Multi-View Runner

user guide

version 1.0

www.promodel.com
Disclaimer
The information in this guide is provided by ProModel Corporation to document Multi-View Runner. The
contents of this manual are subject to change without notice and do not represent a commitment on the
part of ProModel Corporation. The software described in this guide is supplied under a license agreement
and may be copied only under the terms of the license agreement. No part of this guide may be repro-
duced, transmitted, or distributed by any means, electronic or mechanical, for purposes other than the
owner’s personal use without express written permission from ProModel Corporation.

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© 2002-2014 ProModel Corporation
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

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Microsoft Corporation.
12/17/2014
 Table of Contents i

Table of Contents

Table of Contents i

Introduction to Multi-View Runner 1

The Toolbar 1
Monitor Selection 4
View Configurations 4

Configure the Views 7

Saving View Configurations 11

Running a Simulation 13

Index 15

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ii Multi-View Runner User Guide
 Introduction to Multi-View Runner 1

Introduction to Multi-View Runner

Once you have defined a process and built a model, you are ready to run simulations based on the con-
structed model. During construction of a model, you had the ability to define specific views of the model
that allow you to define, then quickly and easily observe specific areas of the model layout. Selecting a
view scrolls the layout window and adjusts the zoom so you see a specific region of the layout regard-
less of the size of the layout window. To help you view multiple sections of the model during your sim-
ulation, ProModel and MedModel come with Multi-View Runner, which is powerful and easy to use.
The Multi-View Runner allows you to view simultaneously one, two, or four predefined views of your
model during a simulation for each monitor connected to your computer system. It also allows you to
determine the number of available monitors that you will use for displaying the available model views.

When you invoke Multi-View Runner from the modeling program, the Multi-View Runner dialog box
appears. The dialog box contains three distinct sections from the top to the bottom of the dialog box: the
toolbar with the name of the loaded model, the monitor selection controls, and the menus for selecting
the configuration of the predefined model views as you would like them displayed in the available mon-
itors.

For details on the usage of the features of Multi-View Runner, refer to the relevant topic in the help doc-
umentation.

The Toolbar
The toolbar of the Multi-View Runner is near the top of the dialog box. It provides control over creating,
changing, and saving different configurations for viewing the simulation. It contains six control buttons
and two list boxes. From left to right, the buttons control (1) creation of a new configuration, (2) opening
an existing configuration, (3) saving the configuration without changing its folder or name, (4) saving
the configuration in a different folder or with a different file name, and (5) running the simulation. Imme-
diately to the right of the buttons is the list for selection of the scenario that you want to simulate.

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2 Multi-View Runner User Guide

Immediately to the right of the scenario selection list is the button for the view synchronization interval.
At the rightmost part of the toolbar is the information list, which can invoke the online help system for
Multi-View Runner or provide information about the version of Multi-View Runner that you are using.

The green triangle (fifth button from the left in the toolbar) starts the simulation with a specific, pre-
defined scenario and with a specific view configuration. The scenario selection list is immediately to
the right of the green triangle. The scenario selection list displays the predefined simulation scenarios
that have been constructed for the model. From this list, you can select a scenario that you want to run
for the simulation.

The button for selection of the view synchronization interval is immediately to the right of the scenario
selection list. With the selection of an interval, you can control the time interval (in the time frame of the
simulation itself) at which multiple views will be kept synchronized as the simulation runs. Note that the
shorter the chosen interval, the slower the simulation will run in real time. When you click this button,
the Synchronization Interval dialog box appears. From the dialog box you can select a time unit of
measure from the unit list, and then type an integer value (from 1 through 999) for the desired interval.
 Introduction to Multi-View Runner 3

At the far right of the toolbar is the information list. You can select View Help to activate the online help
system for Multi-View Runner, or you can select About to obtain information about the version of Multi-
View Runner that you are currently using.

The full path of the model file is displayed just beneath the buttons and lists, and to the immediate right
of Model:. The model name reflects currently loaded model, i.e., the model that you had loaded into the
layout window of the modeling program. If the complete text for the full path of the model file is too long
for the allotted space, in which case the leading portion of the full path may be truncated, you can hold
the cursor over the partial text, and the full path will appear as a pop-up message. You can use this
information to confirm that you are using the intended model for your simulation.

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4 Multi-View Runner User Guide

Monitor Selection
The monitor selection portion of the Multi-View Runner dialog box is just below the toolbar section.
This section depicts the monitors connected to the computer system with their relative sizes and pos-
itions. The image below shows an example in which two monitors are connected to the system, and
both can be configured to display simulations. The left monitor is the one currently selected for con-
figuration of the model views. To select a monitor for configuration, click the corresponding screen
icon.

View Configurations
Near the bottom of the dialog box is the section for the set of menus that allow you to determine the
configuration of the predefined model views as you would like them displayed in the available mon-
itors. The number of menus that appear are determined initially by what you select from the Display list
on the left half of this section.
 Introduction to Multi-View Runner 5

When you make a selection from the Display list, a menu or set of menus will appear in the right half of
this section. These menus are used to select a particular view to be displayed in a specific area of the
selected monitor.

The image below shows the four views that have been assigned to the four quadrants of the right-hand
monitor.

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6 Multi-View Runner User Guide
 Configure the Views 7

Configure the Views

The Multi-View Runner allows you to view simultaneously one, two, or four predefined views of your
model during a simulation for each monitor connected to your computer system. It also allows you to
determine the number of available monitors that you will use for displaying the available model views.

