Objects and Instances in Simulation

As a given business, system or mechanical process executes, the Activities and Actions within it might generate objects of a specific type and perform operations on those objects, perhaps even consuming or destroying them. You can simulate the creation, use and consumption of such objects using a simulation model that represents the objects and actions with model elements such as Classes, Instance Objects, attributes, operations and Ports (ActionPins and ObjectNodes). The model can also create, act on and destroy several different objects at different stages as part of the same process. Representing model data or objects in simulation makes the simulation more accurately reflect the real process.

Object Concepts

Term	Description	See also
SimType	The type of simulation element, such as Class, Enumeration or Interface. These can be classifiers of objects in a simulation.
SimObject	An object that is an instance of (is classified by) a SimType element.
Attribute	A property of a SimType element, or of a specified node such as an ActivityNode.
Operation	A behavior of a SimType element, or of a specified node such as an ActivityNode.
Port	A Port of a Class or Object, an ActionPin of an Action, or an ObjectNode of an Activity. Ports of classifiers are a type, whilst a Port of an object is a realization of the type.
Parameter/ Activity Parameter	Parameters of Operations; Activity Parameters are, specifically, parameters of ActivityNodes.
Slot	A realization of an attribute in an object. A Slot has a run time value that can be initialized by the run state value of the Slot. If these values don't exist, the system uses the initial values of the attributes.
Runtime Environment	All objects exist in the JavaScript runtime environment, so you can use JavaScript to create or change simulation objects and simulation variables.
Display Variables	All simulation objects, simulation variables or events are identified on the Locals window while they are in effect. In some cases, to show the variables you might need to add break points to the model to pause processing while the variable exists. As all objects and variables are shown, global variables that exist outside the simulation but that are significant to it - such as the parent Class and Activity elements within which a process is defined - are automatically also represented as default object variables. So too is the anticipated output of the Activity, as a return variable.

Learn more