Module SDK Quick Start

Overview and Key Concepts

This document explains how to create a FlexSim module quickly and easily. Before starting, make sure you have the latest version of Visual Studio (Community or Professional) installed.

Preparing for Module Development

These steps are more general, and usually only need to be done once, even if you are developing multiple modules.

Making a Development Version of FlexSim

To prepare for module development, we recommend that you make a development version of FlexSim. This can be done in two easy steps:

  1. In your Documents folder, make a new folder called "ModuleDevelopment" or a similar helpful name.
  2. Copy C:\Program Files\FlexSim 2017 Update 1 (or the latest version of FlexSim) and paste it into your development directory.

This creates a copy of FlexSim. During development, you should use this copy of FlexSim. For convenience, you may want to make a shortcut to this version:

  1. In your development directory, navigate to FlexSim 2017 Update 1\program
  2. Right click on flexsim.exe and choose Create Shortcut
  3. Name the shortcut something like "FlexSimDev", and move it to your desktop.

If you desire, you can configure the development copy of FlexSim to use a different User Preferences file. (This makes it so the development copy can be put in development mode, and leaves the intalled copy alone.)

  1. In your development directory, navigate to FlexSim 2017 Update 1\program
  2. Open the file called productid.txt in a text editor
  3. Change the first line to a meaningful name, like ModuleDev

You can make as many development versions of FlexSim as you need.

Enabling Development Tools in FlexSim

FlexSim has some development tools built in, but they are not enabled by default. To enable them, do the following:

  1. Open your development version of FlexSim
  2. Add a node at VIEW:/environment/dev
  3. Give that node number data, and set it to 1
  4. Close FlexSim (which saves the new node as a user preference)

Next time you open FlexSim, the dev node will still be there, and additional options will be available in your right-click menu.

Creating a Save Defaults Button

As you add nodes to the tree as part of your module, you will want to save your progress. The most convenient way to do this is to add a button to FlexSim to save your module changes:

  1. Open your development version of FlexSim
  2. From the File menu, open the Global Preferences window
  3. On the Customize Toolbar tab, add a new button
  4. Select the new button in the list, and click Edit Item
  5. Change its name to "Save Defaults", and replace the example code with the following: applicationcommand("savedefaultviewproject");
  6. Click OK, then click Apply and Close
  7. Close FlexSim to save these changes to global preferences

Creating a New Module

Now you are ready to create a new module. Choose a name for your module. It should be helpful and short, and should not contain any spaces. Good example names include "ProcessFlow" and "AStar".

In order to create a new module, you need to create a folder for the new module. Do so as follows:

  1. In your development directory, navigate to FlexSim 2017 Update 1\modules
  2. Create a new folder with the name of your module

Next, you need to add the essential module nodes to FlexSim:

  1. Open your development version of FlexSim
  2. In the tree, go to MAIN:/project/modules
  3. Add a node with the name of your module
  4. Add a subnode to that node called installdata
  5. Click the Save Defaults button.

Adding Nodes

Once you have completed these steps, you can begin adding nodes to your module:

  1. Add a node to the tree
  2. Right click the node
  3. Choose modules->[module name]->add as addition from the menu

Once you have added a node to your module, you can edit that node by giving data or subnodes. When you have finished editing that node, click the Save Defaults button to save your work.

Adding a DLL Project to your Module

Some modules extend FlexSim's functionality with custom C++ code. In order to do this follow these steps:

  1. In the developement directory for FlexSim, navigate to FlexSim\modules\[module name]
  2. Download module_template.zip and extract the module_template folder.
  3. Copy the contents of the module_template folder inside your module's directory.
  4. Copy the files from FlexSim\program\system\include to the flexsimcontent directory.
  5. Copy flexsim.lib from FlexSim\program\system\lib to the flexsimcontent directory.
  6. Open the .sln file in the latest version of Visual Studio.
  7. When Visual Studio opens, open the Solution Explorer, and right-click the Solution to edit its properties.
  8. Change the Target Name property to the name of the module.
  9. Apply the properties.
  10. Make sure that the project will build in the correct architecture.
  11. Build the project. It should build and link without any errors.