Execution and Simulation of Executable State Machines

One of the many features of Enterprise Architect is its ability to perform simulations. An Executable State Machine generated and built in Enterprise Architect can hook into the Simulation feature to visually demonstrate the live execution of the State Machine Artifact.

Starting a simulation

The Simulation Control toolbar provides a Search button that allows you to select the Executable Statemachine Artifact to run. The control also maintains a drop-down list of the most recent Executable State Machines for you to choose from. You can also use the context menu on an Executable Statemachine Artifact itself to initiate the simulation.

Controlling speed

The Simulation Control provides a speed setting. You can use this to adjust the rate at which the simulation executes. The speed is represented as a value between 0 and 100. (Higher value is faster). A value of zero will cause the simulation to halt after every step (requires using the toolbar controls to manually step the simulation).

Notation for active states

As the executable statemachine executes, the relevant statemachine diagrams are displayed. The display is updated at the end of every step-to-completion cycle. You will notice that only the active state for the instance completing a step is highlighted. The other states remain dimmed.

It is easy to identify which instance is in which state as the states will be labeled with the name of any instance currently in that particular state. If more than one artifact property of the same type share the same state, the state will have two labels naming each property.

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