Introduction

FlexSim is a Windows based, object-oriented simulation environment used to establish discrete event flow processes, mainly applied in fields such as manufacturing, material handling, and office workflows, all of which are paired with highly similar 3D virtual reality environments.

FlexSim is a decentralized simulation software, and currently the simulation software technology comes from the United States, which can generally be divided into two types: hierarchical and discrete manufacturing.

FlexSim software is developed by FlexSim company and is a commercial software. Simulation technology and teaching, as an independent discipline, have a history of over 50 years. It is not only used in the development departments of aerospace, aviation, and various weapon systems, but also widely applied in various fields such as electricity, transportation, communication, chemical engineering, and nuclear energy. Especially in the past 20 years, with the rapid development of systems engineering and science, simulation technology has expanded from traditional engineering fields to non engineering fields, and has been widely applied in socio-economic systems, environmental ecosystems, energy systems, biomedical systems, and education and training systems.

FlexSim software can play an important role in various stages of system planning, design, operation, analysis, and transformation. It is mainly used for simulation of production logistics systems, transportation logistics systems, service systems, etc. For example, in production logistics systems, FlexSim can be used for simulation of factory production lines, optimizing production processes and improving production efficiency by simulating and analyzing various factors on the production line; In transportation logistics systems, FlexSim can be used to simulate traffic flow, vehicle scheduling, path selection, etc., helping to improve the efficiency of transportation logistics systems and reduce costs; In service systems, FlexSim can be used to simulate service processes, queuing phenomena, etc., in order to improve service quality and efficiency.

FlexSim software has the following characteristics:

Highly visualized: FlexSim has a powerful 3D graphics rendering engine that can generate high-quality 3D simulation images.

Flexibility: FlexSim adopts object-oriented technology, allowing users to customize objects and parameters according to their needs, achieving highly flexible simulation.

Powerful simulation engine: FlexSim has a built-in powerful simulation engine that can simulate various discrete events.

Widely applicable fields: FlexSim can be applied to various industries such as manufacturing, logistics, and services.

Scalability: FlexSim supports integration with other software, enabling data sharing and exchange.

Model

FlexSim uses highly developed components (Objects) for modeling. Components represent activities and rows in a business process, representing information such as time and space. When building a model, simply drag and drop the corresponding components from the component library into the model view. Each component has attributes such as position (x, y, z), velocity (x, y, z), rotation angle (rx, ry, rz), and dynamic activity (time). Components can be manufactured, eliminated, or moved to another component. In addition to having their own properties, they can also inherit the properties of their components.

Hierarchical structure

FlexSim allows modelers to make model construction more hierarchical.

When building a model, each component uses an inheritance method (i.e. using an inheritance structure), which can save development time. Flexsim allows users to fully utilize the hierarchical features of Microsoft Visual C++.

Tailored

Currently, simulation software like FlexSim that allows users to freely customize is very rare in the market. All visual forms of the software can be made public to customized users. Modelers can freely manipulate components, windows, graphical user interfaces, menus, selection lists, and component parameters. They can add custom logic to components, change or delete existing codes, or create a brand new component from scratch.

Portability

Because FlexSim's components are publicly available to modelers, they can be exchanged between different users, libraries, and models. The combination of portability and customization can bring super modeling speed. Customized components are saved in the component library. When modeling, simply drag and drop the corresponding components from the component library to reproduce them in the new model. Portability and customization extend the lifecycle of both components and models.

Simulation

FlexSim has a highly efficient simulation engine that can run both simulation and model views (visualization) simultaneously, and can accelerate the running speed of simulations by turning off model views. During the simulation run, the engine and Flexscript language are used to allow users to change some of the model's attributes during the simulation process.

The FlexSim7.0 version references a new animation engine that also supports shadow and bump mapping textures. The new version will allow for importing more 3D file types. Here is a list of types that can be imported: *. wrl; * 3ds; * Dxf; * Stl; * SKP; * Dae; * Obj; * AC; * x. * Ase; * Ply; * Ms3d; * Cob; * Md5mesh; * Irr; * Irrmesh; * Ter; * Lxo; * CSM; * Scn; * Q3o; * Q3s; * Raw; * Off; * MDL; * Hmp; * Scn; * Xgl; * Zgl; * Lvo; * LVS; * Blend

Visibility

If a single image can express thousands of words, then FlexSim's virtual reality animations and model views express infinite capacity. FlexSim can utilize all graphics available on PC, including the latest virtual reality graphics. If it is a 3D stereo graphics file with extensions 3DS, VRML, DXF, and STL, it can be directly transferred to the FlexSim model for use, which is not available in other simulation software. FlexSim's VR (Virtual Reality Browsing Window) projection device allows users to adjust scene elements such as lighting, fog, and virtual reality stereo technology.

Output

FlexSim has powerful business charting capabilities, allowing charts, pie charts, line charts, and 3D documents to fully represent model information, and the desired results can be obtained at any time. FlexSim's open architecture allows users to connect to OBDC data sources, read and write, and can connect to Word and Excel in real-time.