We love for our users to connect, keep up to date, learn from and share with other Cosmic Frog users & experts through the Frogger Pond Community! If you have an Optilogic account (see this page on how to create your free account if you do not have one yet), you can use that same account to log into the Frogger Pond Community.

Here, we will describe what the Frogger Pond Community consists of, how to interact with, search, sort, and contribute to Topics, and how to manage your account. Recommended reads for new users are included in the last section too.

1.    Frogger Pond Community Homepage

When you login to the Frogger Pond Community, the homepage you see will look similar to the screenshot below:

1. Clicking on the Frogger Pond Community button at the left top of the screen will take you back to this homepage if you are on any other page within the community.
2. You can choose how the Topics list is shown to you: you will see all 5 categories if you click on Categories and you can then choose the one you want to explore. The topics will be ordered by most active posts if you click on Top; if you click on Latest, they will be ordered by most recent activity. By default, the Top option is used, which you can also see as the one highlighted in blue in box 5 and is described in bullet 5 further below.
3. There are 5 categories of Topics in the Frogger Pond Community:
   • Product Feedback – we love to hear your feedback on the software here, both good and bad! Feature requests can be posted here too.
   • Modeling Best Practices – if you are new to supply chain design, you can learn from experienced designers and ask your questions here. If you are very experienced and can share your insights on how to model certain aspects of a supply chain, please do so here!
   • Marketplace – have a look here if you are looking for the next step in your supply chain design career. Or, in case you have an interesting opportunity to offer, you can post that here too. You can create new topics in the Marketplace category if you are part of the Professional user group.
   • Tips and Tricks – share your best shortcuts, videos, and insights on how you use Cosmic Frog, Atlas and the overall Optilogic platform here.
   • General – for questions or posts that do not fit into the other 4 categories. You are also encouraged to link to interesting articles or posts in this category.
4. At the right top there are a few buttons as follows:
   • The arrow button takes you to the Optilogic platform.
   • The magnifying glass button opens a search box where you can type your search term to find topics of interest. You can also click on the icon on the right side in the search box that takes you to an advanced search form where you can for example filter for certain tags, a certain date range, etc.
   • The button with 3 horizontal bars opens a menu where you can quickly go to different parts of the Frogger Pond Community. We will discuss the options here in section “4. Options from the Menu” further below.
   • The 4^th button is your profile picture and here you can get to your Notifications, Bookmarks, Messages, and Preferences. Section “5. Managing your User Account” covers this in more detail.
5. In this area you can filter out and sort the topics that are being shown.
   • The first filter on the left can be used to look at 1 of the 5 categories only or to look at topics from all categories.
   • The second filter can be used to select or search for certain tags so that only topics with those tags are shown in the topics list.
   • You can click on any of the next 5 buttons to order the list of topics differently, the one that is selected will appear as a blue box with white letters.
     • Top: shows you the most active topics in the last year, month, week, or day.
     • Categories: shows all topics grouped by category.
     • Latest: shows the topics ordered by most recent posts.
     • New: shows the topics created in the last few days. By default, this is set to the last 2 days, you can change this in your Preferences.
     • Unread: will show topics that you are watching or tracking that have unread posts. Again, you can change what is considered Unread in your Preferences.
6. If you have selected Top as the way to order the Topics list (see previous bullet), then you can change if you want to look at the top comments over all time or over the last year, quarter, month, week, or day here.
7. This is the Topics list itself, where you can click on any of the Topics to open them and start interacting with them. You can sort the topics list by clicking on Replies, Likes or Date Last Edited at the right top of the Topics list. Clicking once will order them in descending number of replies / likes order and most recent date to last edited; clicking on them again will reverse the order to number of replies / likes in ascending order and from last to most recent date edited. We will discuss what you see and how to interact within a topic in the next section titled “2. Interacting with a Topic”.
8. Click on this “+ New Topic” button if you want to create a new topic yourself. The form that opens up and how to fill it out is detailed in section “3. Creating a New Topic”.

2.    Interacting with a Topic

Once you have clicked on a topic that you want to read and possibly interact with, you will see something similar to the following screenshot:

1. At the top, the title of the Topic is shown; here, the topic “Ability to sort models by latest modified” is being viewed. Underneath the title, we can see the category this topic is posted in, which is Product Feedback in this case. Next to the category, the tags that are associated with this topic are shown. In this case the topic is tagged with the cosmic-frog and feature-request tags.
2. Then the original post by the original poster is shown, which has the user name (evan.james), the group(s) the user is part of (Professional) and the date when the topic was created (May ’23) at the top and then the text of the post itself. As you will see in the next section, besides text you can also use images, hyperlinks, bullet lists, and other formatting in your posts.
3. Underneath the text of the post, there are multiple options to interact with this topic as follows, from left to right (note that you may not see the flag and bookmark icons, but an icon with 3 dots instead; click on the icon with 3 dots to see all icons):
   • Click on the heart icon to like the post.
   • Click on the chain icon to share a hyperlink of this post. In the pop-up window that comes up you can copy the link, share it via email or create a New Linked Topic on the Frogger Pond Community that links to this post.
   • Click on the flag icon to privately flag this post for attention to the community staff or to send a private notification to the poster. In the pop-up window that comes up you can choose to do one of the following: send the original poster a private message or notify staff privately that the post is either off-topic, inappropriate, spam or requires attention for another reason.
   • Click on the bookmark icon to bookmark this post. You can quickly go back to Bookmarked posts from your user account.
   • Click on the Reply icon to post a reply to this post. You can type your reply, add links and images, use formatting, etc. in the window that pops up. Once your reply is ready click on the Reply button at the left bottom. If you do not want to post it (yet) you can click on Close next to the Reply button and your reply will be saved as a draft.
4. At the bottom of the post, some statistics around when the topic was created, when the last reply was posted, and how many replies, views, users and likes there have been on this topic are shown. If this part is expanded with the button on the right-hand side, then Frequent Posters in this topic are shown too. You can collapse this part by clicking on the ^ icon.
5. On the right-hand side of the topic a timeline of the posts within the topic is shown. You can drag this up or down to go to the original post (drag up) or to the most recent reply (drag down) while scrolling through all replies. The timeline will also indicate which post of how many in total within this topic you are currently viewing.
6. Underneath the topic’s timeline, there are 2 icons:
   • You can use the curved arrow icon to start a Reply to this topic, which will bring up the same Reply window as the one described under bullet 3.e. above.
   • You can click on the bell icon to start watching or tracking this topic or to mute it. You have 4 options that pop up when you click on the icon, see the screenshot below. By default, this is set to Normal for all topics.

