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Product Updates
 Process Simulator 2007 (version 5.2) released in April 2008
This release is what Six Sigma Green Belts, Black Belts, and Master Black Belts were waiting for: Six Sigma analysis with direct integration to Minitab!
 Click here to view a short webinar on the new features of Process Simulator 2007.
Click here to learn more about Minitab.
Simply specify which statistic you want to do a Six Sigma analysis on in Process Simulator, run the simulation, and Minitab automatically opens and creates Capability Analysis and Capability Sixpack charts. Because the simulation data is populated in Minitab’s spreadsheets, further Minitab tests and analysis can be done.
How does it work? Simply specify which statistic you want to do a Six Sigma analysis on in Process Simulator, run the simulation, and Minitab automatically opens and creates Capability Analysis and Capability Sixpack charts. That’s it! Because the simulation data is populated in Minitab’s spreadsheets, further Minitab tests and analysis can be done.
 
This version is available through automatic updates and the ProModel Solutions Café. It contains the following fixes:
- Resolved the “The digital signature has expired” warning where the Process Simulator macros are disabled upon starting the application.
- In some cases, pressing F1 to access Help would bring up duplicate instances of the html page in Internet Explorer 7.0 and Firefox tabbed web browsers.
- Many shapes in the stencils included with Process Simulator were not entering text edit mode when double-clicking on them.
- Many shapes in the stencils included with Process Simulator were allowing individual pieces that make up the entire shape to be selected and moved.
- Uninstall more thoroughly removes remnants of the Process Simulator install on Windows Vista.
- An error occurred when attempting to license the Lite version from Help | About.
- Apostrophe and Tab characters in activity names were causing simulation compiler errors.
- In a specific case an error would occur when opening the Variables and Attributes window.
- Redundant tooltip text for the Pointer and Hyperlink icons in the Process Simulator toolbar was being added each time a document was opened and closed thus causing the tooltip textbox to extend off the screen.
- A Resource group could be selected to Move an entity but it wasn’t used during simulation.
- The Process Simulator license agreement PDF document is installed with the software.
 Portfolio Simulator
Portfolio Simulator 2008 has been officially released. If you have not yet upgraded to this newest version, we would encourage you to do so in order to have access to the following, powerful features:
- Start and Terminate Conditions – Traditional dependencies and constraints have been replaced with much more powerful start and terminate conditions. Conditions allow you to determine when a task will either start or terminate based on the progress of other tasks in your portfolio, or based on calendar dates.
- Work Contours – The work a resource performs on a task can now be contoured. Choose from eight predefined work contours, or define your own custom work contours. Work Contours are useful for modeling a resource assignment that is worked on during one period of time more than another. For example, a work assignment may be back loaded, where the most work is done in the second half of the task’s cycle time.
- Faster Simulation Speeds – Simulations now run quicker than ever in Portfolio Simulator 2008.
- Strategic Rollup – Low-level, tactical plans can now be rolled up or summarized into high-level, strategic tasks. For example, assume a project plan is detailed down to level four or five tasks. When this plan is imported, you may choose to have all the low-level tasks rolled up into higher level tasks, level 2 tasks for instance. Resources in the lower levels will be grouped and a work contour will be generated to represent the work done in the lower levels that is now done in the higher level task.
- Microsoft Project 2007 Support – Project files generated in both 2003 and 2007 can now be published directly to Portfolio Simulator. If you have defined variability in your project using ProModel’s Project Simulator 2008 (coming soon), those fields can be imported and\or used during strategic rollup.
 Project Simulator
Project Simulator 2008 has reached Beta, and features an improved user interface, which allows you to quickly see the impact of variability and resource constraints on your Microsoft Project 2007 files. For further details on Project Simulator 2008 and how you can take part in the feedback process for the Beta release, please see the recorded preview webinar.
Product News
 ProModel/MedModel/ServiceModel 7.5 to be released in July!
Because of the extensive fixes and some of the enhancements made, what was going to be another software maintenance update has been upgraded to a “dot five” release. With version 7.5, simulation teams will be able independently model separate areas of a broader model and bring them together for simulation analysis through the Model Collaborator add-on. The new Shift Editor has been written in .NET and enables a quicker, easier to use interface for defining weekly shift schedules. Using array import, you can now initialize model elements prior to the simulation run, such as location capacity and resource units, from Excel and external databases. ProModel 7.5 will be released in July and will contain the following features and fixes:
Features
- Model Collaborator – not only gives modeling teams the ability to independently work on different sections of a more global model and then bring the individual models together to be simulated, it also gives individual model builders a more capable model merge.
- New Shift Editor – the Shift Editor has been completely rewritten in .NET. You can more quickly define your shifts and breaks in an easier to use interface.
