Item Related System Attributes

Item Related System Attributes

Each individual Item created in your model records and stores information about itself. This information can be useful to support identification and perhaps logging of each item's experience while it is the model.

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Name Read / Write Description

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Item ID

R

The Item’s unique ID number in the system model during the model run.

Item Owning Item ID R Returns the ID of any item which OWNS the current item if it is a message item. If the current item is not a message item, -1 is returned.

Item Priority

R/W

Read or change the Item’s Priority in a change object using this attribute.

Items Carried

R

Read the number of Items being carried by the item, when it is acting as a Carrier Item (and even when it is not).

ItemActAsCarrier

R/W

Determines how any Carrier-Item-sensitive object (PickUp, DropOff) will treat the item.

The default setting of this attribute is as per the item's class (set during edit of the class). For proper operation, you must ensure that any change made to this system attribute is seen during lookahead - if set in a routine just before the object, the routine must execute during lookahead.

Otherwise the item may be let in as a regular item when in fact you wanted it to enter as a Carrier Item.

ItemShowInfoPanel

W

Enables the info panel to be hidden/shown on an item by item basis.

ItemTotalDelay

W

If you choose to ‘place' an Item into an Object using the Throw Exit mode, you can set this value so the item knows what delay is involved once it arrives at the object.

ItemDelayLeft

W

If you choose to ‘place' an Item into an Object using the Throw Exit mode, you can set this value so the item knows what remaining delay is involved. Set this attributes ONLY after setting "Item Total Delay", as the engine needs it to compute the effective item entry time.

Item Location

R/W

Read this for a current location of an item. The object in which the item is located must be part of the _Model Objects label list.

If you choose to ‘place' an Item into an Object using the Throw Exit mode, before sending the item through the Throw Exit, set this value so the item knows what Object it is being placed into. Set this using the _Model Objects label list, or a subset of it.

ItemLocationDetail

R

Extra parameter to item location, e.g. road # (of a track object), server # (in a Multi-Server).

Currently this is only a limited implementation, so its use is not recommended.

ItemTraceAnimation

W

When an item passes through a Change Object with a routine that sets this attribute to a value of 1, the tracing of the animation of this item commences. That single item’s progress through the model structure will be followed, shifting screens as it moves around, until it is destroyed, or until it is set back to Zero.

ItemTransitTarget

W

Before an Item can cross a Spatial link, it needs this attribute set. This provides the end point of the Transit.

To be a valid Target, it must be a Portal in the same subsystem as the Portal the link begins with, and must be in the _Model Objects List.

ItemTransitTime

W

This is the time that the item will take to traverse the links on its way to the Transit target.

ItemTransitDistance

R

This is set when an item first enters a spatial net.

The value is the total distance to the specified target on the spatial link network.

It doesn't get set until the item actually enters the spatial net.

It is available upon arrival at the target, and can be used to track distances travelled (in pixels).

It gets cleared when you assign a new target.

BroadcastReceivers

R

When an Item arrives at a Broadcast Dispatcher, the transmitted broadcast will be picked up by some Broadcast Entries tuned to it.

This tells you how many.

This is set after an item is released by a broadcast dispatcher. It is set to the number of receivers that the broadcast was sent to.

This includes all entries which produced an item and all sockets which sent the broadcast over TCP/IP.

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There are further system item attributes that are used in conjunction with Planimate Tracks features. The list of Track-Related System Item Attributes can be accessed here.