Custom Bars

Custom bars are a new feature introduced in INOSIM 12. They allow you to display processes in your Gantt chart which are not part of the simulation. Hence, you can display any data as bars in the Gantt chart, e.g., to show the ideal allocation of a unit which can then be compared to that unit’s real allocation.

This tip & trick shows you how to create and apply custom bars by means of the example model BarRows (see download below).

Step 1: Creating bar rows

We start with the creation of new rows in the Gantt chart, called bar rows. Later we will assign our manually created timeblocks, the custom bars, to these rows.

To create them, click New Bar Row in the context menu of bar rows in the INOSIM Database window under Equipment>Bar Rows:

Afterwards, you can edit the bar row names by item Properties in the context menu of each bar row.

Step 2: Generating bars

Custom bars are created directly in Visual Basic. They can be created at any event. The following code shows a user-defined function by which a custom bar is created and assigned to a bar row. The start and end dates of the bar are set: the reference date of the simulation, delayed by the variable tOffset, is set as start date; the end date is delayed by five hours from the start date. Afterwards, the generated bar is added to a custom bar row named Procedure-/Operationview:

Function GenerateBars(tOffset As Double) As CustomBar
  Dim bar As New CustomBar

  bar.StartDate = Simulation.RefDate + tOffset * 3600
  bar.EndDate = bar.StartDate + 5 * 3600

  BarRows("Procedure-/Operationview").CustomBars.Add bar

  Set GenerateBars = bar
End Function

DisplayMode, Label, Color and Other Properties of Custom Bars

In the following code, the function shown above is used to generate three bars by the end of the simulation. Furthermore, two properties of bars are set: DisplayMode defines if a bar is displayed in all views or only in the procedural or operational view. Label defines the text displayed on the bar in the Gantt chart.

Private Sub Simulation_EndSim()
  Dim bar As CustomBar

  Set bar = GenerateBars(10)
  bar.DisplayMode = cbdmAlways
  bar.Label = "Always"

  Set bar = GenerateBars(20)
  bar.DisplayMode = cbdmOperation
  bar.Label = "Op"

  Set bar = GenerateBars(30)
  bar.DisplayMode = cbdmProcedure
  bar.Label = "Proc"
End Sub

Moreover, for each custom bar a color can be specified as an RGB-code. In the following code example, red was chosen:

Dim bar As New CustomBar
bar.Color = RGB(255,0,0)

Furthermore, custom attributes can be assigned. (In the following example, the value of the variable barCount is assigned to the CustomAtttribute Number. Here, the variable barCount corresponds to the current number of generated bars.)

'barCount is defined beforehand, and incremented whenever a new bar is created
bar.CustomAttributes("Number") = barCount

Finally, you can retrieve for each bar to which bar row it belongs. In the following example, the bar row of custom bar myBar is assigned to a BarRow variable myRow:

Dim myRow As BarRow
Set myRow = myBar.BarRow

Please note: You are free to use any kind of data to parameterize the bars. For example, instead of specifying the data directly in VBA, you may also store the data in INOSIM’s Parameters workbook. This allows you to display any easily changeable input to be displayed as bars in the Gantt Chart.

Step 3: Viewing custom bars

Run your simulation in INOSIM. The custom bars you created can be seen in the Gantt Chart. The following figure shows the Gantt Chart from the example project.

Downloads

Example Project
PDF printout of this Tip & Trick

More Tips & Tricks

2. May 2022

Custom Bars

Custom Bars

Step 1: Creating bar rows

Step 2: Generating bars

DisplayMode, Label, Color and Other Properties of Custom Bars

Step 3: Viewing custom bars

More Questions?

More Tips & Tricks

Measuring the Execution Duration of VBA Controls

Applying Table Objects

Custom Probability Distributions