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Overview

This guide walks you through building and running a basic simulation by hand. By the end you’ll have a working model, a completed run, and results you can read.
The fastest path to a first simulation is conversational: describe your process to Dexter — or start from your own data with Your First Project — and the agent builds the model for you. This page is the manual walkthrough for when you want to understand each piece yourself. The two paths produce the same artifacts and mix freely: Dexter already knows which model you have open, so you can hand any step below to it mid-build.

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Step 1: Pick a Factory and Create a Model

A model lives inside a factory. Pick the factory you want to work in from the global selector at the top, then open the Modeler and create a new model with New Model in the model picker at the top of the page. Give it a name and an optional description. The model is your container: every component, configuration field, and run lives inside it.

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Step 2: Define Your Entities

Entities are the items that flow through your simulation: raw materials, intermediates, finished goods. They’re factory-scoped, so anything you define here can be added to every model in the same factory. In the Modeler’s left panel, the Overview view lists what the model uses. In its Entities section, click + Add entity to create an entity type or add an existing one; the section’s pencil opens the full list for editing. Each entity type carries typed attributes (Boolean, Number, Text, Text List, Number List) that get stamped when the entity is created at a Source, travel with it through the graph, and can be read by any expression along the way.

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Step 3: Build the Model Graph

The canvas is where you build your simulation as a graph of connected components. The dock in the canvas’s bottom-left corner holds the components:
  • Source: generates entities and introduces them into the model
  • Process: applies a delay, optionally consuming resources
  • Buffer: holds entities in a queue with an optional capacity limit
  • Router: splits entity flow based on logic you define
  • Station: a capacity-constrained container that groups components into a work center
  • Combiner, Separator, Transformer: batch entities together, split one into many, or change/mutate an entity. Typically attached to a Station rather than standalone.
  • Sink: removes entities from the model. The exit point.
  • Resource: a capacity pool (workers, machines). Connect it to the Processes that draw from it.
Drag a component from the dock onto the canvas, then connect components by dragging from one node’s output handle to another’s input handle. The minimum viable model is Source → Process → Sink.

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Step 4: Configure Components

Click any component on the canvas to open its settings in the left panel’s Properties view. For a first model:
  • Source: which entity type to generate, arrival logic (a fixed interval, a distribution, or a DSL expression), and initial attribute values
  • Process: processing time, resource requirements, optional Station placement
  • Router: routing logic — conditional rules, percentage splits, or round robin
  • Resource: capacity and allocation discipline
Most numeric fields accept either a literal value or an expression referencing constants and lookup tables, entity attributes, and simulation state. Define a constant for any number you expect to tune later — it pays off the first time you sweep a scenario.
A Transformer doesn’t have to change the entity type: configuring the same input and output type is the standard way to mutate attributes mid-flow (incrementing a rework counter, marking a QC result). And when you need batching, a Hold-mode Buffer with a conditional hook that fires a release action often beats Combiner + Separator because it preserves per-entity lineage. See Combiners, Separators & Transformers.

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Step 5: Set Simulation Duration

With the Default schedule selected, open the ⋯ menu at the top right of the Modeler and set how long the simulation should run using the DDD:HH:MM:SS Duration picker. This controls the length of each run in simulated time. If the run should follow real calendar time — shifts, planned releases, downtime windows — pair the model with a schedule instead. Schedule material releases are a second arrival mechanism that coexists with your Sources’ own arrival logic, so decide deliberately which one (or both) drives each entry point.

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Step 6: Run the Simulation

The run controls live at the bottom of the canvas: Run simulation (the play button), Fast forward to end, and Playback speed. Click Run simulation to execute the model end to end. Runs execute against your live working model, so iteration is fast: tweak, run, repeat. The play button doubles as the validation indicator. Green means the model is structurally valid and ready. Red means there’s a specific blocker: hover the button to see the error and a Fix with Dexter button that hands the failure to Dexter.

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Step 7: Review Results

Stay in the Modeler to inspect the run’s replay, summary, and event log. To reopen the newest run available for replay, use View latest; ask Dexter for a link when you need an earlier run. For KPI and chart analysis, ask Dexter a concrete question about the run. It can query the recorded events, explain a metric, or build a dashboard from the Simulation results app template. Connect the template to your own run before interpreting its values; it starts with sample data. If you change the analysis, ask Dexter to update the app’s queries and query the relevant run again. Starting another simulation does not automatically refresh charts or KPIs saved in an app; select the run you want to analyze. When you want to share what you found, ask Dexter for a report: it can produce PDF, Word, PowerPoint, or Excel deliverables straight from your results.

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What’s Next