The monitor selection section of the Multi-View Runner dialog box is just below the toolbar section.
This section displays a screen icon for each monitor that is configured for displaying information from
your computer system. Note that the image below shows that a maximum of two monitors can be used
to display the desired number of predefined model views with the current configuration of monitors. The
left monitor is the one currently selected for configuration of the model views. To select a particular mon-
itor for configuration of one or multiple views, click the corresponding screen icon.

Below the monitor selection section is the section for the set of menus that allow you to determine the
configuration of the predefined model views as you would like them displayed in the available mon-
itors. The number and types of menus that appear are determined initially by what you select from the
Display list, which is on the left half of this section. Click the Display list and select Full Screen, Side by
Side, or Four depending on whether you want to fill the screen with one, two, or four of the model
views, respectively.

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8 Multi-View Runner User Guide

When you make a selection from the Display list, a menu or set of menus will appear in the right half of
this section. These menus are used to select a particular model view to be displayed in a specific area
of the selected monitor. For instance, if you select Full Screen from the Display list, a single menu will
appear and allow you to designate a model view that will occupy the entire area of the screen. If you
select Four from the Display list, four menus will appear and allow you to designate a view for each of
four quadrants that will occupy the entire area of the screen.

The image below shows the four views that have been assigned to the four quadrants of the right-hand
monitor.
 Configure the Views 9

After you have completed the configuration of one monitors, or multiple monitors, you can save the con-
figurations with the cluster buttons on the left side of the toolbar. Note that you can change and save a
current configuration, and you can change the current configuration and save it under a different name.

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10 Multi-View Runner User Guide
 Saving View Configurations 11

Saving View Configurations

The first four buttons on the left side of the toolbar enable you to create and save the view con-
figurations for the model.
Note: View configurations are characteristics that are specific to the model that is currently
loaded, and the configuration data is stored in a file with a file extension of .pmvr in the same folder
as the .mod file by default.

To create a new configuration for the views, click the leftmost button. The Windows Open dialog box will
appear so that you can provide a name for the model you want simulate with multiple views. After you
have selected a model file, click Open on the dialog box.

The next button to the right is used to retrieve a different, pre-existing view configuration. When you
click this button, the Windows Open dialog box will appear so that you can navigate to, and select, a dif-
ferent configuration (i.e., a .pmvr file) that has been previously stored.

The next button to the right is used to save any changes you have made to the current configuration.
The changes will be saved in the currently used configuration file.

The rightmost button in the group is used to save, under a different file name or folder, any changes you
have made to the current configuration. When you click this button, the Windows Save As dialog box
will appear so that you can type the name of a new file for the configuration.

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12 Multi-View Runner User Guide
 Running a Simulation 13

Running a Simulation
You can run the simulation of a model with particular view configuration, and with a selected scenario,
from within the Multi-View Runner environment. To select a scenario for the simulation, click the scen-
ario list near the middle of the toolbar, and select one of the available scenarios.

Next, select a view synchronization interval from the interval button, which is to the immediate right of
the scenario list. With the selection of an interval, you can control the time interval (in the time frame of
the simulation itself) at which multiple views will be kept synchronized with each other as the simulation
runs. With a shorter interval, multiple views will be kept synchronized more frequently with each other
as the simulation runs.
Note: The shorter the synchronization interval, the slower the simulation will run in real time. The
longer the interval, the more asynchronous multiple views can get as the simulation progresses
during the elapse of the interval.

After you have selected a scenario, synchronization interval, and view configuration, click the run but-
ton.

When the simulation starts, the selected view configurations will be displayed on the monitor, or mon-
itors, according to the selected, defined view configuration. Additionally, the pop-up simulation control
bar box will appear in the area, and on the monitor, where the Multi-View Runner dialog box was last
positioned. The control bar can be used to pause, resume, stop, accelerate or decelerate the sim-
ulation. It can also be used to halt the animation while allowing the computational operations of the sim-
ulation to continue. Click the Pause button (two white bars within a blue dot) to temporarily halt the
simulation and animation.

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14 Multi-View Runner User Guide

If the simulation has been paused, click the Resume button (a white triangle within a green dot) to
resume the simulation and animation.
If you want to entirely stop the simulation and close the views in the monitors, click the Stop button (a
white square within a red dot).
If you want the animation to halt, but allow the computations of the simulation to continue, click the
Toggle the Animation button, which has the appearance of a movie film strip. To resume the anim-
ation, click the Toggle the Animation button again.
Note: The following is a known issue for Multi-View Runner, and it will be addressed in a future ver-
sion. When you stop a simulation early within ProModel itself, the termination logic will not run;
however, when you stop early using Mutli-View Runner, the termination logic will run. If you are
doing any calculations in the termination logic that require values to have been set correctly, then
you could get some run-time errors, such as dividing by a variable when its value still set to zero.

You can control the relative speed of the simulation with the slider control, which occupies the right
half of the control bar. Use a click-and-drag motion to move the slider to the right to speed the sim-
ulation, and move the slider to the left to slow the simulation.

When the simulation has finished, or when you use the Stop button, the Simulation Complete dialog
box appears to inquire whether you want to see the results of the simulation. Click Yes if you want to
see the results immediately.
 Index 15

Index

C
configurations 4, 7

I
introduction 1

M
monitors 4

R
run simulations 13

S
saving configurations 11
screen 4

T
table of contents i
toolbar 1

V
views 1, 4, 7

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