The Process Flow diagram that we will simulate has already been created. What we will create is the Order object that will flow through this Process Flow diagram. The object is ‘created’ by an event in the business – in this case the event Order Received.
We will create this object now, and use it later.
1 Within System Architect’s Explorer, highlight the Definitions branch and select New from the floating menu.
2 In the ‘Select new type for all Methods’ dialog, scroll down and double-click the IDEF3 Object.
3 Enter Order as the name of the object.
Specifying a picture to represent the object during simulation
Select the Sim Definition tab. Under the Symbol Icon property box, select the Choices button. The Select and Drag dialog appears to reveal the symbol icons that are available. Select Document as the symbol icon, and drag it into the Symbol Icon property field.
1 Close the Select and Drag dialog by clicking the x in the upper right-hand corner of the dialog.
Symbol Icon is a definition type within System Architect. This definition type holds information about the symbol that will be used to represent an object or symbol on the diagram when it is simulated in SA Viewer, when we run the simulation. The default symbol that is used for an object when it is simulated in the SA Viewer simulator (that we will use later) is a red dot. Let us change it to be a picture of something that resembles an order.
We may use pictures already provided by the installation of SA Viewer, located in directory <C>:\Program Files (x86)\UNICOM Systems\System Architect Suite\System Architect\SAViewer\Bitmaps. Within that directory, there is a bitmap named M79.bmp, which is the picture of a notepad and pen. We will use this as the picture that will represent an order.
2 Click the Define button in the Symbol Icon field to define the Document symbol icon. Its Definition dialog opens.
3 In the Icon Reference field of the Symbol Icon Definition dialog, type the following text (you should preferably copy and paste the line below into the dialog to make sure you do not introduce a typographical error):
5 Toggle ‘off’ the Default Icon check box within the Symbol Icon property group in the IDEF3 Object definition.
Note The Default Icon check box described above must be toggled ‘off’ if you want to have the IDEF3 object represented by the picture you have selected from the SAViewer\Bitmaps folder during the simulation. Otherwise, the object will be represented by a default image of a red dot.
Specify costs and revenue of the object
1 In the IDEF3 Object Definition dialog for Order, set the Cost/Revenue as shown below:
2 Press OK to close the Definition dialog.
Specifying transformation of an object
At some point in our Process Flow diagram, an order will cause a shipment of product to be sent to a customer – after the order is processed and approved. In our diagram, this will happen after the process Ensure Stock.
What we want to do is specify that when we simulate this diagram later on, and the diagram itself is animated, that the graphic representing an order (the document bitmap we specified at the top of this topic) gets changed to a graphic representing a shipment. For your convenience, this has already been done. Let us take a look.
1 Open the Definition dialog of the Ensure Stock process.
2 Select the Sim Process tab.
Note The Object Transformation group has the choice Transformed on output? toggled ‘on’. Also, there is an Output Object specified, named Shipment.
3 Click the Define button under Shipment to open its Definition dialog.
4 Select the Sim Definition tab in the ‘Shipment definition’ dialog. Observe that the Default Icon choice under Shipment is toggled ‘off’ (if it was toggled ‘on’, this choice would override the graphic we have chosen for Shipment, and you would get a red dot to represent a shipment when you ran the simulation).
5 Click the Define button under Shipment to open its Definition dialog.
Note The Icon Reference property has a particular bitmap specified, <C>:\Program Files (x86)\UNICOM Systems\System Architect Suite\System Architect\SAViewer\Bitmaps\Box32.bmp. This is a picture of a box. When we run the simulation later on, we will see the result of these specifications – a picture of a document (denoting an order) will enter the Ensure Stock process, and a picture of a box (denoting a shipment) will leave it.
6 Close all dialogs by pressing appropriate OK buttons.
