Open or close flow

Overview and Key Concepts

The Open or close flow blocks or unblocks all flow. It is similar to the discrete commands openinput(), closeinput(), openoutput() and closeoutput().

Note that, in addition to opening or closing the input / output, the activity requests a recalculation of the network from the Flow Control. If you were to call, say, closeinput() directly, the flow control would not register this change and would continue to send flow through the blocked input until the next event in the flow network.

Connectors

The Open or close flow activity only allows one connector out. See Adding and Connecting Activities for more information.

Properties

The following image shows properties for the Open or close flow activity:

Each of these properties will be explained in the following sections.

Name

Used to change the name of the activity. See Name for more information about this property.

Font

The Font button opens a window to edit the activity's background color and font properties. See Font for more information about this property.

Statistics

The Statistics button opens the activity's statistics window. See Statistics for more information about this property.

Object(s)/ Group / Array

Use the Object(s) / Group / Array box to specify the object(s) you want the activity to affect. You can specify a single object (using the eyedropper tool or a model.find() command), an object group (flat or nested) or an array of objects and/or groups. When a token enters the activity, the expression will be parsed recursively such that arrays of groups or groups will be properly handled.

Action

Specify if the flow for the selected objects should be opened, or closed.

Ports at

Specify if you want the activity to affect the input side, or the output side of the specified object(s).

Condition

If the condition is not set to "Always", the activity will only perform its functionality when the condition returns true. If the Object(s) / Group / Array field evaluates to multiple objects, the condition will be checked for each object separately (and passed in as the involved parameter).

The dropdown suggests a few common conditions, such as only working on objects that currently have inflow, or are below their maximum content. You can use it to implement logical conditions (e.g. only open output if a tank is full), but also for model constraints (e.g. only do something with output port 2 if the involved object has at least two output objects).