Animation

Animation plays the run on your own diagram. Use it to check that the model behaves like the real process, and to show a client what the numbers mean.

When it helps

Checking the model. Watch the entities move. If they go somewhere the real work doesn't, you've found a problem in the model. The people who run the process will often spot it first.
Earning trust. A client who sees their own process moving tends to believe the result faster than one who sees a table.
Following up a number. If a report shows a peak at time 760, jump to it and watch what caused it.

Animation shows you what happened in one playthrough. It isn't evidence for a decision. Take your numbers from the results tabs, which cover all replications.

Open it

Open a finished scenario in Results and choose the Animation tab. Include animation is on by default in the run window. If you turned it off, the tab says Animation wasn't recorded for this run, and Re-run with animation fixes that.

Playback controls

Control	Key	What it does
Play or Pause	Space	Starts and stops playback.
Replay	R	Starts again.
Step back, Step forward	← and →	Moves in small steps.
Hide toolbar	T	Clears the screen for presenting. Press T to bring it back.
Go to		Jumps to a simulation time, in the unit next to the box. That's the same Show time in unit the reports use.
Speed		Simulated time per real second. 1× is real time, and the top is 1 week per second. A busy run can play slower than you ask, and the toolbar then shows the speed it's really reaching.

What to show on the diagram

Open the Show menu.

Option	What it adds
Counts	Numbers on each activity: how many entities are waiting to enter, being worked on, and waiting to leave.
Run stats	Running totals: Arrivals (entities generated so far), WIP (in the system now) and Done (finished and exited). Done is broken out per entity type when the model has more than one.
States	The live value of model state variables as the simulation plays.
Hotspots	Tints busy spots red: activities by how deep their inbound queue is, resources by how heavily they're used.
Legend	A key for the dots, colors and the three activity numbers.

Hotspots are the quickest way to show a client where the trouble is. Watch the red spread and fade over the run.

Change how it looks

Open Appearance. These settings change the picture only, never the simulation.

Section	Setting	What it does
Entities	Shape, color, size, queue spacing	Changes how each entity type looks and how far apart queued entities are drawn.
Labels	Label size	Sets the font size for numbers on the diagram.
Labels	Show capacity	Adds capacity to the numbers. Activities read waiting 3/10 › working 1/2 › done 0/5, and queues with no limit show just the count. Resources read in use / capacity.
Hotspots	Full tint at	The inbound queue size that shows as fully red. Lower it for short-queue models and raise it for busy ones.
Hotspots	Intensity, Color	How strong the tint gets at its peak, and its color.
Motion	Faithful	Plays motion exactly as simulated. Instantaneous steps snap instead of gliding. Real travel across connectors still animates over its true duration.
Motion	Ease	How long entities take to glide between spots on screen.