© 2009 Winton
1
Repeating Simulation Runs and
Reporting
p
g Results
© 2009 Winton
2
Running a Model Multiple Times
• A simulation “experiment”
typically needs to be run
multiple times and the results
collected automatically
• Simulation
Si l i Setup
S
under
d the
h
Run tab provides a dialog for
specifying the number of runs
to conduct when a model is
executed
• If reporting is turned on, the
report data is gathered run by
run in the execution report file
© 2009 Winton
3
Reporting
p
g
• Activating Generate Report under the Run tab will
cause a report to be generated when the model is run
– Report Type under the Run tab selects the type
of report generated
• The Dialogs type reports dialogue values
• The Statistics type reports block statistical
data
• Blocks in the model can be designated as Reporting
Blocks by first selecting them, then clicking Add
S l t d tto R
Selected
Reportt under
d th
the run tab
t b
– activating Show Reporting Blocks under the
Run tab pputs a “Report”
p
designator
g
on each
reporting block
• the report is produced run by run as a text file
– the
th user is
i prompted
t d for
f a reportt file
fil name when
h
the model is executed.
© 2009 Winton
4
Report Example
• In this case the report is a Statistics Report
– 2 runs are reported
• 2 blocks (an Activity and a Queue block) have been
selected for reporting
– The final value processed by the block is what is reported
© 2009 Winton
5
Reporting by Sending Data
to a Spreadsheet
p
• The Write block (Value.lix) can be
configured to send data to Excel
© 2009 Winton
6
Sample
p Setup
p
Existing Excel spreadsheet
to send data to
The specific
Th
ifi sheet
h t andd cell
ll to
t
receive data ; the cell is given
in RC format (which in this
case corresponds to
spreadsheet cell A1)
Only the value present on
the input connector at the
end of each run is sent
For eachh run, the
h row
for the send data
increases by 1
© 2009 Winton
7
R andd Column
Row
C l
Connectors
C
t
• The values set in the Write dialog in the sample setup are
– Spreadsheet File Name (report.xls)
– Initial
I iti l R
Row number/Column
b /C l
number
b (Row
(R 1,
1 Column
C l
1)
– Spec to automatically increment the row number run by run
• If the input connector of the Write block is hooked up, then it is the
conduit for the data sent to Excel.
– As set up, data is sent to the spreadsheet only at the end of each run
• The spreadsheet cell that is written to can be changed dynamically by
ExtendSim by sending values to the row/column connectors
• ExtendSim and Excel run in tandem once the simulation is started.
– ExtendSim’s interprocess communications facility is usually
successful in getting Excel launched