- New Array use – Arrays can now be used to initialize the same ProModel fields that Macros have been able to. For example, you can initialize Location capacity or Resource units with an Array! The key is to make sure the Array data is imported from an XLS file or a database.
- Enhanced LOAD statement – the LOAD statement now has a PERM option that causes the load to act like a JOIN. Basically, entities can be permanently loaded (joined) onto a base entity. This extends joining capability but through the LOAD statement which already had great capability with its IFF <condition> and IN <time> options.
- New Status Light state – the Waiting state (e.g. waiting for a resource, join, load, wait until) now shows as yellow for single capacity locations.
- More preemption, more often – more preemption checks have been implemented such that preemption should occur more regularly. In particular, in situations where a preemptor is initially denied in its attempt to preempt because the preemptee is in a non-preemptable state. Once the preemptee gets into a preemptable state, it should now check for a preemptor and be preempted in more situations than it had previously.
- EMF graphics supported – Graphic files of type EMF (Enhanced Meta File) can be imported into Background Graphics and the Graphic Editor.
- When importing graphics into ProModel, an “All Image Files” filter was added so that all supported graphic types (bmp, emf, gif, pcx, wmf) could be seen when choosing a file to import.
- In the First Time dialog box in the Arrivals table, the arrival time text box and Edit Arrival Time button have been swapped for ease of use and to reduce confusion.
- The LAN installation has been updated to contain the latest HASP drivers and License Manager.
Fixes
- Changing the entity graphic in Arrival Logic using the GRAPHIC statement had no effect during simulation until the entity moved to the next location.
- If multiple entities were attempting to preempt other entities (and switch them to their preemption logic) at a multi-capacity location and the entities were in a non-preemptive state, only the first entity would get switched to its preemption logic (once it got into a preemptive state). The other entities would ignore their preemptive requests.
- Entities were not shown animating on their routing path if a MOVE FOR statement was included in a subroutine and that subroutine was called from Move Logic.
- A crash would occur for a model with many variable counter graphics when attempting to pan the layout during the model translation part of simulation.
- A location’s state was not properly being counted as Waiting when an entity resumed processing (after having been preempted) and was waiting to reclaim its resource (that was automatically freed due to the preemption).
- The LocState function was returning the location’s state as Empty/Idle when it was really Waiting.
- The Quantity field in the Arrival Qty dialog (where Arrival Cycles can be specified) in the Arrivals table, only allowed 17 characters to be entered.
- An error “Internal Error: Cannot find an available location unit” occurred when an entity arrives at a multi-unit location after having preempted an entity that attempted to resume processing after having been preempted by previous entity.
- An entity was incorrectly routing to one of its three possible route destinations when that route became available. The entity should have remained and taken the route to the destination that it had already preempted after the entity it preempted finished executing its preemption logic.
- Having a GET or USE statement in preemption logic caused a crash.
- When an entity in operation at a location was preempted by another entity, the time spent in operation by the preempting entity was being logged as Empty/Idle instead of in Operation for a Time Plot State Values chart.
- A “None of the ROUTE statements were encountered in this execution pass” error occurred when an entity attempted to move to its destination location after having been preempted and executed its preemption logic.
- A Location’s state for the Time Plot State Values chart was not being properly logged as Waiting.
- Some entities were executing their post move logic before they had finished moving to the end of an accumulating conveyor. This was more likely to occur if a previous entity had been blocked for a short period of time at the end of the conveyor but long enough for the next entity to stop moving and queue up behind it.
- Some entities were loading onto the front of an accumulating conveyor before there was actual space to do so. In some situations, the animation revealed this. There was an error in the internal calculation versus graphical representation of the load zone space.
- An “Animate3.cpp” error occurred after zooming or changing Views during a simulation run where the model had many Variable counter graphics.
- The application might have crashed during a simulation where a Crane was captured by an entity and the Crane was already at the same location the entity was at.
- On Windows Vista, ProModel shortcuts were not being installed correctly into the ProModel Solutions\ProModel directory.
- DTDELAY() function used in shift or break logic was incorrectly giving an 'improper usage' error.
- Location Information for ALL locations was not showing location states as Down when Called downtimes were initiated by the DOWN statement.
- The application locked up when compiling logic in any Logic window where its text exceeded ~64 KB in size.
- The Edit menu was being enabled after simulating a model even though no tables were open. Accessing the menu caused the application to abruptly close.
- The incorrect array record was being updated when selecting the import or export file.
- Executing a CREATE TAKE statement in Operation Logic followed by a MOVE WITH statement using OWNEDRESOURCE() in Move Logic would cause a crash if the resource involved was a crane.
