WITNESS Horizon Version 23.0b

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Infrastructure Upgrades

• All license types make use of the Number of Concurrent instances value specified for the license (used by Experimenter in conjunction with the Maximum number of parallel replications Option)

What’s new?

• Experimenter now has a Run Length Analysis Mode which recommends a Warmup Period and Run Length for any scenario to ensure the statistical robustness of a chosen number of replications of a model and its data in experiments
• Experimenter now has a Replication Analysis Mode which recommends the number of replications for any scenario to ensure the statistical robustness of a chosen a Warmup Period and Run Length of a model and its data in experiments
• The Run Length Analysis Mode can update the Warmup Period, Run Length and Random Number Skip value in the Experiment based on the recommendation
• The Replication Analysis Mode can update the Number of Replications and Random Number Skip value in the Experiment based on the recommendation
• The Experimenter API has been extended to allow use of the Run Length Analysis Mode & Replication Analysis Mode programmatically
• Model run speed has been improved for models containing a large quantity of displayed Variable values or Expression displays

Additional Functionality

• An option to improve speed of Experimentation has been added to allow the Experimenter to ‘Begin’ a model between replications of a scenario rather than re-load it each time. Note that a model with Inactive Data Tables, or Variables that Retain Value On Begin will potentially differ between these two methods of execution.
• Data Table Visualisations can display the Data Label in the Field Colour or as Black text to improve legibility of fields displayed with a pale colour
• The Automatic Temperature calculation has been updated in the Experimenter Simulated Annealing Algorithm to allow multiple random starting positions to be tested rather than selecting a single random start point
• The Experimenter Simulated Annealing Algorithm has been updated to control its temperature reduction based on the number of scenarios that are accepted as a move at a given temperature rather than the number of scenarios that are attempted at that temperature
• A Data Table can now reference a single cell via its Connection String
• Data Table elements feature Notes that can be saved
• Data Table values can be used as both the base number and the exponent in an ‘a to the power of b’ calculation
• Multiple Data Tables of various sizes can be selected for Edit Data. Selecting Cancel will end the Edit Data activity immediately
• A Cloud Licenses can be roamed

Improvements & Fixes

• The time taken to open a model has been reduced – WITNESS launches with Startup.mod in about half the time
• During the Application Exit process from a model that has been changed, pressing Cancel from the Save As dialog leaves WITNESS open
• An invalid Data Table Connection String updates the Log File with an indication that the error may be caused by an expression that can’t be evaluated or a literal string that can’t be resolved
• An empty string variable used as a Data Table Connection String updates the Log File with an error
• Data Table string output to CSV files obeys the Write Quotes Around Strings model option
• A Display Expression within a module that references an element outside the module behaves correctly when the module file is saved and loaded
• A Buffer Input Sort Option within a module that references an attribute outside the module behaves correctly when the module file is saved and loaded
• A Path Source or Destination element change causes a check when the model is next run on to determine whether the path network has changed. If so, the model will be prevented from advancing as it is potentially unstable. Note: this is likely to happen if a function is used as Source or Destination
• The Path dialog grid control buttons for Sources and Destinations stay aligned with each grid when the dialog is resized
• A Continuous Conveyor with Sensors corrects tiny precision errors in sensor event timings
• Chains of Continuous Conveyors containing parts that are longer than a single conveyor in the chain track their state correctly. E.g. a conveyor that is covered by a part whose front is on another conveyor and rear is on a third conveyor is shown as Moving, not Empty
• Help text for the SensorState function has been updated to explain that the Sensor State is affected by a Part On or Off the sensor, not the Sensor being Covered or Uncovered
• A model that has a non-zero Clock Start Time and a zero Warmup Period can be run in the Experimenter
• Experimenter generation of answers out of the Answer Pool correctly calculates the number of steps in the range specified for a real parameter
• Opening Experimenter from a large model shows a wait cursor and updates the status bar message while Experimenter is opening
• When a Sub shift is included in a Main Shift, the total times for the Sub Shift are displayed
• A function referenced as the Output Quantity of a Multi-Cycle Machine appears in the Used Report for the function
• The Pie Chart Detail Sectors grid columns resize correctly when double clicking on the column boundary and expressions can be entered for each sector
• Rules & Actions editors allow Tab (and Shift-Tab) to cycle (and reverse) through all controls on the dialog in a top-bottom, left-right sequence
• Watched string variables display correctly in the Debugger when a local variable is set to a quotation mark character
• EVALREAL, EVALINT, EVALNAME and EVALSTR functions record a message to the log file if the evaluated string cannot be converted to the required type
• The Variable Statistics report output to CSV file format correctly handles multi-dimension variables

23.0a

• Fixed issue with Multi-Cycle Machine updating Detail Stats when it comes back On Shift
• Fixed issue with Buffer Path displays when loaded from a module
• Fixed issue with creating a new Designer Element from a module
• Fixed issue when removing a Labor requirement for a Continuous Conveyor Breakdown
• Fixed error message displayed when a machine pulls from a buffer using a member index that is greater than the buffer quantity
• Fixed issue converting ELEMENT to a string in Action on Initialise of a machine
• Use the correct folder when the Sample Models link is selected on the Start Page
• Fixed issue with a long expression used as a Buffer Output Condition
• Fixed issue with importing .emf files
• Fixed issue with Labor Rule Actions button text in French

23.0b

• Update Quick3D^TM W3D function behaviours when executing during a batch run. W3D functions can fail during a batch run if the target geometry did not exist when the initial Quick3D^TM was performed. A previous solution implemented in Horizon 22.5 disabled W3D functions during batch runs, however, this meant visualisation was then incorrect when the model was stopped. This behaviour has been updated so that the W3D function will try to complete, if it fails it will do so silently, logging the failure to the log file and not raising a dialog.
• Fixed issue where the registry information for the startup model was incorrectly written to the Horizon 22.x registry hive resulting in an error message about the model file being created in Horizon 23.0 when Horizon 22.x was run.
• Fixed issue with SET QUANTITY for display of multi-dimensional variables. When a text display using individual for a multi-dimensional variable changed size using SET QUANTITY in actions this would cause the internal structure to become inconsistent occasionally crashing when model new was applied.
• An option value of 3 has been added to the functions FormatAsDate and FormatAsDateAndTime to return time values as a date string according to the ISO8601 standard: e.g. 07:11:24 on 3^rd August 2020 can be converted to 2020-08-03T | 2020-08-03T07:11:24
• Time and Date related string values in LST and XML files have been updated to use ISO8601 standard format so that models saved in text format are transferable between locales

The Lanner YouTube channel features many video tutorials to guide you through the new functionality available in WITNESS Horizon.