3.    Creating a New Topic

After you click on the “+ New Topic” button, the following window will pop-up at the bottom of your browser:

1. At the right top of this window, you have the options to make this composer window full screen by clicking on the icon with the 2 arrows pointing out and to minimize the composer window by clicking on the collapse icon (upside down caret).
2. Type the title of your topic in this box or if this is a topic linked to another one, paste the hyperlink to that other topic here.
3. Choose one of the 5 categories that this topic belongs to from the list that pops up when you click on the “category…” box.
4. Click on the “optional tags” box to select and/or search for any tags to associate with your new topic. Tagging topics is good practice so that other users can easily find topics of their interest.
5. In the edit toolbar, you can, from left to right:
   • Quote a whole post or part of a post by clicking on the speech bubble icon.
   • Make text strong (bold) by clicking on the B icon.
   • Emphasize text (italics) by clicking on the I
   • Insert a hyperlink by clicking on the chain icon.
   • Use blockquotes by clicking on the ” icon to define quotations.
   • Use preformatted text (like for example HTML) by clicking on the </> icon.
   • Upload something from your computer (like for example an image) by clicking on the upload icon (arrow pointing up).
   • Create a bulleted list by clicking on the icon with 3 lines and square bullets.
   • Create a numbered list by clicking on the icon with 3 lines and number bullets.
   • Use emojis by clicking on the smiley face icon.
   • Access settings by clicking on the gear icon.
6. Enter your text in this area. You can use the icons on the edit toolbar to format, and you can also drag or paste images here.
7. Once your post is ready, you can click on the Create Topic button to post it. If you do not want to post it yet, you can click on the Close button to save it as a draft to come back to later.

4.    Options from the Menu

The third icon at the top right of the homepage opens a Menu that you can use to quickly navigate to different parts of the Frogger Pond Community.

1. In the top part of the menu, you have following options to navigate to:
   • Latest – takes you to the homepage where the topics are sorted by topics with the most recent posts.
   • New – takes you to the homepage where only new topics in the last few days are shown. In your Preferences you can change what is considered new.
   • Unread – takes you to your unread topics. In your Preferences you can change what is considered unread.
   • Top – takes you to the homepage where the topics are sorted for those with the most activity.
2. In the second part of the menu, you have options to start exploring following:
   • Badges – takes you to the Badges page where it is shown which badges users can earn and how. For each badge it also shows you how often the badge has been granted to a user with a counter at the right top. The badges that you have earned yourself already are shown with a green check mark at the left top.
   • Users – this takes you to a list of users which are sorted by most active in the last week. You can change the timeframe to look at most active users by year, quarter, month, or day instead or over all time of the community. You can sort the list in different ways by clicking on the column headings of username, likes received, likes given, topics created, topics posted, topics viewed, posts read, and days visited. There are also options to filter the list by username or to find the users of any groups. Clicking on a username in this list opens a window with some of the user’s details and the option to private message them. From here, clicking on their username takes you to the user’s profile page where you can view the user’s profile details, Summary, Activity and Badges. Some of this is discussed in more detail in the next section “5. Managing your User Account”.
   • Groups – takes you to the page where the existing Frogger Pond groups are listed. You can click on a group to see its members, activity, and permissions.
   • Tags – takes you to a list of all the tags that have been used on any of the topics. You can click on a tag to show you all topics that have that tag associated with them.
3. In the Categories section of the menu, you can click on one of the 5 categories to be taken to the topics within that category.
4. From the bottom part of the menu, you can navigate to:
   • About – here you can find a description of Optilogic and an overview of the Admins, Moderators and Site Statistics for the Frogger Pond Community. From here you can also easily navigate to the FAQ, Terms of Service, and Privacy sections.
   • FAQ – this takes you to guidelines on how everyone can ensure to be a constructive and civil user of the Frogger Pond Community. This is a recommended read for all new users.
   • Keyboard Shortcuts –this opens a list of keyboard shortcuts that are available to Frogger Pond Community users. These shortcuts make browsing and interacting with the community easier and quicker.

5.    Managing your User Account

When you click on your profile picture at the top right of the homepage, a small window that gives you quick access to (from left to right) Notifications (bell icon), Bookmarks (bookmark icon), Messages (envelope icon), and Preferences (person icon) opens up:

If you click on the upside-down caret at the bottom of notifications, bookmarks, or messages or click on any item in the preferences list, you will be taken to that area of your account. In the following screenshot, we have gone to the Messages section of the user account:

1. At the top of the Account page the username and profile picture (if any) are shown. If this section is expanded by clicking on the Expand button at the top right, then statistics on when the user joined, when they were last seen, what their trust level is (more on this in the next section “6. Recommended Reading for New Users”), and their email address are shown too.
2. Users can navigate to different parts of their account here by clicking on:
   • Summary – here the user’s statistics on how often they have visited, number of topics viewed/read, likes given/received, top replies & topics, top badges, etc. are shown.
   • Activity – the user’s activity can be viewed and accessed here. From the menu on the left, you can quickly go to your Topics, Replies, Read posts, Drafts, Likes, and Bookmarks.
   • Notifications – by default All notifications will be shown here which includes emails that have been sent to the user. These can be dismissed if the user so chooses. From the menu on the left the Notifications can be filtered for Responses, Likes, Mentions, and Edits.
   • Messages – this shows the messages the user has received and sent. By default, the Inbox is shown and from the Menu on the left, user can choose to just look at Sent, New, Unread or Archived messages. You can use the New Message button at the bottom of this menu to send a private message to another user.
   • Badges – any badges the user has been granted will be shown here.
   • Preferences – here the Account details of the user will be displayed and can be edited. Accessible here also from the Menu on the left are Security, Profile, Emails, Notifications, and Interface settings. Under Notifications a user can specify what they consider new topics and one can also set up a custom notification schedule here. Users can set up watching / tracking / muting of Categories, Users and Tags in this Notifications section.

6.    Recommended Reading for New Users

Using a platform you may not be familiar with can be overwhelming. To help new users getting started, we recommend reading the following items. These are also mentioned in the “Welcome to Optilogic!” message all new users of the Frogger Pond Community receive.

1. Blog post by Discourse on New User Tips and Tricks
2. Blog post by Discourse on User Trust Levels
3. The Frogger Pond Community FAQ which contains guidelines on constructive and civil use of the community.

