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Free Connector

A Free connection releases a resource that an entity is holding from an upstream Get / Keep connection. It does not seize anything of its own; it only hands the held resource back.

Use it at the activity where a kept resource has finished its job, like the unload step that releases the technician who came with the part.

Settings

Section titled “Settings”
  • Quantity: how many held units to release (default 1).

A Free connection

Letting go with a moving resource

Section titled “Letting go with a moving resource”

When the resource has Moves along paths ticked, a Free is where the unit puts down the part it collected with a Get / Keep, and it gains two settings:

  • Let go at: After activity (the default) or Input queue. “Where [unit] puts the part down. With no input queue the unit puts it into the activity itself.” Choose Input queue when the unit only delivers the part here. Leave After activity when the unit delivers the part and then works on it at this step, and is released when the activity ends.
  • Setup: “Charged at the drop-off, on top of the unit’s own drop-off time.” It shows 0 until you type a value. Under After activity there is no drop-off: the Setup is charged when the unit arrives, before the step’s work.

The Free is where the carry ends. A unit that a part keeps carries it through every step between the Get / Keep and the Free, staying with the part at each one (see Through every step to the Free), and the step with the Free needs a Path node like every step the unit carries a part through. Without one the checker reports “[Step]: [resource] delivers here, but [step] has no path node. Link it to a path.” A carry can also end with a FREE or FREE ALL in a step’s logic, and a step with no path node where it ends that way is reported as “[Step]: [resource] carries parts to here, but [step] has no path node. Link it to a path.”

A Free connection from Forklift to Machining: Quantity 1, Let go at with After activity and Input queue, Input queue chosen, its line, and Setup.
Figure 1. A Free to a moving resource, letting go into the input queue.
LegacyHow this worked in the previous version

The Free resource connection frees a resource that was previously captured using the Get resource connection. If you attempt to free a resource that has not been captured, the Free connection is simply ignored.

**Quantity **The number of units of this resource to be freed. Any expression is valid.

What is a Free Connector?

Types of Connectors

Section titled “Types of Connectors”