As exciting as a new release can be, it can also leave you wondering, "what exactly does this mean for me?"

Driven by feedback from our global partners and customers, Arena v15 is packed full of new features that will bring value to users of all kinds. In this Consultant's Corner, we take a closer look at a few these new features and what they mean for you!

Arena 15 is all about speed. With the new capabilities simulation models will be faster to build, faster to debug-verify-validate, faster to read and faster to explain. – Alexandre Ouellet, President of SimWell.

Native 64 bit

We have always believed that our users' time is best spent solving real-world problems. With 64 bit, users are better able to model large networks and populations where there is a need to have millions of entities active in the system more quickly than ever before. Learn more about The Advantages of Arena 64-bit here.

Dynamic Batch Mode

More flexibility and saving time - that's what our new Dynamic Batch Mode is all about. Alex Ouellet, a leading expert in simulation from SimWell, said this is one new feature he can't wait to get his hands on.

This will change my life.  This feature alone will save me hours/days on every project during the verification stage by allowing me to fast-forward to an exact moment of a model error, slow the model down to resolve the issue, and deliver solutions more quickly for my customers.

New Assign Attribute

Assigning attributes of entities that are in Queues or Groups is a common feature in almost all models. The new Assign Attribute module makes this task easier and faster to accomplish. It is quicker to debug, because the logic is easier to read, making it easier for clients and colleagues to read the model logic more easily.

Adjustable Batch Module

This new module allows for easier control of batching entities dynamically. While the typical Batch modules allows you to batch fixed numbers of entities together, this new module allows you to apply timing constraints to the batch, so that if by a certain time a batch hasn’t been made the number already present will be batched and moved forward in the logic. Additionally, the Signal Module can also trigger the batching of existing entities.

Search and Remove Module

This is one of my favorites. It reduces the amount of logic needed to search and remove all entities from a queue that meet the search criteria. Céline Cornardeau, Director of Modeling at TechTeam, our Premier Partner based in Lyon, France, is looking forward to applying these new capabilities as well:

Search and Remove allows us to do with one single module what we previously did with a loop: Remove from a queue all the entities that match with the condition. The logic is much easier to create and read and saves us a lot of time. 

As an example, you can use Search and Remove to model the loading of a truck with all of the product having the same destination.

These are just a few of the new features that are included with Arena v15.  Click here to view a full list of new features in Arena v15.  We are confident that these advances will enable you to model larger problems more quickly and efficiently.