We look forward to your questions & contributions over at the Frogger Pond!

There are two methods for establishing a secure connection to the Optilogic platform:

• App Key
• API Key

An App key is a code that can be linked to your account and will not expire. API keys are generated with code and only last for one hour before they expire. Both keys can be useful depending on how you wish to access the platform. Without either an App Key or an API Key you will not be able to run any API endpoints.

Generating an App Key

Login to the Optilogic website and click on your name in the top right corner, then click on “Account.”

Click on the “App Key Management” tab from their name your app key and click on the “Create Key” button.

At this point you may copy your App Key to be used for authentication purposes.

Generating an API Key

To generate an API key you will need to leverage python and the following instructions.

In a python file copy and paste this code and replace the USERNAME and PASSWORD with your own. Make sure to remove both sets of {{}} curly brackets so that it looks like this: headers = {‘X-USER-ID’: ‘CMorrell’ }

import requests

url = ‘https://api.optilogic.app/v0/r…’
headers = {
‘X-USER-ID’: ‘{{user_id}}’,
‘X-USER-PASSWORD’: ‘{{user_password}}’
}

‍

response = requests.request(‘POST’, url, headers=headers)
print(response.text)

The result of this code will be an API key that can be used for authentication.

When running geocoding through the default Mapbox provider, all of the available location data from the Customers, Facilities and Suppliers table will be used to try and determine the latitude and longitude coordinates. Mapbox will use all of these components and perform the best mapping possible and will return a latitude / longitude coordinate along with a confidence score. By default, Cosmic Frog will only accept scores with a confidence score of 100. You can optionally turn this option off and the top confidence score will then be returned by Mapbox.

More information on how Mapbox calculates latitude and longitude coordinates can be found here: Mapbox Geocoding Documentation.

If you’d like to use an alternate provider instead of Mapbox, setup instructions can be found here: Using Alternate Geocoding Providers.

Why do we care about risk?​

The only constant is change. When building our supply chains, the “optimal” design doesn’t only mean lowest cost. What happens if (or perhaps when) a disruption occurs? Fragile, low-cost supply chains can end up costing more in the long run if they aren’t resilient to the dynamic nature of today’s world.​

We believe that optimality includes resilience. That’s why every Cosmic Frog run includes a risk rating from our DART risk engine.

The Opti Risk Score

Every Cosmic Frog run outputs an Opti Risk score. The Opti Risk score is an aggregate measure of the overall supply chain risk. It includes the following sub-categories:

• Customer risk​
• Facility risk​
• Supplier risk​
• Network risk

After running a model, you can find the Opti Risk score (as well as the scores for each of the sub-categories) in the output risk tables. The Opti Risk score can also be found in the OptimizationNetworkSummary table.

Customer Risk

The overall Customer Risk score is an aggregation of each individual customer’s risk described in the OptimizationCustomerRiskMetrics or SimulationCustomerRiskMetrics tables. In each scenario, there is one risk score per customer per period.

Each customer risk score includes:​

• Concentration risk (i.e. what percentage of the total demand is purchased by this customer. Having highly concentrated demand at a single customer can be risky should something happen to that customer)​
• Source count risk​
• Geographic risk

Geographic Risk

For each sub-category, the geographic risk score is also an aggregation of several risk factors:​

• Biolab distance risk​
• Economic resiliency risk​
• Natural disaster risk​
• Nuclear distance risk​
• Political risk​
• COVID-19 risk​
• Labor risk​

Facility Risk

Like the customer risk score, the overall facility risk score is an aggregation of risk across all facilities in your supply chain. In the FacilityRiskMetric tables, there is an individual risk score per facility per period.​

The facility risk score includes:​

• Concentration risk​
• Source count risk​
• Capacity risk​
• Geographic risk

The capacity risk has three sub-components:​

• Storage capacity risk​
• Throughput capacity risk​
• Workcenter capacity risk​

The facility geographic risk has the same components as the customer geographic risk.​

​

Supplier Risk

The supplier risk is calculated per supplier per period and includes:​

• Concentration risk​
• Geographic risk​

Both the concentration and geographic risks include the same elements as described previously.​

Network Risk

Network risk differs from the other risk scores in that it is not tied to a specific supply chain element. There is only one network risk score per scenario, and it includes:​

• Production stocking point count risk​
• Product supply make count risk​
• Transport time risk​
• Time to import risk​
• Time to export risk

The transport and import/export time risks are aggregated across individual origin/destination pairs for every product and transport mode. The individual risk scores can be found in the OptimizationFlowSummary table.

​The stocking point count and supply make count risks are aggregations across every product and period. The individual risk scores can be found in the ProductRiskMetrics tables.

Visualizing Risk

We can use our visualization tools to get a better sense of how risk varies across design scenarios.

Every account holder has access to create the Global Supply Chain Strategy demo model. Following is an overview of the features of the model (and of Cosmic Frog).

If you wish to build the model instead, please follow the instructions located here: Build Your First Cosmic Frog Model

When running Cosmic Frog models and other jobs on the Optilogic platform, cloud resources are used. Usage of these resources is billed based on the billing factor of the resource used for the job. Each Optilogic customer has an amount of cloud compute hours included in their Master License Agreement (MLA). Users may want to check how many of these hours have been used up and in this documentation 2 ways to do so will be covered. In the last section we will touch on how to best track hours at the team/company level.

Option 1: Account > Usage

The first option for hours tracking that will be covered is through the Usage tab in the user’s Account:

1. On the Optilogic platform, open the drop-down menu by clicking on the down arrow to the right of your username, and then click on the first option in the menu: Account.
2. Click on the Usage tab, the tab farthest right.
3. Configure the period you want to see the usage for by using the following options:
   1. Group By: select the time periods you want to sum the usage hours up to. Options are: Total, Day, Week, Month, Year.
   2. Time Window Preset: select the timeframe you want to see the usage hours for. Options are: Week to Date, Month to Date, Year to Date, and Custom.
   3. Start and End: for the Time Window Presets of Week to Date, Month to Date, and Year to Date these are automatically filled out. For the Time Window Preset of Custom, user can manually enter the start and end dates of the timeframe for which the usage hours will be shown.
4. Based on the timeframe set as described under the previous bullet point, the Total Billed Compute Time will be shown here.
5. Bar charts for the time periods configured under bullet 3 (in this screenshot grouped by months) are shown here. When hovering over a bar in a chart, the number of hours will pop up.
   1. The dark green bar on the left indicates the sum of the billed compute time of the jobs that were run during that period.
   2. The lighter green bar in the middle indicates the sum of the compute time of the jobs that were run during that period.
   3. The blue bar indicates the sum of the total RAM (in gigabytes) used for the jobs that were run during that period.
6. The table at the bottom shows the sums of the compute time, billed compute time, CPU cores, and RAM for the entire configured timeframe and for the individual time periods within that timeframe.
7. User has the option to export this data, either to CSV format or to the Excel .xlsx format by clicking on these buttons.

