For additional discussion of Experiments, see Chapter 14 of the SIMPROCESS User's Manual.
SIMPROCESS experiments are stored in the Experiments.xml file. Each experiment can have multiple models, a model can have multiple designs, a design can have multiple scenarios and a scenario can (optionally) have multiple Model Parameters and Process Alternatives.
Entering Experiment Information
There are five fields that require entries for each experiment: Experiment, Selected, Display Error Alerts, Turn Off Animation, and Commit Results To Database. Type the name in the Experiment combo box, then press Enter. If not already active, entering an experiment name causes the remaining items on the Experiment Setup tab and the Model Setup tab to activate. Once you've given your experiment a name, then you check or uncheck Selected. The default is checked. This allows you the option of having experiments defined that you may not wish to run. Display Error Alerts defaults to unchecked. If unchecked, then SIMPROCESS will run the experiment without stopping to notify of errors. This means SIMPROCESS will run every combination of model, design, and scenario that it can. Those with errors will be skipped over. If Display Error Alerts is checked, when SIMPROCESS encounters an error when running the experiment, an error dialog will display that will stop the experiment until the error has been acknowledged by the user. Turn Off Animation defaults to checked. If checked, all models in the experiment will run with animation turned off. Commit Results To Database defaults to checked as well. When selected, the results from each run will be placed in the SIMPROCESS database. Multiple experiments can be entered, but, although not necessary, it is recommended that you complete entering model, design, and scenario information before adding another experiment. In addition, you can copy defined Experiments to create experiments that are similar in scope.
Entering Model Information
The next tab is Model Setup. This tab is active when an experiment name is entered or selected on the Experiment Setup tab. To select a model, click the Add Model button. This brings up a file chooser dialog. The complete path and the name of the model selected is added to the Model combo box. All models added are part of the experiment that was selected on the Experiment Setup tab. Although multiple models can be entered before entering design and scenario information, it is recommended that you enter all the design and scenario information (along with parameter and process information if needed) before entering the next model. If the selected model is moved after being added to an experiment, the model and all associated experiment information (design, scenario, etc.) will be deleted from the experiment the next time Define Experiments... is selected.
Entering Design Information
The Design Setup tab is active when a model is selected in the Model combo box on the Model Setup tab. At least one design name is required for each model. The Design Comment and Number of Reps fields are optional. If no value (integer only) is entered for Number of Reps, the last saved model value will be used for each scenario in this design unless there was a previous design for the same model.
Entering Scenario Information
The Scenario Setup tab is active when a design is selected in the Design combo box on the Design Setup tab. At least one scenario must be entered for each design. If creating a new scenario, a name for the scenario must be entered in the Scenario combo box. The Scenario Comment field is optional. At this point no more information is required to run a scenario. Publishing the results of this scenario run to HTML is optional. If Publish Model To HTML is selected, a value for Publish Directory must entered. The Publish Directory is the destination directory for the HTML output. The name of the directory created for the HTML files is the model name with any spaces replaced by underscores. If a directory with this name already exists within your selected destination directory, either select another destination directory, or rename, move, or delete the existing directory. Thus, if multiple runs of the same model are to be published, a unique destination directory will need to assigned for each scenario. Usually, if used at all, only one scenario for each model is published to HTML. Setting Model Parameter values and Process Alternatives is optional. If these are not set, then the last saved value for each Model Parameter and Process Alternative are used. Model Parameters are set on the Parameter Setup tab, and Process Alternatives are set on the Process Setup tab. These tabs are part of the Scenario Setup tab.
Entering Model Parameter Information
The Parameter Setup tab is used to enter Model Parameter values. The attributes for the selected model that have been designated as Model Parameters appear in the table. When a Model Parameter is selected, its description (comment from the attribute definition), mode (Integer, Real, or String), and default value are displayed in the text fields below the table. Once selected, typing into the field on the table can change the value. Values entered that do not match the mode will not be accepted. The Reset button will reset the selected Model Parameter to its default value. The Reset All button resets all Model Parameters to their default values. (When changing selected scenarios there may be a slight lag before the Model Parameter values update. This is due to the processing required to update the values.)
Entering Process Alternative Information
The Process Setup tab is used to set the active alternatives for processes that have more than one alternative. The panel on the left displays the processes in the selected model that have more than one alternative. (Since processes are displayed by name, it is recommended that you do not duplicate process names within a model.) Once a process is selected the alternatives for that process will appear in the panel on the right. If an alternative has already been selected, that alternative will be highlighted. If no alternative is highlighted then the model will run with the alternative that was active during the last save of the model. Select the alternative to be active for the current scenario.
Undo Delete Button
The Undo Delete button is active whenever an experiment, model, design, or scenario has been deleted. The button remains active until used or until the scope of the deleted item has been lost. An experiment can be restored any time before another delete occurs. A model can be restored as long as the experiment to which it belongs remains the selected experiment. A design can be restored as long as the experiment and model to which it belongs remain selected. Finally, a scenario can be restored as long as the experiment, model, and design to which it belongs remain selected.