Generator

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You need a generator to create the material (dynamic elements, dynamics) that is processed by the machine. It is connected to a bit of the PLC. With every rising slope of this bit a dynamic is generated.

If the bit is always on, new dynamics are generated in regular intervals, which are specified by the field ‘repeat rate’.

The dynamics are always cuboid-shaped but they can have every size you like. You enter the size of the dynamics in the mask that is called up by the button ‘dynamics’. The easiest way is to click ‘as generator’ because then you are able to adapt the size of the created dynamics by dragging the margins of the generator even subsequently.

The size of the dynamics is randomly enlarged or reduced by the values that you can find in the fields below the size in order to simulate the adversities of the real life better.

If the dynamics should always have exactly the same size, you have to enter 0 there. Please note in this context the random numbers as well.

To identify dynamics you can also specify a word within the PLC. Each time a dynamic is created it is marked with the value which is currently in this corresponding word. Using the bar code scanner you can pick out this value at any position in the machine, and you can make the processing dependent on that, e.g., dynamics with even numbers to the right side, the ones with odd numbers to the left.

You have the opportunity to create turnable dynamics as well. The only for this kind of dynamics possible options Center points, Edge points and X-Y-turns are explained in the section dealing with the turnable dynamics.

Normally the dynamics are gravity dependent in a simplified way, that means if they do not stand on a base they will fall with a constant speed. You can adjust this speed. Normally the default value 400 mm/s leads to good results. But if you put dynamics on movable bases which move downwards faster you should adjust this value. Eventually the ‘thickness of the platform’ has to be raised in View|Options|Machine, otherwise dynamics will fall through conveyors and the like. If you deselect the gravity dependence completely you will have to make sure that the dynamic leaves the generator with the help of a hook or a shifter for instance.

If you make the dynamics fillable they are like a container.

In the standard adjustment the created dynamics are visible in every graphic and from every direction. You can change this behaviour by the properties of the graphic windows. But you can also activate the check box ‘visible like generator’. Then the visibility of the dynamics follows the same rules as the ones for the generator, that means the directions out of which the dynamic is to be seen and the graphic filter are taken over by the generator. Please note that the taking over happens during the creation of the dynamic. The generator does not have any access to an already created dynamic.

Please note that a new dynamic is created not until the previous one has left the generator. If necessary you have to reduce the size of the generator.

Often beginners’ mistake: A generator is placed in the X-Y-top view and so it does not seem to create any dynamics. TrySim simulates the world three-dimensional! If a generator which stands on the floor of a hall creates a dynamic, that one will stand on the floor of the hall as well and there is no reason to move in any direction. The new dynamic is not even visible, unless you look at it exactly and you realize that the color of the generator has changed from violet to black.

If you want the dynamics to fall out of the generator, as you can see in example 1, you will have to place the generator above the floor of the hall. This is only possible in the Z-Y side view or in the X-Z front view. And only in these views you can notice the dropping of a dynamic out of a generator.