Activities

Activities are operations that occur within your model and involve a transfer of material. These are sometimes called events in other scheduling systems. Examples include import of material, transfer of material from import to storage, or transfer from storage to process units. All activities have a start time, an end time, a duration, an amount of transfer and a rate of transfer. Additionally, all activities have a source and destination asset.

Create activities

Since any transfer of material in your model qualifies as an activity, many workflows in the scheduling environment involve creating activities. For example, creating feed blends or product blends also generates the corresponding activities, as does creating imports and exports.

This topic explains how to create an activity in the Tabular pane and in the Gantt pane.

Create an activity in the Tabular pane

In the Tabular pane, you can add an activity by entering the amount of material to be transferred in the column representing the transfer between the source and destination assets. By default, the name of this column is equal to the names of the two assets linked by an arrow. Enter the value in the row corresponding to the date and time at which you want the transfer to start.

For example, in the image below a transfer of 200 kbbl is created between the F103 tank and the Distillate Blender. The column name is F103 → Distillate Blender. The activity is set to start at 00:00 on January 24th, 2014.

The activity is created using the default flow rate of the source asset, and will automatically span the time interval needed to transfer the whole amount. This means it could span one or more cells below the cell where you entered the transfer amount. To change the default flow rate for an asset, go to the page corresponding to the asset type under Asset Configuration in the left pane. For example, to change the flow rate of a process unit you would go to the Process Units page.

After you have created an activity, you can click on any of the activity cells to view and edit the activity details in the Activity Inspector.

Create fill and draw activities with conditions

In the Gantt and Tabular panes, you can quickly create a fill activity until a destination asset is full, or a draw activity until a source asset is empty. The amount of material to be transferred is calculated automatically. Follow these steps:

1. Depending on whether you are in the Tabular or Gantt pane, do either of the following:

   • In the Tabular pane, right-click on a column related to the source or destination asset. For example, it could be a transfer to/from a tank, or a tank service. Right-click on the row corresponding to the date and time at which you want the activity to begin.

   • In the Gantt pane, right-click on the row corresponding to the source or destination asset, at the position corresponding to the date and time at which you want the activity to begin.

     The context menu appears.

2. Click on either of the following:

   • Fill To, if you want to create an activity by filling material to a destination asset.

   • Draw From, if you want to create an activity by drawing material from a source asset.

     A submenu opens, showing the available source or destination assets.

3. Click on the source/destination asset you want to define the transfer from/to. A further submenu opens, showing the available conditions. Typically you can set the transfer to continue until the source asset is empty or the destination asset is full. You may get a third option to transfer material until the source asset is empty or the destination asset is full. A icon appears next to this option, indicating that the activity would be associated to a condition.

   

4. Click on the condition you want to apply. The transfer activity is created.

In the Gantt pane, you can additionally specify a custom amount of material for tank-to-tank transfers:

5. Choose Custom Amount in the source of destination asset menu.

6. In the dialog that opens, enter the desired amount. Note that there are no checks on the amount you enter against the tank capacities.

7. If desired, change the unit of measure. The preselected unit is the default one as specified in the UoMs tab of the General page.

8. Click OK. The corresponding activity is created.

If the Fill To or Draw From entries are disabled, it means that there are no suitable destination or source assets.

In some cases, a blend is automatically created with the draw activity. For example, if you draw material from a tank to a distillation unit, a Feed Blend is created. If you draw material from a tank to a blender, a Product Blend is created. In this case you would edit the blend rather than the transfer itself.

To edit the blend, right-click on it and choose either Feed Blend > Edit or Product Blend > Edit from the context menu.
See Configure a Feed Blend and Configure a Product Blend for more information.

Creating a transfer from a tank to a pipeline with the Fill To option on the tank, or the Draw From option on the pipeline, has different results according to whether the Product lifting manifold support optional feature is enabled:

• If the feature is enabled, a manual activity is created.

• If the feature is disabled, which is the default, a pipeline blend is created.

If the feature is enabled, you can still create pipeline blends by right-clicking in the Tabular or Gantt pane and selecting Pipeline Blend, then Create. See Pipeline Blends for more information.

Edit activities

There are several ways in which you can edit an activity in the scheduling environment:

• In the Tabular pane, you can just edit the values in the cells representing the transfer of material related to the activity.

