Netlogo extrawidget extensions numeric input widget malfunctions intermittently - netlogo

I am currently using the extrawidget extension in Netlogo as a frontend GUI and using it as a parent model in Levelspace to call and push information to a child model. I use ls:assign to push the information from the parent (extrawidgrt GUI) global variables to the child global variables. All the widgets works fine except the numeric input widget. I have 30 separate numeric input widgets. Sometimes all the numeric inputs work properly but sometimes (and often) either the number input is not received by the child model or the number input won't clear in the extrawidget's GUI when using a programmed "clear-input" button (The "clear input button" has all the proper "xw:ask" and "[ xw:set-value 0]" in place for all the numeric input widgets).
When this happens it happens with different numeric widgets each time, sometimes 2 numeric widgets at a time.
Like I said, sometimes everything works fine but sometimes this malfunction happens.
Any insights to what might be causing this?
Thanks
Rudy

Related

How to get the dataset for text from Main and run in parameter variation experiment using anylogic?

I am working on an evacuation process project and would like to know if its possible to acquire a dataset for text or a variable from main and run in parameter variation experiment (for 100 runs) while storing/saving it after every iteration. This text keeps changing every time the simulation runs because the number of people able to escape during evacuation is different. An alarm (event) goes off and it triggers another event (event1), this then updates the text that counts the number of people in the building.
stopCounting of type boolean is false and peopleRemaining of type long
getPeopleInsideCount() comes from my function
The code I tried using in After experiment run for parameter variation experiment is
iteration3++;
dataset2.add(iteration3,(double)Long.parseLong(root.text2.getText()));
I understand that this code is unable to read the text from the main as a dataset. I have run the simulation in main and the text updates while also noticing that the peopleRemaining variable follows the number in text. Maybe it is possible to obtain variable in a dataset?
please learn to use the AnyLogic help as well. There, you will learn that a Dataset object only stores numbers. Also, a text object has only text as a String. They are not compatible.
You will want to store your evacuation number in a variable of type Int, name it myEvacNumber. So in addition of showing it in your text, you must manually store it in that variable. Best do that at the end of your evacuation ;-)
Then in your experiment in the "after simulation run" codebox, you can access it and store it into your dataset using
dataset.add(root.myEvacNumber);
Note that this will store the value that was in that variable at the very end of each simulation run!

Maya Plugin attribute validation

I am trying to validate my custom MPxEmitterNode attributes.
I have force_min and force_max attributes that are double3 typed in maya parlance, basically two objects containing double[3] data.
I want to ensure the force_min is less than force_max for each of its 3 components. I'd like to do this by just swapping the min and max around if someone enters a value on the attribute in the attribute editor, or calls mels setAttr for those attributes, which then fails the "min < max" check.
I have tried setting up ATTRIBUTE_AFFECTS relationships between force_min, force_max and their individual component x,y,z objects. That seems to cause a cyclic issue leading to Maya crashing. I have also tried editing the custom compute function for the derived MPxEmitterNode, so it sets the force_min and force_max values to swap. The force_* attributes are seemingly never computed in this case.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Generally the 'Maya' way to do this would be to let the output look wrong if the min and max are set incorrectly. You don't know who is going to set those attributes -- it could be as connection or a script, and it could even get reset in between frames of an animation -- and so it's better to let the dag evaluation flow through even if the result is nonsense. It's like setting a radius of zero on a sphere node --it's 'correct' even thought it's wrong.
You can however swap the values inside your compute() method to get the same effect as swapping the values without resetting the plug values themselves. Setting an input plug from inside compute is a bad idea, because it introduces a loop into the flow of the dag evaluation. Dag nodes must be acyclical (that's the "a" in dag: Directed Acyclic Graph)

