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Reusable Components

Half day
Custom process blocks Modular agent design Library creation and sharing

Course Overview

This session explores best practices and methodologies for creating simulation components that are modular, shareable across teams, and reusable across projects. Participants will build custom blocks, create reusable agents using encapsulation, work with interfaces, and package components into libraries.

Objectives

  • Build independent custom process blocks for reuse
  • Create modular agents with proper encapsulation (private variables, getters, setters)
  • Understand and apply interfaces for team-based model development
  • Package and share components as AnyLogic libraries

Prerequisites

AnyLogic

  • General familiarity, View Areas

JAVA

  • Basic knowledge

Discrete Events

  • Good understanding of basic concepts

Agent-Based Modeling

  • Creating agents

Statistical Foundations

  • Uniform distribution, Triangular distribution

Topics Covered

1. Custom Blocks

  • The copy-paste syndrome — why it fails at scale
  • Building independent custom process blocks
  • Reusing custom process blocks across models
  • Dynamic parameters and action parameters
  • Organizing user interface for parameters

2. Modular Concepts

  • Reusable menu patterns
  • Functionality agents
  • Special agents to extend from
  • Private variables and functions
  • Getters and setters
  • Reusable classes

3. Interfaces

  • Introduction to interfaces in Java
  • Applying interfaces to AnyLogic agents
  • Example application: a payment process

4. Libraries

  • Creating an AnyLogic library
  • Sharing libraries with team members
  • Library versioning best practices

5. Practice

  • Build an improved generic menu component

6. Real-World Examples

  • Messy models that became unsustainable — and how to fix them
  • Transforming a bad-practice model into a recipe-based architecture
  • Progressing through different levels of modularity

Acquired Knowledge

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Apply modularization best practices to AnyLogic projects
  • Create custom process blocks for reuse across models
  • Build sharable agents with proper encapsulation
  • Package components into libraries for easy team distribution

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