• In the Tabular and Gantt pane, you can click on an activity table cell or bar, respectively, to show the activity details in the Activity Inspector. There may be other inspectors showing information relevant to the activity: for example, if the activity is part of an import you can open the Import Inspector. You can then edit the activity details in the inspector.

  Using inspectors is recommended for fine-grained control on activities. The changes you make directly in the Tabular pane cannot be more fine grained than the temporal resolution of the grid. For example, if a row of the grid corresponds to 24 hours, you cannot change a unit configuration over a 12-hour period.

• The graphical nature of the Gantt pane makes it easier to move activities or to change their start and end times. You can also copy and paste activities, optionally preserving links to other activities, link activities together or split an activity into two.

Edit activities in the Activity Inspector

The Activity Inspector allows you to view and edit the activity currently selected in the Gantt or Tabular pane. You can also define conditions associated with the activity.

To open the Activity Inspector, click the Inspectors button in the Panes group of the Home ribbon tab, and choose Activity from the list.

The size, position and internal layout of the Inspector are preserved across sessions. These properties are preserved when you close and reopen the Inspector, or Schedule. You do not need to save your case explicitly.

The internal layout properties that are preserved include the following:

• The size and expanded/collapsed state of panes.

• The size and position of columns for advanced grids. The settings of legacy Grids are not supported.

The size and position of the Inspectors are preserved separately for each Display. You do not need to enter the Edit Mode of a Display for these settings to be preserved.

If you get a new version of a Display via the Synchronize pane, the local settings for the size and position of the Inspectors are overwritten.

Every activity is given an automatically generated Number, which you can edit, for identification purposes.

An activity may have been generated as part of a Rule. In this case, you can only edit its Name and Description fields.

In the Composition and Qualities section of the Inspector you can see the composition of the material being transferred shown in graphical form, together with a list of properties. The schedule needs to be simulated for these data to appear.

The Start Date, End Date, Flow Rate and Total Amount fields are not independent variables. One of them can be calculated automatically by Schedule as you make changes to the other three. To choose the variable to be updated automatically, click the option button next to its name.

Set conditions

In the Activity Inspector you can set start and end conditions for activities, so that the activity starts/ends at the same time as another activity starts or ends. If the other activity is moved, this dependent activity will update its start/end time to preserve the condition.

Follow these steps to set a condition:

9. Click the button in either the Start Conditions or End Conditions area at the bottom of the Activity Inspector. A menu appears.

10. Choose one of these options:

    • When an Activity starts: Start/end the current activity when another activity starts.

    • When an Activity ends: Start/end the current activity when another activity ends.

    • At an Override: Start/end the current activity when an override on the source or destination asset is set.

    A new row appears in the Start Conditions or End Conditions area.

11. In the new row, double click the <Select Activity> or <Select Override> cell, depending on the choice you have made. Choose an activity or an override from the list.

12. If you have selected an activity, you can optionally introduce a delay. Double click on the value in hours to edit it.

13. The condition is now set and will be taken into account when the schedule is simulated.

Move activities

You can easily move an activity in the Gantt view by clicking on the activity bar and dragging it to the desired position. Dragging an activity moves the whole activity, so that the start times and end times are both updated, while the activity duration and rate remains constant.

Some activities can also be moved between assets (that is, between rows in the Gantt chart). This includes:

• The destination of transfers between a feed unit and a tank.

• The source or destination of transfers between tanks.

• The source of transfers between tanks and process units.

To move an activity to a different asset, hold down the Ctrl key and drag the activity bar to the new row.

Change activity start or end times

You can change the start and end times of activities in the Gantt view by moving the mouse pointer to the start or the end of the activity bar. The cursor changes to a double arrow (). You can then click and drag to change the selected start or end time.

Tip: When you change the start or end time of an activity by dragging the edges of the activity bar, either the amount or flow rate is recalculated according to the rules specified under Activity Modification in the General tab of the Settings page.
Hold Ctrl + Shift while dragging for the opposite of the rule to be followed: if the rule says to recalculate the amount, the flow rate is recalculated instead, and vice versa.

Link and split activities

Linking activities is useful if you want the start and end times of separate activities to be related in some way. For example, you may need an activity to start immediately after another one ends. If you link activities explicitly, the link will persist after you make further changes to the activities, for example by changing their start or end times.

Splitting an activity spanning an extended period of time is useful to obtain a number of shorter activities, which can then be independently configured.

