Viewing Element Dependencies Within a SubModel

In complex models, it is often useful to explore the interdependencies of the various elements (i.e., who affects who). GoldSim provides two very powerful utilities for doing this: the Function Of View, and the Affects View. If you right-click on an element in either the graphics pane or the browser (to access the context menu) and select Function Of… or Affects…, a floating browser window is displayed that shows the element dependencies in the form of a tree:

If the tree includes a SubModel, the SubModel is effectively treated as an element (this is in contrast to a Container, which generally would not show up in the tree at all). That is, the SubModel is treated as any other element with inputs and outputs would be treated. With regard to the dependency tree, it is simply a “custom” element. In the example below, the Expression A is shown to be a function of Y and the SubModel:

In many instances, however, you may be interested in looking inside the SubModel to view the dependencies. That is, it may not be enough to know that A is a function of SubModel1; you may want to explore exactly what A is a function of within the SubModel.

To facilitate this, GoldSim allows you to expand SubModels within a Function Of or Affects tree:

When GoldSim displays items inside a SubModel in this way, it always does the following:

• The SubModel is clearly labeled as such.

• The contents of the SubModel in the tree are shaded (orange) to indicate that these items are inside the SubModel. (If there are SubModels within SubModels, different shades are used to indicate this).

• In addition to showing the elements inside the SubModel, GoldSim also displays any items on the input and output interfaces that may be involved (and these are clearly labeled as such). In the example above, the tree is indicating that A is a function of the “Prob” output on the SubModel interface, which is a function of the element W inside the SubModel, which is a function of the “~X” input on the SubModel interface, which is a function of the X element outside of the SubModel.