Simulation Control Bar

Overview and Key Concepts

To run a simulation, you'll use the simulation control bar (also called the control bar for short), located underneath the main menu and toolbar. The control bar contains most of the tools and commands that you will need to run your simulation. The control bar essentially has three different groups of tools you can use to control how your simulation runs, as illustrated in the following image:

The following sections explains the different buttons on each section of the control bar and other properties.

Run Control Tools

The Run Control buttons are the basic tools you will use to start and stop your simulation, as shown in the following image:

These buttons are fairly intuitive to use since they closely resemble the playback controls on a media player. However, a few of the buttons possibly work differently than you might expect. For that reason, you should read the explanation of each button in the following table:

Icon Button Name Purpose Keyboard Shortcut
Reset
  • Resets the simulation to the starting position and sets the time display (clock) on the run time tool to zero or to its starting date.
  • It clears out any items or products that are in the map and returns all the icons to their starting states.
  • NOTE: You should always press the Reset button when you are starting the simulation from its beginning.
 Ctrl + left arrow
Run
  • Begins the simulation.
  • While the simulation is running, you'll notice that the time display on the Run Time tool will begin to increase.
 Ctrl + space bar
Stop
  • Stops the simulation.
  • After pressing this button, the time display on the Run Time tool will stop increasing.
  • NOTE: It's probably better to think of the Stop button as functioning more like a pause button that only temporarily suspends the map simulation rather than ending it. If you press the Run button again, it will resume running the simulation from the point in time you pressed the Stop button.
 Ctrl + space bar
Step
  • Skips the clock forward to the time of the next event that should occur in the simulation model.
  • The model will stop at the moment that event occurs and won't keep running.
  • The Step button essentially allows you to quickly skip through the events of the simulation one event at a time.
 Ctrl + right arrow

Run Time Tools

The Run Time tools help you to monitor how much time has passed in the simulation and to define when the simulation should stop running.

Simulation Clock

The simulation clock indicates the amount of time that has elapsed during the simulation run so far. The simulation clock will start at 0 time units and will progress from there.

Stop Time Options

If you click the drop-down arrow to the right of the simulation clock, the stop time options will appear. Using these options you can determine when the simulation should stop running:

  • Display Mode - Choose whether to display the time in seconds or according the date and time in the simulation.
  • Stop Time - Check this box to stop the simulation at a specific time. Once this box has been checked, you can specify the precise time the model should end in either seconds or by a specific date and time. If this box is left unchecked, the model will run indefinitely until you press the Stop button.

Run Speed Tools

The Run Speed tools allow you to change how fast the simulation will move while it is running.

Run Speed

You can use the slider button to manually adjust the run speed.

Simulation Speedometer

Displays the current speed at which the simulation model is running or will run.

Speed Options

Select which speed you would like the simulation to run. Options are:

  • 1.00 is the slowest speed.
  • Maximum is the fastest speed.
  • Custom allows you to type the speed you would like in the box directly below it. Click the Set button to apply the new custom speed settings.