If a user is asked by their manager to report the hours they have used on the Optilogic platform, they can go here and use the Custom Time Window Preset option to align the start and end date of the reporting period with the dates of the MLA. They can then report back the number shown as the Total Billed Compute Time (box 4 in the above screenshot).

Option 2: Run Manager

Through the Run Manager application on the Optilogic platform, user can also analyze their jobs run, including retrieving the Total Billed Compute Time:

1. On the Optilogic platform, go to the Run Manager in the list of applications on the left-hand side of the screen. Should you not see it there, click on the icon with the 3 dots to show all applications; the Run Manager should become visible then.
2. Along the top of the list of jobs run there is an option to View Charts, which will be covered next.
3. Another option is to download information of the jobs to a CSV format file. This will be covered a bit further below too.

After clicking on the View Charts icon, a screen similar to the following screenshot will be shown:

1. The View Charts icon now has changed to a View Jobs List icon to allow user to go back to the list view.
2. In the first part of the charts section, some overall statistics are listed:
   1. First, the number of jobs that did not complete successfully (status = Error), that ran to completion successfully (status = Done), and that were cancelled (status = Cancelled) are listed.
   2. Next, the Total Compute Time and Total Billed Compute Time are listed. The total billed compute time is calculated based on the time the job took and the Billing Factor of the resource used for the job.
3. The title of the chart, here it is Job Counts by Status. There are 3 options for showing the job counts, click on the following icons to toggle between them:
   1. Show Jobs by Resource Size.
   2. Show Jobs by Tag.
   3. Show Jobs by Status (the default, shown in blue when active).
4. Click on this i-icon to see guidance on how to pan and zoom within the chart.
5. Here the bar for the week of July 15-22 shows that there were 15 jobs with status = Error (did not complete successfully), 37 with status = Done (did complete successfully), and no jobs with status = Cancelled during this week.
6. At the bottom of the chart user can toggle all status types on or off simultaneously by clicking on Toggle All. The individual statuses can also be toggled on or off by clicking on them.
7. The types of Jobs included in the statistics and chart can be filtered by clicking on the Type filter drop-down. The following 4 types of jobs exist, and each can be included or excluded: Scenario, Model Run, Python, and Utility.
8. When clicking the Download button, user can choose to either Download All Jobs or Download Current Filtered Jobs. When downloading, the jobs are saved to a jobs.csv file which will look similar to this screenshot:

If a user needs to report their hours used on the Optilogic platform, they can download this jobs.csv file and:

1. Filter columns B-D to align the dates of jobs included to the period of the MLA.
2. Sum column G billedComputeTime to get the Total Billed Compute Time for the filtered date range and report this number back.

Individual & Team/Company Level Tracking

Currently, only tracking of usage hours at the individual user level is available as described above. To get total team or company usage, a manager can ask their users to use 1 of the above 2 methods to report their Total Billed Compute Time and the manager can then add these up to get the total used hours so far. Tracking at the team/company level is planned to be made available on the Optilogic platform later in 2024.

With Intelligent Greenfield Analysis (the Triad engine in Cosmic Frog), you have control over several different solve settings. For ease of use with scenario modeling, these have been placed in a dedicated table called Greenfield Settings. This allows for quick scenario building that leverages the column names. We will cover the settings which can be configured on the Greenfield Settings table and show an example of how scenarios can be used to change these settings.

Following screenshot shows the Greenfield Settings table:

1. In Cosmic Frog’s Module menu, choose Data to go to the Data module.
2. The Input Tables are showing in the Data module as the square grid icon has been selected. Output and Custom tables can be shown by clicking on the other 2 icons, the round grid icon for Output tables, and the square icon with solid top rows for Custom tables.
3. The Greenfield Settings table can be found in the Functional Tables section of the input tables list. When it is clicked it is also opened and made the active table.
4. The Greenfield Settings table has 1 record and this record is pre-populated with defaults in all Cosmic Frog models. Users can change the values of this record, either in the table itself so the setting apply to all scenarios that are being run, or through scenarios, so that the change only applies to a specific scenario. We will see an example of changing a Greenfield setting through a scenario further below.

An explanation of each setting is as follows:

• Min Number Of New Facilities – The minimum number of new facility locations to be opened during solve. This will include any Candidate Facilities that are selected as well as any Greenfield Facilities. This value is ignored if Minimize Total Facilities is set to True.
• Max Number Of New Facilities – The maximum number of new facility locations to be opened during solve. This will include any Candidate Facilities that are selected as well as any Greenfield Facilities. This value is ignored if Minimize Total Facilities is set to True.
• Minimize Total Facilities – If True, the number of new facility locations to be opened will be minimized (Greenfield Facilities and Candidate Facilities). If False, the total cost (Facility Fixed Cost and Transportation Cost) will be minimized.
• Exclude Facilities – If True, all Facilities in the model will be ignored during the Greenfield run. This value is set to False if Only Use Facilities As Candidate Locations is set to True.
• Exclude Suppliers -If True, all Suppliers in the model will be ignored during the Greenfield run.
• Only Use Facilities As Candidate Locations – If True, the selection pool for Greenfield locations will be restricted to Facilities that are Included. Facilities with a Facility Status of ‘Open’ will be forced to open and have their fixed operating cost charged in the Greenfield solve. Facilities with a Facility Status of ‘Consider’ will have the option to be opened as a Candidate Facility location and if selected, their fixed operating cost will be charged.
• Customer Max Sourcing Distance – The maximum distance that any Customer can source a flow from a Greenfield Facility, a Candidate Facility, or an Existing Facility.
• Greenfield Facility Min Throughput -The minimum quantity of demand that a Greenfield Facility must service to be selected. This will apply to all Facilities, both new and existing, for the Greenfield solve.
• Greenfield Facility Max Throughput – The maximum quantity of demand that a single Greenfield Facility can service. For existing or candidate Facilities the throughput capacity will be specified in the Facilities table.
• Greenfield Facility Fixed Cost – The fixed cost applied to each Greenfield Facility used in the solve.