A Grid of Clones

My goal is to build a 5x5 grid of images. In the following code, row, col and rowcol were created as variables local to the sprite, and newcol, newrow and cats are global. (By the way, is it possible to tell which variables are local and which are global? It's easy to forget or make mistakes.)
The result is a 5x1 grid only, as seen here.
I am unclear as to the order of execution of these statements. Does when I start as a clone get called before or after add_cat gets called the second time? My tentative conclusion is that it gets called afterwards, yet the clone's global variables seem to contain their values from beforehand instead.
When I attempted to debug it with ask and say and wait commands, the results varied wildly. Adding such pauses in some places fixed the problem completely, resulting in a 5x5 grid. In other places, they caused a 1x5 grid.
The main question is: How to fix this so that it produces a 5x5 grid?
Explanation
Unfortunately, the execution order in Scratch is a little bizarre. Whenever you edit a script (by adding or removing blocks, editing inputs, or dragging the entire script to a new location in the editor), it gets placed at the bottom of the list (so it runs last).
A good way to test this out is to create a blank project with the following scripts:
When you click the green flag, the sprite will either say "script one" or "script two", depending on which runs first. Try clicking and dragging one of the when green flag clicked blocks. The next time you click the green flag, the sprite will say whichever message corresponds to the script you just dragged.
This crazy order can make execution incredibly unpredictable, especially when using clones.
The solution
The only real solution is to write code that has a definite execution order built-in (rather than relying on the whims of the editor). For simpler scripts, this generally means utilizing the broadcast and wait block to run particular events in the necessary order.
For your specific project, I see two main solutions:
Procedural Solution
This is the most straightforward script, and it's probably what I would choose to go with:
(row and col are both sprite-only variables)
Because clones inherit all sprite-only variable values when they are created, each clone will be guaranteed to have the correct row and col when it is created.
Recursive Solution
This solution is a bit harder to understand than the first, so I would probably avoid it unless you're just looking for the novelty:

Get the handle of a block calling an Interpreted Matlab Function

I am using Simulink to model a waste recycling plant out of a number of masked blocks that I created, representing sorting steps, buffers etc. Each module (that is, a masked block) has a failure probability, modeled using Discrete Events. If a failure event occurs, a triggered subsystem calls an Interpreted Matlab Function ("outside" of simulink). This function is supposed to set a parameter status of the masked block representing the module that failed as well as the upstream modules' status to 0 (because obviously, everything upstream has to stop as well or the material will just pile up).
`set_param(gcb, 'status', num2str(status));
PortConnectivity = get_param(gcb,'PortConnectivity');
sources = PortConnectivity.SrcBlock;`
Basically, this will be looped until I reach a block with no own Source Block.
This all works quite well, except for one problem: The gcb command gives me the block path to the last block I highlighted manually, and not to the block that called the Interpreted Matlab function. Is there any way to get the calling block's handle (which I would use with it's Parents parameter to access the Mask's status)? (A similar question has been asked here, with no results...)
I hope you get my problem - I'll be happy to elaborate if anything's unclear; I am not claiming to be a Simulink expert, so sorry for maybe using wrong terminology.
Ok, for everyone stumbling upon this:
For the mask that contains the caller of the Matlab Interpreted Function, in the mask editor I define a parameter 'this_block' (turn visibility off), that I initialize in the Initialisation pane using
parent = get_param(gcb,'Parent');
set_param(gcb, 'this_block','Parent')
Since this masked block (responsible for modelling the failure and its upstream communication) is itself used in another masked block also present in the library (responsible for modeling the module's behaviour), I also had to check "Allow library blocks to modify it's contents" in the mask editor Inititlization pane of the parent's mask. The parameter 'this_block' is then handed over as one of the input arguments of the called function (in my case, status_communication(u, this_block)).

Can two panels share a uicontrol in a MATLAB GUI?

I've got a MATLAB GUI that has different aspects of functionality, each with their own panel of uicontrols. When one panel is selected, the other one is set to invisible, and vice-versa. However, they share some of the same inputs in the form of a popup menu. Can I include a 'clone' instance of the menu on the second panel somehow? I'd like to avoid as many redundant callbacks and uicontrols as possible.
I guess if the uicontrol was a direct child of the figure, you may be able to put it in front of everything.
A much simpler solution is to use the same callback for multiple uicontrols. In the property editor, you can modify the callback name and set it to a common callback function. Additionally, you can create a field (e.g. myPopupH) in the OpeningFcn of the GUI, in which you store the handles of the popups that should behave the same way. Then, in the callback, you'd use hObject, i.e. the first input argument, for all the get calls (to access the modified state of the popup-menu), but you'd use handles.myPopupH in all the set calls, so that you can ensure that both popups always have the same state. Thus, the ui-object may be redundant, but all the code (which is much more critical) only exists in a single copy.
One place where I routinely use a single callback for multiple ui elements is the close request function which is accessed from the "Cancel"-button as well as from the "X" that closes the figure, and possibly from one of the "File"-menu items.