Interface Basics
Overview of the HexSim Interface
Navigation
The Workspace Tab
HexSim organizes input and output data into a collection of folders called a workspace. Workspaces contain scenarios, spatial data, and other information. The HexSim workspace tab displays the scenarios and spatial data present in the workspace that has been opened. HexSim scenarios are XML input files that fully parameterize a simulation. HexSim spatial data are time series of HexMaps or Barrier maps. Each scenario will reference some or all of the spatial data sets present within the workspace. The workspace tab is principally used to open or edit scenarios and spatial data. There are many different tools that users can access through the workspace tab, using the HexSim menu, or the scenario and spatial data context menus.
The Scenarios Tab
The HexSim workspace tab contains a list of the scenarios present in the workspace. When a scenario is selected (by double-clicking, or by using the context menu), it opens up in a scenario tab. Multiple scenarios can be opened simultaneously, and each will appear in its own tab. Each scenario tab contains a set of simulation parameters, a list of HexSim populations, an event sequence, and a list of the scenario's spatial data. Also, the Scenario drop-down menu provides users with access to a large number of important functions. These constructs are discussed below. Different scenarios need not have any similarities except that they must all reference the parent workspace's spatial data.
The Spatial Data Viewer
HexSim includes a tool for viewing HexMaps and Barrier maps. The Spatial Data Viewer can be accessed from the HexMap and Barrier map context menus (see image below), or by simply double-clicking on a spatial data time step. In addition to providing a display of a HexMap or Barrier map, the Spatial Data Viewer provides File, View, and Edit menus, a Status Bar, and a Navigation Window. These features are all shown in the figure below.
Running Simulations
Each model is represented by a single HexSim scenario, and a simulation is the execution of a scenario. Simulations are started from the HexSim Monitor. The Monitor window is called up from the Scenario menu, by selecting the Run Simulation option. When called from the Scenario menu, the HexSim Monitor comes up with a server, scenario, and schema pre-loaded. The Server Location is the path to the folder containing the HexSim application. The Scenario File is the path to the scenario being run. The Schema Location is the path to the scenario.xsd file currently being used. This file will typically reside in the HexSim application directory.