- A shift file consisting of seven 24-hr shifts (with no breaks) was causing the application to either crash or a resource assigned to the shift to take random downtimes.
- The RESOURCEUNIT() function was not properly working for the first resource listed in the Resource table.
- If a downtime at a multi-capacity location preempted a processing entity, switching it to its preemption logic, once the entity exited the location the downtime would not occur.
- The application crashed in a special circumstance when a location downtime attempted to take a location down. This only occurred after a first preemptive downtime completed but had been initially delayed due to an entity, which had captured the location capacity, was traveling to the location. Once the entity arrived, it was properly switched to its preemption logic and then exited the location allowing the first downtime to occur. Once this downtime completed, the location would appear to come back online. However, when the second downtime attempted to take the location down, the application would crash.
- The application crashed when an entity would exit a location it had incorrectly preempted and routed to. Having two destinations to choose from, the entity should have waited and routed to the first destination it had preempted and had switched the occupying entity to its preemption logic. However, while it waited for the preempted entity to complete its preemption logic, the entity incorrectly preempted an entity at the second destination location (no preemption logic) and promptly routed to it.
- In a special situation involving multi-unit locations and the LOAD statement, an entity ultimately arrived at the correct location unit to be loaded but upon leaving the previous location would execute the move logic pertaining to a different location unit.
- % Setup statistics were being collected as %Operation statistics if a Setup downtime was preempted by any Scheduled downtime (clock or shift). The %Setup that occurred before the preemption was being included as %Operation.
- When using a Macro to define the Empty or Full speed of a crane resource, the Hoist speed value was ignored and the Bridge speed was used for the Hoist speed instead.
- In a complex use of the USE statement where multiple resources were being requested, the incorrect resources were being captured.
- A translation error occurred when a macro was used in the Full and Empty Speed fields of a crane resource.
- In a special case where the same resource was preempted multiple times by different accumulating requests, the resource was captured by an entity that required an additional resource but the entity would incorrectly proceed to execute its logic without acquiring the other resource.
- If a resource was transporting an entity to a location when a preemptive downtime for the resource occurred, the resource would not be preempted and go down when it arrived at the destination location but would have to wait until the entity freed the resource.
- A compiler error now occurs if a time value is specified in a MOVE WITH <res> FOR <time> statement and the resource being used is a dynamic resource. “FOR” only applies to static resources.
- External files selected by double-clicking the filename in the Open File dialog, could inadvertently save the file to the wrong External File record.
- In a special situation involving a GET and a USE statement, a “Wait completion event not found” error might have appeared.
- The compiler now correctly gives an error if a System function is found on the left side of any Boolean condition in a WAIT UNTIL statement (e.g. – “<system function> = 10” or “Var1 = 1 OR <system function> = 10”). They are only allowed on the right side of a Boolean condition in a WAIT UNTIL (e.g. – WAIT UNTIL var1 = <system function>).
- Resource State statistics were not adding up to %100 because the time designated as % Blocked in Travel was not properly being added to either %Travel to Use and/or %Travel to Park statistics.
- An “Internal error” would occur when a resource downtime was terminated (preempted) by another resource downtime while the original downtime was attempting to GET a resource.
- A Parameter button was showing up for the MOVE statement when the Logic Builder was opened from within Move Logic.
- Waiting statistics in the Entity Activity and State tables contained negative values if entities in the model were grouped (not renamed with AS option) and then later explicitly RENAMEd while still grouped.
- A “Stack overflow pushing integer” error would occur if a MOVE WITH OWNEDRESOURCE() statement was executed without the entity actually owning any resources.
Includes 3DR version 2.0.9.91 containing the following fixes:
- 3DR would throw an error and not load the statistics RDB file if the path and filename were longer than 126 characters.
- The Variables table was not showing up in 3DR when simulating a model having Tanks and there were no entity arrivals defined.
- Changing the name or “alias” for a chart series in a saved View was not persisting after the View was closed, reloaded and resaved.
- The starting point for bucketing values in a Counts Time Plot chart was based on the first data point in the series rather than zero (or the warmup end time).
- The line width and style of a series in an existing chart, if changed, was being reset when adding or removing series from the chart.
- Saved views were not persisting when first created (i.e. the IVD file was not generated) in the case where 3DR was left open and a simulation was started (which triggers 3DR to be automatically closed).
- The General table in the General Report was coming up blank if a saved view contained a Failed Arrivals table but the simulation generated no failed arrivals.
- Colors were incorrectly displayed in a State Values Time Plot chart containing series from multiple scenarios if the chart was part of a saved view and the model was re-simulated with one of the scenarios disabled.
- Downtime statistics were not being displayed for static resources that were listed before any dynamic resources in the Resource table in ProModel
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