This sprint was mainly focused on improving the execution speed - we have made significant improvements in many areas. A few other software enhancements have also been made.
Model Execution Speed
Execution speed is significantly faster. Most users will see their models execute from two times faster (e.g. runs in half the time) to ten times faster or more. The enhancements were implemented throughout the product so your performance improvement will vary depending on exactly what you are doing. One notable enhancement is that experiments with many replications may now run 5 to 10 times faster. Also models with many concurrent entities will be much faster. We even had one customer model that runs over 70 times faster (but that level of improvement will probably be uncommon).
Table Column Handling
Two features have been added to make it easier to work with tables. First, buttons have been added to the Table ribbon to Move Right and Move Left. These can be use to highlight a column and shift it to the new desired position. A second feature was added to allow you to change the type of a column that has already been added. Look for the Change Type button on the Table ribbon.
Symbol Sizes
Have you ever downloaded multiple 3D symbols into your model and only after you saved you found that your model size increased by tens of megabytes? Although you can use advanced features of the Google 3D Warehouse search to limit the size of objects you search for, other than that there is not much help available. But at least now you can see the symbol size at the bottom of Simio’s import dialog. And you can look at all the symbols in your project and determine the size of each one to perhaps replace a particularly large one. Use the Navigation window to select your project (named MySimioProject by default), then select the Symbols panel. This will display all your symbols and their sizes as well as provide options to add and delete symbols.
Interrupt Step
We added a new Interrupted Process Action to provide an additional choice for what the interrupted token should do next. The new EndDelay option specifies that the token will end its delay and exit the Delay step once the new token created to handle the interruption ends its processing.
States Ribbon
We made some cosmetic changes to the States ribbon to clarify what you are getting. The states are now divided into two categories, those which change discretely (e.g. only by assignment) and those that may also change continuously. The Discrete group includes the newly renamed Real state and the existing List state. The Continuous group includes the existing Level state and the newly renamed Level with Acceleration state.
Error Detection and Reporting
Over the last few sprints we have improved Simio’s error detection. We understand that it is painful to get a new error when you load a “working” model into newer software. But in general, this means that your model was not really working as you expected – it likely had a subtle bug. But we have also improved the content and clarity of many errors so they will now be easier to find and fix.