Main > Reference Manual > Modeling > Flow
Flows are used to model the consumption and production of material from buffers.
Two types of flows exist:
- FLOW_START: Flows that consume material at the start of an operationplan.
- FLOW_END: Flows that produce material at the end of an operationplan.
Fields
Field | Type | Description |
buffer | buffer |
Buffer from which material will be moved or transferred into. |
operation | operation |
Operation to which the material flow is associated. |
quantity | double |
Material quantity being consumed or produced per unit of the operationplan. |
effective_start | dateTime |
Date after which the material consumption is valid. |
effective_end | dateTime |
Date at which the material consumption becomes invalid. |
priority | integer |
Priority of the flow, used in case of alternate flows. |
name | non-empty string |
Optional name of the flow. |
alternate | non-empty string or flow | Name of the flow of which this is an alternate. When using the Python API the argument can be a flow or a string. When using the XML data format the argument is a string. |
search | string |
Defines the order of preference among the alternate flows.
|
action | A C AC (default) R |
Type of action to be executed:
|
Example XML structures
- Defining a flow
<plan> <flows> <flow xsi:type="flow_start"> <buffer name="buffer component"/> <operation name="operation B"/> <quantity>-2</quantity> </flow> </flows> </plan>
- Defining a flow nested in an operation structure.
A quantity 2 of component A OR 3 of component B are consumed, and 1 unit of the end item is produced.
<plan> <operations> <operation name="operation B"> <flows> <flow xsi:type="flow_start"> <buffer name="buffer component A"/> <quantity>-2</quantity> <name>group1</name> <priority>1</priority> </flow> <flow xsi:type="flow_start"> <buffer name="buffer component B"/> <quantity>-3</quantity> <alternate>group1</alternate> <priority>2</priority> </flow> <flow xsi:type="flow_end"> <buffer name="buffer end item"/> <quantity>1</quantity> </flow> </flows> </operation> </operations> </plan>
- Defining a flow nested in a buffer structure
<plan> <buffers> <buffer name="buffer component"> <flows> <flow xsi:type="flow_start"> <operation name="operation A"/> <quantity>-2</quantity> </flow> <flow xsi:type="flow_start"> <operation name="operation B"/> <quantity>-1</quantity> </flow> </flows> </buffer> </buffers> </plan>
- Deleting a flow
<plan> <flows> <flow action="R"> <buffer name="buffer component"/> <operation name="operation B"/> </flow> </flows> </plan>