• Customer Fulfillment Cost – The cost charged for all flows from Facilities to Customers on a quantity-distance basis.
• Procurement Cost- The cost charged for all flows from Suppliers to Facilities on a quantity-distance basis.
• Run Location Refinement Heuristic – If True, the Greenfield Facilities selected by the solver can be improved beyond their initial location that would be co-located with a Customer / Cluster location.
• Customer Cluster Radius – The distance that Customers should be clustered over. The UOM of this distance measure is the primary distance UOM specified in the Model Settings table.
• Auto Detect Cluster Radius – If True, large models with more than 3000 customers will be automatically clustered to have less than 3000 nodes during the optimization phase. Clustomers are then disaggregated for outputs.
• Clustering Approach -The method used to identify customer clusters. The ‘fcluster’ method requires a computation of the full distance matrix between all customers pairs which can be a time consuming process. The ‘utm’ method is based on the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system and looks to identify clusters in each UTM zone. While the UTM based method may in some cases be less accurate it does not need to precompute the full distance matrix between all customer pairs.

Note that the “Getting Started with Intelligent Greenfield Analysis” help article contains a visual explanation of customer clustering too.

Finally, we will look at an example where a scenario item changes a Greenfield setting:

1. From the Module menu we have chosen Scenarios to go the Scenarios part of Cosmic Frog.
2. In the list of scenarios set up in the model, there is one named 01b_7 Optimal Facilities.
3. This scenario has 4 scenario items of which the second one, named Max 7 New Facilities, is selected and this is the one of which the configuration is shown on the right hand-side.
4. The Greenfield Settings table is selected as the table to which the scenario item’s changes apply. Users can select the table from the drop-down list and one can also start typing the name of the table to reduce the drop-down list to only items containing the typed text.
5. The action is set to change the value of the Max Number Of New Facilities field in the Greenfield Settings table to 7. When starting to type the name of a field in the action box, autocomplete suggestions pop up which the user can click on to select the suggested text.

In this section, we outline some techniques for debugging models in Cosmic Frog. In general, there’s no one “right” approach to debugging, but knowing where you can get information on what went wrong can be helpful.

When you reach an error state

An error state in the run manager is the most obvious sign that something is wrong with our model setup.

After reaching an error state, the first place to check is the Job Records section of the Run Manager. Here you will find a summary of events from the model solve, and if an error is thrown you can potentially see the cause directly from here:

Next, you can check the Job Error Log. The Job Error Log will contain more detailed messaging on errors that are thrown during a model solve. ​While there are a number of possible errors, the most common cause of an error state is an infeasible model. You can check if your model is infeasible by scrolling down to the bottom of the Job Error Log, or by searching for “infeasible” in the search bar.​

If your model is infeasible, you can use the following toolkit to help understand why:​

• Troubleshooting with validation errors
• Troubleshooting with the Infeasibility Diagnostic engine​
• Troubleshooting with the linear programming formulation

When your model runs “successfully”

Sometimes even a model that finishes running can give results that we do not expect. It a good habit to check your Output Summary Tables after each run to make sure the results look like you expect.

In some cases, the output tables might not populate even if the model runs successfully. Even if these values do not populate, you can find the Gurobi optimization results in the job log. One useful tip is to search for “objective value” in the job log and make sure the value is in the range you expect.

If your model is running, but seems incorrect, you can use the following toolkit to help understand why:​

• Check your output maps and analytics to see if anything looks off
• Troubleshooting via validation errors

If you are still having trouble, you can also reach out to us directly at support@optilogic.com.

Sequential Objectives allow for you to set multiple tiers of objectives for the optimization solve to consider, where each tier of objectives can be relaxed by a defined percentage when solving for the next tier.

Here is a basic example of how Sequential Objectives can be used.

Problem Definition

100 units of demand for P1 at CZ.

Available pathways for flow are as follows:

• MFG > DC1 > CZ which has a cost of $5/unit with a travel time of 10 DAY
• MFG > DC2 > CZ which has a cost of $25/unit with a travel time of 1 DAY

Find a solution that will first minimize total costs, but then will work to minimize the total amount of travel time in the solution while only relaxing the Total Cost solution by 20%.

Baseline Solution

When just solving with the standard objective of Profit Maximization, the cheapest path will be utilized. All flows will come from MFG > DC1 > CZ and the total cost will be $500.

Sequential Objective Solution

We’ve built the Sequential Objectives so that we will first optimize over the Total Supply Chain Cost as Priority 1. We have also set the Tolerance to be 20 which will allow for a 20% relaxation in the solution to solve for the secondary objective – Total Weighted Flow Time.

We’ll now see that the more expensive pathway of MFG > DC2 > CZ is used as it requires less travel time. Because the initial cost was $500, we will send as many units as possible through DC2 up until the total cost reaches $600 – a 20% deviation from the initial cost. This results is 5 units flowing via DC2, while 95 units remain through DC1 for a total cost of $600.

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This example model can be found in the Resource Library listed under the name of Sequential Objectives Demo.

Running a model in debug mode can be a helpful troubleshooting tool as it will print more detailed reports of model issues.

The run option for Debug Mode is not included as a default in models but it can be added via the SQL Editor. Please copy and paste the following SQL query and run it against the model database you wish to add the option to.

‍Copy SQL Query Here: Add Debug Mode Model Run Option SQL Statement

Now, if you open the model again in Cosmic Frog you will see that Debug Mode is an available option in the run screen.

When set to True, Debug Mode will show all instances of validation errors instead of displaying an example of an error and the count of occurrences. You can see the difference in the following screenshot, where 1 row with 61 instances of the same error is turned into 61 individual rows.

Debug Mode will also print and save the input files that are passed to the solver – these will be saved in your File Explorer at My Files > debug_data > ModelName > ScenarioName. For each scenario run with debug mode enabled you will have the following:

• Input Solver Files – These are the set of CSV files that the NEO solver consumes. These are generated following all scenario item applications, lookups, group expansions and any other validation checks.
• BigM.csv – A specific file that the NEO team can use when debugging models, it shows how the product flow bounds are set
• NEO.lp – The LP formulation of the problem
• NEO.mps – The MPS formulation of the problem
• std.log – The log file from the solver, this is the same log that you see in the Job Log of the Run Manager
• validation.log – The log file generated as the model data is validated, this can show any validation issues encountered that would generate records in the Validation Error Report

Please note that this data is saved to your File Explorer and for larger models can take up quite a bit of disk space. If you reach 100% disk space utilization you will be unable to run any new jobs as they won’t have any space to write their required data to. The debug_data folder is almost always the cause of this disk space utilization issue, clearing its contents will allow jobs to start again.

