Conveyor

Conveyors move items over a distance at a given speed, with the length of each item considered to avoid them overlapping.

Concepts

To start using a conveyor you need to consider the length of the conveyor (set in whatever units you like, typically metres) and its speed (units/second). The length is fixed during a run, speed can be changed as with most other conveyor properties. These are set using attribute references.

In addition, the length of items is important for a Conveyor. This can be set for an item class in the Item Class edit context menu, or per item in code using s.ItemLength.

It is important to remember that Planimate models are a schematic and with the Conveyor in particular, you need to manage the layout and icon sizes / scaling carefully if you need to display the conveyor and items to scale.

Pack vs Stop

There are two alternative Conveyor behaviours when an item ready to leave is blocked. By default, items are ‘packed’ together when the front item is blocked. Adding the ‘Stop On Block’ option changes it so all items are stopped in their current position until the front item can leave the Conveyor.

Minimum Distance

Conveyors enable items to enter only when there is sufficient distance to the previous item. The item’s length property, s.ItemLength is used. A conveyor can be configured to include an additional "minimum distance" which sets the minimum space between the "end" of an item and the "front" of the next one.

This minimum distance can be dynamically changed, leading to some interesting behaviours.

• Reducing the minimum distance while the front item is blocked causes the items to pack closer together (like cars at a traffic light).
• Increasing the minimum distance whilst items are moving in the conveyor will cause items that are too close to items in front of them to stop moving until enough space opens up. Note that items never move backwards to create space.