Straight and Curved Conveyors

Overview and Key Concepts

The straight and curved conveyors can simulate conveyor belts or roller conveyors.

Events

For information on events, see the Event Listening page.

The straight and curved conveyors have the following events:

On Entry

On Entry occurs whenever an item enters the conveyor.

It has the following parameters:

Event Parameter Type Explanation
Entering Item treenode The item that entered the conveyor

On Exit

On Exit occurs whenever an item exits the conveyor.

It has the following parameters:

Event Parameter Type Explanation
Exiting Item treenode The item that is exiting the conveyor

On Item Bump

This event occurs when an item or a slug is blocked by another item or slug, forming a single slug.

It has the following parameters:

Event Parameter Type Explanation
Front Slug Array The set of items in the downstream slug
Back Slug Array The set of items in the upstream slug

States

For statistical purposes, the conveyor will be in one of the following states at various points during a simulation run. The current state can be viewed by clicking on the object and then viewing the Statistics panel in Properties.

Empty

There are no items on the conveyor.

Conveying

There is at least one item on the conveyor.

Stopped

There is at least one item on the conveyor, but the conveyor's speed has is set to zero. The conveyor will go into this state immediately when its speed is set to zero (i.e. at the time it STARTS to decelerate to zero).

Blocked

Only used for non-accumulating conveyors. When an item on a non-accumulating conveyor is stopped or blocked, the conveyor will become blocked. Note again that accumulating conveyors do not use this state. If you want to get better blocked state statistics on accumulating conveyors, you should use photo eyes.

Statistics

The conveyor tracks of the following statistics. These can be viewed by clicking on the object and then viewing the Statistics panel in Properties.

Content

The number of items in the conveyor.

Input

The total number of items that have entered the conveyor.

Output

The total number of items that have exited the conveyor.

Staytime

The durations that items are in the conveyor.

Percent Full

The percent that the conveyor is "filled" with items. This uses the following formula: 100 * (TotalStopSpace / ConveyorLength) where TotalStopSpace is the sum of the stop spaces of all the items currently on the conveyor. Note that this percentage may go above 100%, specifically when there are items straddling multiple conveyors.

Properties Panels

The straight and curved conveyors use the following properties panels:

Properties

Both straight and curved conveyors support the following properties:

PropertyType
CatchCondition Code
ConveyorAcceleration (alias Acceleration) Unit
ConveyorDeceleration (alias Deceleration) Unit
ConveyorEndLocation (alias EndLocation) Array(3)
ConveyorSpeed (alias Acceleration) Unit
ConveyorStartLocation (alias StartLocation) Array(3)
ConveyorUseVirtualLength (alias UseVirtualLength) Boolean
ConveyorVirtualLength (alias VirtualLength) Unit
ConveyorVisualization (alias Visualization) Node Options
ConveyorWidth (alias Width) Unit
EntrySpacePadding Unit
EntrySpaceSizeFactor Number
FixedIntervalItemEdge Options
FixedIntervalPatternCustom
IsAccumulating Boolean
IsSlugBuilder Boolean
IsSlugReadyByFillPercent Boolean
IsSlugReadyByItemCount Boolean
IsSlugReadyByTime Boolean
MoveSpacePadding Unit
MoveSpaceSizeFactor Number
RestartDelay Unit
RollerAngle Number
SlugFillPercent Number
SlugItemCount Number
SlugMaxItemCount Number
SlugReadyTime Unit
SlugReleaseSpeed Unit
StopSpacePadding Unit
StopSpaceSizeFactor Number
UseCatchCondition Boolean
UseFixedIntervalMovement Boolean

Straight conveyors use the following properties:

PropertyType
ConveyorHorizontalLength (alias HorizontalLength) Unit

Curved conveyors use the following properties:

PropertyType
ConveyorRadius (alias Radius) Unit
ConveyorStartAngle (alias StartAngle) Number
ConveyorSweepAngle (alias SweepAngle) Number