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If you have any questions or concerns about how this might impact your models, please don’t hesitate to reach out to support@optilogic.com.

The nature of LTL freight rating is complex and multi-faceted. The RateWare^® XL LTL rating engine of SMC³ enables customers to manage parcel pricing and LTL rating complexity, for both class and density rates, with comprehensive rating solutions.

Cosmic Frog users that hold a license to the RateWare XL LTL Rating Engine of SMC³ can easily use it within Cosmic Frog to lookup LTL rates and use them in their models. In this documentation we will explain where to find the SMC³ RateWare utility within Cosmic Frog and how to use it. First, we will cover the basic inputs needed in Cosmic Frog models, then how to configure and run the SMC³ RateWare Utility to look up LTL rates, and finally how to add those rates for usage in the model.

1.    Setting up your Cosmic Frog Model

Before running the SMC³ RateWare Utility to retrieve LTL rates, we need to set up our model, including the origin-destination pairs for which we want to look up the LTL rates. Here, we will cover the inputs of a basic demo model showing how to use the SMC³ RateWare Utility. Of course, models using this utility may be much more complex in setup as compared to what is shown here.

The next 3 screenshots show:

• The Customers table which contains 3 geocoded customers in the US.
• The Facilities table which contains 3 geocoded Distribution Centers (DCs) in the US.
• The Customers and Facilities together on a map.

To facilitate model building, this model uses groups for Customer and DCs, as shown in the next screenshot. All DCs are members of the DCs group and all CZs are members of the Customers group:

Using these groups, the Transportation Policies table is easily set up with 1 record from the DCs group to the CZs group as shown in the next screenshot. At runtime this 1 record is expanded into all possible OriginName-DestinationName combinations of the group members. So, this is an all DCs to all Customers policy that covers 9 possible origin-destination combinations.

Besides these tables, this simple model also has several other tables that are populated:

• The Products table, which contains 1 product named P1.
• The Production Policies table, where it specified that all 3 DCs can make P1.
• The Customer Demand table, where demand for P1 has been specified for each customer.

2.    Configuring and Running the SMC³ RateWare Utility

The SMC³ RateWare Utility is available by default from the Utilities module in Cosmic Frog, see next screenshot. Click on the Module Menu icon with 3 horizontal bars at the top left in Cosmic Frog, then click on Utilities in the menu that pops up:

You will now see a list of Utilities, similar to the one shown in this next screenshot (your Utilities are likely all expanded, whereas most are collapsed in this screenshot):

1. Go to the Transportation section of the System Utilities and expand it if it is not yet expanded.
2. Click on the SMC³ RateWare Utility to open it.
3. Now, we can start configuring the inputs for our RateWare lookups. First, the user needs to enter their License Key, Username and Password so user can be authenticated on the RateWare XL LTL Rating Engine.
4. Under Select Operation, there are 3 options:
   1. All – the utility will generate 2 custom tables: smc3_inputs and smc3_outputs.
      1. The smc3_inputs table will contain all origin-destination pairs that are generated based on the transportation policies table and repeats the inputs of the SMC³ RateWare utility. This is the input the rating engine uses to retrieve the rates.
      2. The smc3_outputs table will also contain all origin-destination pairs, a repeat of most of the utility’s inputs, and the details of the retrieved rates. This table is used in the next part to read the LTL rates into the Unit Cost field of the Transportation Policies table (see section “3. Using the Rates in the Model” further below).
   2. Input only – the utility will only generate the smc3_inputs table.
   3. Output only – the utility will only generate the smc3_outputs table.

The rest of the inputs that can be configured are specific to the RateWare XL LTL Rating Engine and we refer user to SMC³’s documentation for the configuration of these settings.

1. Once all inputs have been configured, click on the Run Utility button to run the utility.
2. If changes have been made to the inputs, the Reset button can be used to revert to the default settings.

When the utility is finished running, we can have a look at the smc3_inputs and smc3_outputs tables (if the option of All was used for Select Operation). First, here is a screenshot of the smc3_inputs table:

1. In the Data Module of Cosmic Frog, click on the 3^rd icon at the top right of the tables list, this will open the Custom Tables section.
2. The 2 custom tables, smc3_inputs and smc3_outputs, are listed here. You can click on them to open them.
3. Here, the smc3_inputs table has been opened.
4. This is a table with many columns as the inputs of the utility are repeated here too. In the screenshot we have rearranged the columns somewhat and are only showing the origin and destination details. We can see that the 1 record in the Transportation Policies table that was from the group of all 3 DCs to the group off all 3 Customers has been expanded into all possible individual origin-destination pairs, resulting in 9 records in this table.

The next screenshot shows the smc3_outputs table in Optilogic’s SQL Editor. This is also a table with many columns as it contains origin and destination information, repeats the inputs of the utility, and contains details of the retrieved rates. Here, we are only showing the 3 most relevant columns: originname (the source DC), destinationname (the customer), and detailrate_1 which is the retrieved LTL rate:

3.    Using the Rates in the Model

Now that we have used the SMC³ RateWare Utility to retrieve the LTL rates for our 9 origin-destination pairs, we need to configure the model to use them as they are currently only listed in the smc3_outputs custom table. We use the Lookups table (an Input table in the Functional Tables section) to create a lookup link between the smc3_outputs custom table and the Transportation Policies input table, as follows:

1. We are on the Lookups table.
2. 3 records are needed to tell the lookup how to match the data between the 2 tables (matching on origin, destination, and product). Records that together make up a lookup, need to have the same LookupName, set to SMC3_RateWare_Lookup here.
3. The SourceTable is the table that currently has the data, which is the smc3_outputs table here, that we want to start using in the DestinationTable, which is the TransportationPolicies table here.
4. The next 2 columns, SourceColumnMapping and DestinationColumnMapping, specify how the rates will be looked up from the SourceTable: records of the 2 tables (smc3_outputs and Transportation Policies) are considered a match if origin name, destination name, and product name all match (i.e. have the same values).
5. For matching records, the SourceValue is the value in the detailrate_1 column of the smc3_outputs table, this is the value that will be used in the field that the Lookup is applied to.
6. A DefaultValue can be specified, this value will be used in case a Lookup fails. It is set to 0 here, which will stand out in the results of a model run as flows where no costs have been applied. Another option is to use a sufficiently high default value (higher than any retrieved rates) so that lanes that have not been costed are too expensive to be used by an optimization run.

