These are our top five AnyLogic blog posts from 2021. They showcase the community, AnyLogic developments, and the wide variety of simulation related content from the year.
Many of our best posts feature simulation models you can try for yourself in AnyLogic Cloud — the best place for sharing simulation models online. Along with AnyLogic, the cloud platform received updates throughout the year that introduced new features and improved the user experience.
Early in the year, there were new experiments, AGV upgrades, and new features for the Road Traffic Library, followed by Material Handling Library enhancements for better warehouse storage modeling, and finally a brace of releases that introduced new cloud features, a Cloud API update, improved material handling functionality, and more.
Of course, to get the most from these new features, it helps to have some guidance. Something which the new AnyLogic help can always provide, and which brings us to our list of top blog posts:
5. New AnyLogic Help
The new AnyLogic Help has a fresh new look and features to improve the user experience. These include customizable text size, progress checking for tutorials, and a dark mode. Altogether, the new AnyLogic Help is a great online resource, which also integrates the how-to series of videos. Whether you are just starting out with AnyLogic or an experienced simulation modeler, do not miss the new AnyLogic Help. It, however, is not the only resource worth consulting.
During 2021, the focus of community help moved to Stack Overflow. The ever-helpful Dr. Benjamin Schumann gave guidance on getting the most from the platform. If you have a question that you think fellow simulation modelers can help with, make sure you know how to win at AnyLogic on Stack Overflow!
Help with leveling up a key skill for mastering AnyLogic is now possible with the Learn Java for AnyLogic online course from the team at the AnyLogic Modeler.
For those of you looking for more in-depth AnyLogic learning, 2021 also brought the latest online chapters of The Big Book of Simulation Modeling.
4. A trio of white papers
In 2021, the blog highlighted the release of three new AnyLogic white papers:
- Material Handling Simulation
- Simulation Modeling for Consulting
- Simulation Modeling in Education and Research
These papers are popular downloads and provide deep dives into their subjects with support from industry leader case studies. The papers contextualize simulation modeling in their target subject and highlight the advantages simulation can provide. Take a look at the whole white paper collection and keep watch for new papers announced in the blog!
3. Building environmentally friendly models
‘No animals were harmed during these simulations’ begins Clemens Dempers in his post Building environmentally friendly models. In fact, he shows how simulation models can help not only animals but all of us. The models demonstrate not just their niche application but also how useful an interactive simulation model can be for improving collaboration and decision making in general.
Dempers questions the reasons for building a simulation model in the first place and then demonstrates the reasons why with an interactive simulation model. The model’s development is summarized and illustrated to give an idea of the thought processes and design considerations.
The post contains valuable model development insight and several great models that you can try in AnyLogic Cloud for yourself: Building environmentally friendly models.
2. What happened at the AnyLogic Conference 2021?
After being on pause for a year, the AnyLogic Conference returned in 2021, reaching thousands of attendees in over 100 countries with presentations from more of the world’s leading organizations than ever before. The online event made use of the medium to live stream presentations from around the world as it followed the sun from Japan, through Asia and Europe, to America.
In addition to the many commercial and academic presentations, attendees also learned about AnyLogic developments regarding Python as a native scripting language and also what to expect from AnyLogic 9. These are expanded on in the blog posts AnyLogic 9: FAQ and Python scripting in AnyLogic.
1. Learning from industry
Industry case studies make for popular posts, and during 2021 we featured more than ever. From them, we can learn how real-world problems are being resolved in various industries.
To highlight the importance of simulation in the automotive industry and show the many ways in which simulation is applied, we gathered several industry case studies in the blog post how leading automotive producers improve with simulation.
Also, during the year, two senior simulation modelers took time out to showcase their work in the fields of metallurgical production and mining.
If you do not see your industry above, we have many more on our AnyLogic case studies page.
So, there you have it, the top five blog highlights from 2021. If you have only just joined the AnyLogic community, be sure to take a look back through the blog, those highlighted here are just a sample.
What would you like to see covered in the blog in 2022? Write your ideas in the comments below!
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