Loading a saved model as a submodel

In your current model, create an empty submodel. This should be fairly large, so that the diagram of the model you will be inserting is not all squashed up.

Select pointer mode, and double-click on the boundary of the submodel. (If you miss, you will see the submodel properties dialogue window: cancel this and try again). You will see a new model diagram window, just like the main desktop window except smaller. It will have the same menu as the main desktop window.

Select the "Open" command from the "File" menu, and locate and load the Simile model (.sml) file.

You will see the loaded model in both the new submodel window, and in the round-cornered submodel box in the main Desktop window. You can close the submodel window, or keep it there if you want to work on the submodel and it is too small in the main Desktop window. Note that, if you enlarge the submodel window, you will probably want to do Zoom to fit in order to get the model submodel diagram to occupy the whole of the available space.

Any model or submodel saved to file can be treated as a submodel or as a model. No real distinction is made between the two concepts. If you load a previously-saved model into a submodel window, then it will become a submodel in the current model. If, on the other hand, you load a previously-saved submodel into the desktop window (i.e. the main, top-level window), then it will become a model in its own right.

So, in order to load a previously-saved submodel as a stand-alone model, all you need to do is to start a new session of Simile (or select the "New" command from the "File" menu in the desktop window), then select the "Open" command from the "File" menu in the desktop window, and find the .sml file that contains the previously-saved submodel.

Any variables in the submodel that had previously received influences from outside the submodel automatically become "Input parameters". If they had been previously assigned min and max values, then you will get a slider for each such variable when you come to run the submodel (now a model). Any such variable that had not been assigned minimum and maximum values will appear red when you load the submodel, and you need to open up the equation dialogue for this variable and either:

• unclick the "Input parameter" check box and enter a value into its equation dialogue; or
• enter min and max values.

In: Contents >> Working with submodels