increase in inputs resulted in an exponential increase in output disk usage. In addition, certain portfolio scenarios could benefit from an increase in the number of replications but doing so resulted in a direct increase in the amount of data stored and needed for retrieval.

Pre-defined reports, called Report Definitions in Portfolio Simulator, were developed to alleviate these issues. These Report Definitions allow you to reduce the amount of data collected and stored by choosing which series to collect and how to summarize that data during the simulation. Multiple reports can be defined for each scenario and saved for selection and use in different scenarios. It is accessed from the Report Definitions tab in the Scenario Manager.

When the Create button is clicked, a Report Definition wizard is launched. The first step is to select the type of report you want to create.

The second step is to give your report a name and define a few chart properties such as axis labels and time interval level.

The third step is to add, edit, or delete series data for the chart you are defining. This is where you are able to explicitly define how each series will be summarized during the simulation.

The final step gives you a visual preview of what your report will look like. At this point you can either go back to modify the details of the report definition or finish and save your new report definition.

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Product Updates

Process Simulator 5.1.0.132 (now known as Process Simulator 2007) released in May
This version is now available through automatic updates or the ProModel Solutions Café. It contains the following enhancements and fixes:

Enhancements
• Scenario Management – has been simplified by consolidating the two separate windows into one easy to use table.
• Attach Route – has been enhanced to allow selection of specific base entities to be attached to.
• Average Cycle Time Variable – has been added to explicit Route-to-Exit connections where Total Exit variables were previously solely displayed.
• Supports Visio 2007!
• Supports Windows Vista! (32- and 64-bit versions)

Fixes
• Adding a Resource shape from the Process Simulator stencil to the layout was not properly having simulation properties added.
• Adding a shape from a non-Process Simulator stencil was not properly having simulation properties added.
• A new folder was not being created when installing or creating a model package containing an authenticated UNC path.
• In some cases, changing the number of units of a Resource and then changing focus from the properties window would cause some internal errors.
• An entity request for multiple resources using a GET JOINTLY statement was not being fulfilled in a situation where the resources were not initially available but later became available.
• The events list in the simulation engine was not properly clearing out after each replication which resulted in unnecessary memory accumulation.
• The percent availability for an activity or resource during simulation sometimes would be completely different than what was defined.
• Resolved the expired security certificate error which would prevent the use of Process Simulator.

ProModel, MedModel, and ServiceModel version 7.0.11.241 released in May

This version is currently available for download through automatic updates or on the ProModel Solutions Café. It contains the following fixes:

• The application was terminating in a situation where a WAIT UNTIL statement was used in the Move Logic of a Load or Join routing.
• Array data was not importing when running a specific replication (using the “@” symbol) with the Persist option set to “Keep”.
• Statistics generated for Resource Groups were showing a value of “-1.#IND” when the resource group is not used or there are no resources defined in the group.
• In a specific case 3DR was not being properly shut down if open at the start of a simulation.
• Physical memory usage in a specific instance was not being released between scenarios.
• Stored procedures could not be used in the query string field for importing data into Arrays from a database.
• The application would terminate if an entity was ORDERed to a specific unit of a multi-unit location.
• In some models, scrolling up or down in the location or resource tables could cause a crash.
• Attempting to have an entity MOVE ON a crane type path network, as opposed to MOVE WITH a resource assigned to a crane network, would terminate the application.
• Simulating a model before any processing records are defined caused a crash.
• Importing a graphic into Background Graphics and then moving that graphic over the top left-hand corner of the Layout, would cause the graphic to seem to disappear.
• When opening the Array Import File dialog, some UI elements exclusive to the Excel import option would be inadvertently displayed along with the Database import UI elements.
• Double-clicking the cell in the array table to open the Import Array dialog would cause any modified data not to be saved after closing the dialog upon completion of editing.
• Total Entry statistics for a tank location were not being calculated correctly when using the Tank_TransferUpTo subroutine.
• In a specific situation where a dynamic resource was preempted by a break downtime, the application might crash.
• For location and resource clock downtimes, if the frequency was ever evaluated as zero no additional occurrences of that downtime would take place.
• The limit on the number of input factors allowed in SimRunner has been increased from 60 to 500.