Scenario Manager question

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Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Saturday 27 February, 2021 - 01:10

Scenario Manager question

Post by Newbie »

Hello community,

I am fairly new to ED and I wanted to know a little bit more about the Scenario Manager. If a model has a variety of parameters (ie several combinations of staff/machines) rather than running each possible configuration, I believe the Scenario Manager can be used to load each possible configuration and execute them sequentially. My question is, once this has been performed would I be able to view the output of each sim and compare them in one output file? If anyone has any useful guides or links I would be most grateful.


Thanks,
Newbie
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MatthijsJongboer
Posts: 200
Joined: Thursday 11 November, 2010 - 14:12

Re: Scenario Manager question

Post by MatthijsJongboer »

Hello Newbie and welcome to the community.
The Scenario Manager is used to sequentially run several models (scenario's) where each model needs to have an experiment defined.
The results of each experiment are placed in the result files (.sim) in the provided directory.
Afterwards, you can open one experiment result at a time for analysis.
If you want to compare the different experiment results with each other, you best collect the results (after each run or after each scenario). In most cases, an external tool like excel is used to gather all this data. It depends on what you want to achieve how to automate this.

Gr. Matthijs
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Saturday 27 February, 2021 - 01:10

Re: Scenario Manager question

Post by Newbie »

Thanks for your response Matthijs.

I would like to know your thoughts on a way to launch and run ED externally from .net c# (preferably silently)? My initial thoughts were to pass the parameters, such as Model file name (.mod) and values such as quantities and time, in a call to ED and review the simulated data (results). Now the Scenario Manager, may help as I believe there could be several predefined models. Then I can pass the same values and time to each model. Excuse my amateur explanation, but here’s an example to best explain my thoughts.
Sample Post Office model: serving customer wait time estimation – Operational output correlates to staffing numbers 3,7,12 persons working on the counter.
I.e. operational outputs :Quiet, Normal, or Busy and then I could pass the values and time to each scenario thus having results based upon a predefined agreed
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MatthijsJongboer
Posts: 200
Joined: Thursday 11 November, 2010 - 14:12

Re: Scenario Manager question

Post by MatthijsJongboer »

Hello Newbie,
It is possible to launch ED externally from an external program. We have a special SDK package available that covers several examples like c#. Unfortunately, the packages are not available for download in our free versions. I'll send a link through a PM to you.
However, you cannot use the Scenario Manager at the same time as this is also an external program linking to ED (and only one link at a time is allowed). You could include the functionality of the Scenario Manager in your own application.
But, as you give an example where you have 3 models with 3 different scenarios, what results do you want in your c# application?
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Saturday 27 February, 2021 - 01:10

Re: Scenario Manager question

Post by Newbie »

Hello Matthisjs,
The scenario I explained would have several models, each replicating a state of the post office (Quiet, Normal and Busy) there could be more states like public holidays and industrial action.
The staffing numbers would be a variable that the application would pass to the Scenario Manager. I.e. 2 staff or 13 staff working on the counter.
The results of each simulation would be analysed to see which staffing numbers would best model each scenario.
Further ideas, would be to run a simulation where you merge several states (4 hours of normal and 4 busy). Then entering your staff numbers, again to analyse each scenario.
The applications main purpose would be to call the correct model/s and pass the correct staffing values. Once done, the application would check that ED has ran successfully and report the results i.e. 7 counter Staff - Report: Quiet Average queue time xxx seconds vs Busy Average queue time xxx seconds.
This is a rough outline, but I hope it helps share my concept.

Regards,
Newbie
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