Defining a One-time or Repeating Timer

Modeling How-To's > Miscellaneous > Defining a One-time or Repeating Timer

Defining a One-time or Repeating Timer

At a particular time or recurring time in the simulation you would like to execute some logic (set variable values, order entities into the system, etc.).

The model used for this example, as well as all of the modeling "how-to" examples, can be found in the ProModel Solutions Café (http://www.promodel.com/solutionscafe/howto/).

Solution

Define a dummy entity arriving to a dummy activity.
In the arrival dialog, define a periodic arrival with the number of occurrences set to 1 if the timer is to activate only once.
Open the activity dialog for the dummy activity and click on the Logic button.
Define the desired logic to occur.

Example

A traffic signal turns green for 1 minute and then red for 30 seconds. Traffic waits until the light is green to proceed.

Solution

Notice that Signal entity processing time takes a total of 1.5 minutes which covers a complete green-red cycle.