For the purposes of this document, data collection refers to the process of collecting values while a simulation model is running and also to saving the values to data files for later analysis and reporting. Although plot and chart blocks (Histogram, Scatter Plot, and so on) can display data in Simulation Studio, they do not collect any data. Therefore, they are not considered part of the data collection process.
There are currently eight blocks that can collect and save data: the Bucket, Dataset Writer, Number Holder, Probe, Queue Stats Collector, Resource Stats Collector, Server Stats Collector, and Stats Collector blocks. The specifics on the functionality of these blocks, along with the types of information they can collect, are provided in Appendix A, Templates. Two features that all these blocks have in common (in addition to being able to collect data) are the ability to save their collected data to a file and an option to automatically save the data at the end of each simulation run. After the data are stored in a file (a SAS data set or JMP table), you can use your favorite analysis software to investigate your data and generate reports.
Each of these blocks accumulates data in an internal Java object referred to as a data model. This data model can be accessed by other blocks via the OutData port on the data collection blocks. The contents of the data model can also be saved to an external data file.