Rockwell Automation Arena Users Guide - Manual (Page 33)

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Plot the number of applications in-process
Our second animation enhancement is a plot of how many mortgage applications are
under review as the simulation progresses. This will give us a sense of the dynamics of the
workload, which can vary quite a bit when the random nature of processes is incorporated
into a simulated model.
1. Click the Plot button on the Animate toolbar.
2. The Plot dialog box appears. We’ll plot a single expression, the work-in-process
(WIP) at the Review Application process. To add a data series to plot, go to the Data
Series tab page and then click the Add button.
3. In the properties grid for the data series (by default it will be named ‘Series1’) go to
the Source Data\Expression property. This property defines the simulation expression
to monitor and plot. Type in the expression ‘Review Application.WIP’.
4. Now go to the Axes tab page and select the Left (Y) Value axis. Change the scale-
related properties for that axis to be as listed below (leaving the default for any prop-
erty not specifically mentioned).
Specify the value ‘5’ for the Scale\MajorIncrement property, so that major tick marks
on the y-axis are displayed every 5 units.
5. Now select the horizontal Time (X) axis. Change the scale-related properties for that
axis to be as listed below (leaving the default for any property not specifically men-
tioned).
Specify the value ‘480’ for the Scale\Maximum property. This sets the horizontal time
axis of the plot to be 480 hours of simulated time, matching our run length.
Specify the value ‘48’ for the Scale\MajorIncrement property, so that major tick marks
on the x-axis are displayed every 48 hours (or 2 days).
6. Click OK to close the Plot dialog.
7. The cursor changes to a cross hair. Draw the plot in the model window by clicking to
locate each of the two opposite corners (e.g., the top-left and bottom-right corners),
placing the plot below the flowchart and to the right of the resource.
You can plot many
expressions on the
same set of axes by
adding multiple
expressions in the
Plot dialog. Each can
be color-coded so
that you can readily
compare data such
as workloads in
processes, waiting
customers, etc.