In the Gantt pane, click the Link button in the toolbar to open a menu with several options for linking, unlinking and splitting the selected activities. The same options are available from the context menu when right-clicking on an activity:

• Start Together

  • When two manual activities are selected, creates a condition so that one activity starts at the same time as the activity you right-clicked (if using the context menu) or last selected (if using the toolbar menu).

  • When two linkable objects (that is, blends or transports) are selected, creates a condition so that they both start at the earliest start time of the two.

• Start After <activity>: When two activities are selected, creates a condition so that one activity starts after the end of the activity you right-clicked (if using the context menu) or last selected (if using the toolbar menu).

• End Before <activity>: When two activities are selected, creates a condition so that one activity ends before the beginning of the activity you right-clicked (if using the context menu) or last selected (if using the toolbar menu).

• End Together

  • When two manual activities are selected, creates a condition so that one activity ends at the same time as the activity you right-clicked (if using the context menu) or last selected (if using the toolbar menu).

  • When two linkable objects (that is, blends or transports) are selected, creates a condition so that they both end at the latest end time of the two.

• Unlink: Breaks the link between two connected activities and removes the associated condition.

• Split: Opens the Split Selection dialog box to split the selected activities and configurations. Note that you cannot split rule-generated activities.

  

The Split Selection dialog allows you to control how the activity will be split. Using the dialog it is possible to choose the exact time the split occurs, as well as enter a name for the new activity.

Tip: You can also use the Link, Unlink and Split options in the context menu, by right-clicking on one or more selected activities.

Copy and paste activities

You can copy activities and paste them back to the Gantt pane in the usual ways:

• Use the Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V keyboard shortcuts.

• Click the Copy and Paste buttons in the Clipboard group of the Home ribbon tab.

• Right-click on the Gantt chart and choose Copy and Paste from the context menu.

When right-clicking you can also choose the Paste Special option from the context menu. This opens a submenu with these options:

• Paste with Links: Paste the activities in the Clipboard and preserve their links to other activities.

• Paste without Links: Paste the activities in the Clipboard without any links to other activities.

• Paste values: Paste just the numerical values, rather than the whole activity objects, into all selected cells. New activities will then be created.

If you select multiple cells for pasting, you must use the Paste values option to paste the copied values into all selected cells. Otherwise, the copied activities are pasted just once.

Delete activities

To delete an activity, select the first cell in the Tabular pane where the activity begins, or the activity bar in the Gantt pane, and press the Delete key. You can also delete activities from the Activities pane.

Note: Deleting a transfer activity associated with a Product Blend or Feed Blend in the Gantt or Tabular pane will only delete that single transfer activity, and not the other transfer activities associated with the blend activity. To remove all transfers associated with the blend activity use the Blend Inspector (Delete a Feed Blend, Delete a Product Blend).

Inspect activities

The Activities list shows a summary of the activities present in the schedule, along with the details of each activity:

The Activities list support Asset Filters allowing the assets shown in the grid to be controlled for display purposes. Asset Filters are created automatically based on the views defined in the schedule's parent case, and can also be created manually.

To use an Asset Filter, select it from the View drop-down menu in the pane toolbar.

Note: You cannot edit activities in the Activities list. See Edit Activities for how to edit activities in the Gantt and Tabular panes and in the Activity Inspector.

The Type column displays any one of these icons:

• - Indicates that the activity has been generated by the simulation.

• - Indicates that the activity has been generated by rate targeting from an inventory-based unit, such as a tank.

• - Indicates that the activity has been generated by a rule.

• - Indicates that the activity belongs to a blend.

• - Indicates that the activity is conditional.

• - Indicates that the activity has been created manually (and is therefore editable).

If you forget what the icons mean, simply hover your cursor over them to remind yourself:

To edit an activity, you must make it manual. Do this by right-clicking the activity and selecting Convert to Manual, or by clicking the Convert to Manual button in the Activities pane.

Group your activities in multiple ways

You can group your activities by multiple columns in the Activities pane.

For example, if you want to view all of your rate target activities across your process units, right-click the Type column and choose Group By This Column.

This will group your activities by each type.

Next, you can right-click on the Destination column, and again click Group By This Column. Your activities are now grouped by both Type and Destination.

From here, you can convert multiple rate target activities into manual activities. Select the activities you wish to convert (using Ctrl + click or Shift + click), then right-click on them and select Convert to Manual.

The same workflow could also be used for rule-based activities. You can group your activities by as many columns as you wish, which gives you many options for viewing, and working with, your data.