Unit Constraints Solver

This dialog is used to run the Unit Constraints solver on selected parts of the model. It can be started by right mouse-click on a model and selecting "UnitConstraints Solver". For a tutorial about units, including examples of using the UnitConstraints Solver Dialog, click here.

An example of the dialog is shown below.

image of UnitsConstraint Solver

The UnitConstraints Solver Dialog uses the graph viewer to help display information about the operation of the solver and the results that it generates. When the UnitConstraintsSolver Dialog starts the components that will be used to generate solutions are highlighted in yellow on the graph viewer. (Actually, the manner in which selected links are highlighted is overriden so that they are highlighted in yellow instead of rendering handles on the ends of the links.)

There are three different subpanels of the dialog.

Components - Provides the means to modifiy the components of the model that are analyzed by the solver. When the dialog is created the model is inspected to see if any actors, and/or relations are selected. If so, then those actors and links are used in the solution process. If none are selected then all of the actors and relations are used. The membership can be modified by selecting the desired actors and/or relations and then pressing the Set To Selected button on the Memebers panel. The current membership can be viewed by pressing the Show Components button which will cause the current components to be selected.

Full Solver - Interface to the full solver. Pressing the Run button causes the solver to run to completion on the components. The results are displayed in the panel below the Run button. The possible results are



Minimal Spanning Solver Interface to solver that runs in a mode that attempts to isolate inconsistencies. The solver is run multiple times, each on a subset of the components. In this mode the solver stops when an inconsistency is found. This produces a set of solutions, each presenting a different perspective on the inconsistencies in the model. The results of running the minimal spanning solver are displayed in the panel below the Run button. There are two types of results.

Annotating the model

The results of running the minimal spanning solver can be futher investigated by selecting the result. Doing so will cause the model to be annotated in a way that gives a visual presentation of the result. For example, shown below is the model after selecting one of the results.

image of UnitsConstraint Solver

The relations of the model are now colored so that green indicates the Units constraints of the relation are satisfied, and magenta indicates that the Units constraints of the relation are not satisfied.