See your system in action with Proof Animation

What is Proof Animation?

Proof Animation is a PC-based family of software for animating simulation models. Proof's precision drawing tools help you create a layout of your system, and define shapes and paths. Proof provides a simple, but powerful collection of commands the simulation model can use to bring your animation to life on the computer screen.

Why animate your simulation?

If a picture's worth a thousand words, an animation is worth a million. You often have to present your model to many different people - both technical and non-technical. With an animation, people can actually see your simulation model at work. Identifiable elements move through a realistic system. They can observe why problems occur or why one alternative plan is better than another.

The ability to see a model in action also makes animation a great verification tool for the model builder. There are some things you can easily see in an animation that would be very hard to catch in the simulation model - like collisions or subtle logic glitches.

Animation enhances the effect of a simulation model. By combining the visual power of animation with a statistically valid simulation model, you get a complete picture of your system and its behavior.

Animate a wide variety of applications

Animation gives you a realistic picture of many different kinds of systems. It's easy to see how you can use animation to show cars lining up at a toll booth, or products moving along an assembly line, because objects moving in the real system have direct counterparts moving on the screen. You can also use Proof to animate computer or telecommunications systems in which invisible messages move at very high speeds. Creative use of bar graphs and color changes can effectively depict traffic intensity for those kinds of systems. Since every system is different you'll find that you take advantage of different features of Proof with each new animation you create.

Satisfy your needs and your imagination

Proof's flexibility lets you create an animation that reflects the unique qualities of your system. In many ways, an animation is a model of a model. As you build your animation, you choose the aspects of the simulation model that you want to show. You tell your story by showing some elements in detail and others in more abstract form.

Choose your time and space

Once your animation is built, you can focus on important elements and ignore others. Jump forward or back in time to catch the details of an event that is critical to your system performance. Zoom down to the smallest detail, or pan out to get the big picture.

Use Proof Animation with the simulation software that works best for you

Any simulation package or other software that can write ASCII data to a file can drive Proof Animation. You can use GPSS/H, SLX, or other simulation software, programming languages like C or FORTRAN, or other software.