Configuring the Ask a Question Action

You can use this option to cause the simulation process flow to pause and display a specified question. The simulation process flow is paused until the answer is provided and OK is clicked or until the specified resume time expires.

  1. Double-click the Pause component icon .

    The Pause Component Editor appears.

  2. From the Pause Component Editor, select Question from the Action list.

  3. In the Question text box, type the question that you want Isight to ask.

  4. In the Possible Answers area, select one of the following options from the first list:

    • User will pick from a set. If selected, you can control the possible answers to the question and how the answers are presented.

      1. Update the Specify possible answers list to correspond with your question. By default, “Yes” and “No” answers are provided. You can specify as many options as necessary by clicking in the last empty row of the table to provide a new option.
      2. From the Display as list, select radio buttons or menu items. This option determines how the answers are selected.

    • User will type anything. If selected, Isight displays a text box for entering an answer.

  5. In the Parameter to contain answer list, select or enter the information for the answer.

    By default, a parameter called “answer” is provided. You can change the name of the parameter directly in the corresponding text box. In addition, you can change the parameter’s attributes or create a new parameter using the button.

  6. Click Automatically resume to automatically end any pause in the simulation process flow once the specified (after option) time limit or clock time (at time option) is reached.

    • If the after option is used, the countdown time is displayed during execution so that you know how much time remains before the execution automatically resumes.

    • If the at time option is used, the time when the execution resumes is displayed. The at time option is useful for deferring execution of various parts of the simulation process flow until a time at which computing resources are known to be available or a certain user is available to perform some interactive process within the simulation process flow. If the specified time of day has already passed, the simulation process flow resumes immediately.

    Execution can be resumed at any time by clicking Continue on the dialog box that appears during execution.

    Note: If you do not want the Pause component to automatically resume, clear the Automatically resume option. In addition, clearing this option sets the general Timeout option on this component to “0” (meaning it will never timeout). For more information about component properties, see General Component Properties.

  7. If your model is going to be executed within a SIMULIA Execution Engine environment, use the Execute on list to select the execution location:

    Option Description
    computer job was submitted from The Pause component, and any associated interface, executes on the computer from which the job was initially submitted. Select this option if you want the person executing the model also to be the one prompted with any questions or parameter lists or just to monitor the status of the pause. This is the default setting.
    specified Station The Pause component executes on the computer that serves as the SIMULIA Execution Engine station as specified in the text box.
    any Station The Pause component executes on any available SIMULIA Execution Engine station as selected by the SIMULIA Execution Engine.

    When executing on your desktop (in Standalone mode), the Pause component executes on your local computer.

  8. Click OK to save your changes and to close the Pause Component Editor.