To finalize setting up the Lookup, we now apply it to the UnitCost field on the TransportationPolicies table, where we set the field to the name of the Lookup, see screenshot below. Now, when the model is run, the 1 transportation policy is expanded into the 9 origin-destination pairs it represents and the Unit Cost field is populated with the detailrate_1 value of the smc3_outputs table based on matching origin name, destination name, and product name between the 2 tables.

Lastly, we run a network optimization (NEO engine) on our small example model and look at the Optimization Flow Summary output table:

The optimization has correctly used DC2 as the source for CZ1 as it has the lowest rate for going to CZ1 of the 3 DCs (see screenshot further above of the smc3_outputs table). The rate is 23.18 and for 10 units moved (FlowQuantity) this results in a TransportationCost of 231.80. Similarly, we can double-check that indeed DC2 has the cheapest rate for going to CZ3 as well, DC3 has the cheapest rate for going to CZ2, and the Transportation Costs are correctly calculated as the LTL rate * flow quantity.

Watch the video for an introduction to the features and functions of the Optilogic Intelligent Greenfield (Triad) engine.

What is the Resource Library?

The Resource Library is the application within the Optilogic platform where you can find files that will help facilitate, accelerate, and customize your model building and running. These include Cosmic Frog template models, Python scripts, Reference Data and more.

What files are contained in the Resource Library?

1. One can access the Resource Library by clicking on the icon with 3 books on the left-hand side of the Optilogic platform.
2. Files with the purple outline and the tools icon are files that extend the platform's usage whether that be via Cosmic Frog for Excel Apps, Python Utilities, or 3rd party data connectors.
3. Files with a light-green outline and dark blue frog icon are Cosmic Frog related resources. These are mostly Cosmic Frog template models, which can be used to understand what inputs are needed to model certain business problems and what tools are available to examine outputs. The Cosmic Frog resources also include several other items like videos on specific Cosmic Frog features, 3rd party connectors to Cosmic Frog model databases (e.g. from / to Alteryx), and a Python scripting library to update and transform data within a Cosmic Frog model.
4. Files with a blue outline and blue beaker icon are Python scripts that use MIP (Mixed Integer Programming) optimization algorithms or simulation algorithms.
5. Files with a yellow outline and yellow cog icon contain Reference Data. These files contain demographic, location, and cost data which can be used to more quickly complete model data and fill in data gaps.

There are several ways to search, sort and filter the list of resources:

1. In the Search box one can free type to filter the list down to any resources that contain the search text.
2. Clicking on the Tags icon (horizontal bars of decreasing size) will bring up a list of Tags. One or multiple tags can be selected to filter down to those resources that have been tagged with these. This way you can quickly find all resources related to a specific technology, business problem or topic, like for example “Network Optimization”, “CapEx Planning” or “Bioinformatics”.
3. One can use the Sort By drop-down to change the sort order. The options include alphabetical ascending, alphabetical descending, by file type, newest to oldest, and oldest to newest.
4. One can filter by category by clicking on the Cosmic Frog, Atlas Tools and Apps, Reference Data, and O.R. Examples buttons. Once a category is selected, it can be unselected by clicking on it again. Multiple categories can be selected at the same time. If none of the specific categories are selected, then it defaults to showing all files.
5. If you have selected the Cosmic Frog category, we will render in a sub-category filter which will allow you to narrow down the Cosmic Frog templates by engine type making it easier to find the template that matches your use case.

When a file in the list is selected by clicking on it, a Preview is shown on the right-hand side of the screen. This preview contains a short description of the resource, may contain a Video Introduction explaining for example the business problem or Cosmic Frog features covered in the resource, lists any Related (= included) Files, and lists any Tags that are associated with the resource so users can quickly understand what materials are covered by this resource.

How can I use the Resource Library?

1. If there is a resource in the library that you would like to explore further, you can click on the resource to select it
2. Clicking on the resource will open the pane on the right-hand side which will provide you with detailed information related to the resource, this will include a Title, Updated Date, Long Description, Tags, Files and/ or Database which will be copied to your account, and action buttons.
3. If you want to copy a resource and immediately be taken into the resource, simply click on the 'Copy and Open' action. This will slingshot you into the correct area of the platform e.g., Cosmic Frog, Lightning Editor, etc. based upon the resource that you copied over.
   1. Once clicked, this will open a modal that will actively show tell you the status of the copying and will notify you once it's ready to navigate you away from the Resource Library.
4. If you want to copy the item and still browse the Resource Library for more content, simply click the 'Copy to Account' button. This will download the content to your account while allowing you to still browse the Resource Library.
   1. This copies the resource and all related files to your 'Resource Library' folder on the Optilogic Explorer. While the resource is being copied a notification at the right top in the Optilogic platform will pop up under the bell icon. Once it is done copying, you can click on the “Open Files” link in this notification to directly open the model or file.
5. With some content, such as the Cosmic Frog for Excel apps or Reference Data, we will provide you with the option to download the content to your local machine.
6. If you would like to share a link to a specific resource, simply click the 'Copy Share Link' button, this will copy a unique URL to your computers clipboard which you can then paste and share with others.
7. By default, when you copy content over from the Resource Library, your new content will be found in a top-level folder called 'Resource Library'.
   1. If the Explorer area is not open yet, you can open it by clicking on the > button at the left top of the platform to see where the files have been copied to. From here you can expand the Explorer tree to see the subfolders of the resource and all files contained in it. You can also open the copied files from here by clicking on the file. For a Cosmic Frog model, it will open in Cosmic Frog directly and switch to the Cosmic Frog application. If the file is a Python file, a file that contains text (e.g. a .pdf or .txt file) or data (e.g. a .csv or .xls file) the file will be opened in the Lightning Editor. Python files will also be available to work with from within Atlas after copying them to My Files.

How can I add Cosmic Frog database files to the Resource Library?

You may want to add a new resource to the Resource Library if you think other users may be interested in the contents, for example to showcase a certain business problem modelled in Cosmic Frog, or to add Reference Data that can be helpful for others too, or to share the automation of a common model building/analysis step. On other occasions you may want to replace a resource in the library with an updated version. If you want to add or replace a resource in the library, you can do so by clicking on the Contribute button (found in the top-left corner of the Resource Library), and then follow the steps as explained in the next sections.

