Friday Flownex Tech Tips #7
When building our networks it may be necessary to utilize multiple pages for a single network. This could be simply because our network is large and complex, or because it simply makes sense to keep certain branches or processes separate. In this tech tip we will show how to use “views” to continue networks across multiple pages. For this example we are using Flownex version 8.12.7.4334.
Views
In Flownex the way that we continue networks across pages or even just jumping across portions of the same page is through the use of “views”. To create a view we right-click on the component we’d like to use as our bridge and select copy. Then navigate to where we’d like to continue our network and right-click, “paste view”.
Note that this is not really a “copy” of the previous node; it is another instance of the exact same node. I personally recommend using nodes for views over flow components so that they are less likely to be mistaken as separate components.
Regarding views
A couple of things to note regarding view components. First, you’ll notice the floating “V” to the left of the component. This indicates that the component is a view. It’s a good idea to leave this layer on – if for some reason you cannot see the “V” it can be turned on under the view ribbon:
Secondly, to find out where the views are located in your network the simplest way to jump between them is to right-click on an existing view and select the “views” option. Here you can navigate to any other views by simply clicking on them. Note that you are not limited to only two instances of a node (two views). There could be many instances across many pages.
Common uses of views could be to connect networks built by different engineers, connecting different subsystems that make up a larger network, or even capturing 3D network layouts by building a portion of the network in the x-y plane and using a view to connect to part of the network built in the z-y plane.