After clicking the Contribute button the following submission form will be shown:

1. If at any given time you want to abort adding to the Resource Library you can click on the X icon to go back to the list of existing resources in the library.
2. First you can choose if you are adding a Cosmic Frog Database or a Python Module to the Resource Library from the drop-down. In this example we are adding a Cosmic Frog Database; the next section describes how Python Modules can be added.
3. The list found here will automatically be populated with all Cosmic Frog databases from your account. Choose the one you want to contribute to the library.
4. Once you have selected the Cosmic Frog Database you wish to contribute, click the next button to continue filling out the form.

1. If at any given time you want to abort adding to the Resource Library you can click on the X icon to go back to the list of existing resources in the library.
2. Next, select if you are submitting a new resource or are replacing an existing one.
3. If submitting a new resource, provide the name that you want to be used in the Resource Library. By default, it will use the name of the database. If you have selected Replace Existing in the previous step, then this will be a drop-down of all Cosmic Frog databases that currently exist in the Resource Library. Choose the one that you want to replace from this drop-down list.
4. If there is a YouTube video to go with the resource, provide the link here.
5. Optionally, you can provide one or multiple Tags to be listed with your resource so users can quickly see what is covered in the resource. Clicking in the field will bring up the list of existing tags, which you can then choose from. You can also create your own Tags by free typing in the field. Hitting the Enter key will add the text to the field as a tag.
6. Next, you need to provide a Short Description that contains the summary of the purpose or goal of the resource being contributed. A minimum of 10 and maximum of 170 characters are allowed in this field.
7. A Long Description of the resource is required too. This should be an in-depth description of the purpose, goals and results the resource will achieve. A minimum of 10 and maximum of 1500 characters are allowed in this field.

1. Describe why the resource is helpful in the Submission Details field, which is also a required field. The information provided here will be used during the review process of the resource.
2. Under Submission Options, check the Purge Output Data box if you want all output data in the Cosmic Frog database to be deleted before it is made available in the Resource Library. Note that this includes removal of pre-configured dashboards and maps that use any output data.
3. Before submission the user contributing the new resource needs to assert that the database contains no sensitive information or data, is fully tested and is production ready by checking these 3 checkboxes.
4. Once all the selections are made and at least the required fields (indicated with *) have been filled out, you can click on the Submit For Review button to submit the resource. It will then go through an internal review at Optilogic before it goes live in the Resource Library. Once it is live in the Resource Library, it will be mentioned in the What’s New section of the Home application in the Optilogic platform.

How can I add Python Modules to the Resource Library?

The steps to contribute a Python Module to the Resource Library are very similar to those described above for adding a Cosmic Frog database:

1. If at any given time you want to abort adding to the Resource Library you can click on the X icon found in the top-right to go back to the list of existing resources in the library.
2. First you can choose if you are adding a Cosmic Frog database or a Python Module to the Resource Library from the drop-down. In this example we are adding a Python Module.
3. The Select the Python Module to Contribute drop-down will automatically be populated with all Python Modules already in the Resource Library and those in your My Files section; the ones in your My Files section will appear at the bottom of the drop-down list. Choose the one you want to contribute to the library.
4. Optionally, you can provide one or multiple Tags to be listed with your resource so users can quickly see what is covered in the resource. Clicking in the field will bring up the list of existing tags, which you can then choose from. You can also create your own Tags by free typing in the field. Hitting the Enter key will add the text to the field as a tag. A “User Contribution” tag is automatically generated when adding a Python Module.
5. Next, you need to provide a Short Description that contains the summary of the purpose or goal of the resource being contributed. A minimum of 10 and maximum of 170 characters are allowed in this field.
6. A Long Description of the resource is required too. This should be an in-depth description of the purpose, goals and results the resource will achieve. A minimum of 10 and maximum of 1500 characters are allowed in this field.
7. Describe why the resource is helpful in the Submission Details field, which is also a required field. The information provided here will be used during the review process of the resource.
8. Before submission the user contributing the new resource needs to assert that the Python module includes error handling, does not include sensitive information or data, and contains readable code. If these are all true, the “Module adheres to submission guidelines” box can be checked.
9. Once all the selections are made and at least the required fields (indicated with *) have been filled out, you can click on the Submit For Review button to submit the resource. It will then go through an internal review at Optilogic before it goes live in the Resource Library. Once it is live in the Resource Library, it will be mentioned in the What’s New section of the Home application in the Optilogic platform.

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There are four main methods for adding data to Atlas:

1. Drag/Drop

• Select the files you wish to move into Atlas​
• Hold selection(s) and drag into your desired Atlas folder

2. Upload tool​

• Right click the folder where you wish to add files
• Select the file(s)
• Select open

3. OneDrive​

• Connect your local OneDrive to your Atlas account for data synchronization. Leverage API code

4. Leverage API code​

• Use a downloadable Alteryx script or python code to upload data to your account

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Before you get started in Cosmic Frog watch this short video to learn how to navigate the software.

To help familiarize you with our product we have created the following video.

Thank you for using the most powerful supply chain design software in the galaxy (I mean, as far as we know).

To see the highlights of the software please watch the following video.

As you continue to work with the tool you might find yourself asking, what do these engine names mean and how the heck did they come up with them?

ANURA

Anura, the name of our data schema, comes from the biological root where Anura is the order that all frogs and toads fall into.

NEO

NEO, our optimization engine, takes its name from a suborder of Anura – Neobatrachia. Frogs in this suborder are known to be the most advanced of any other suborder.

THROG

THROG, our simulation engine, takes its name from a superhero hybrid that crosses Thor with a frog (yes, this actually exists)

TRIAD

Triad, our greenfield engine, takes its name from the oldest known species of frogs – Triadobatrachus. You can think of it as the starting point for the evolution of all frogs, and it serves as a great starting point for modeling projects too!

DART

Dart, our risk engine, takes its name from the infamous poison dart frog. Just as you would want to be aware of a poisonous frog’s presence, you’ll also want to be sure to evaluate any opportunities for risks to present themselves.

DENDRO

Dendro, our simulation evolutionary algorithm, takes its name from what is known to be the smartest species of frog – Dendrobates auratus. These frogs have the ability to create complex mental maps to evaluate and better navigate their surroundings.

HOPPER

Hopper, our transportation routing engine, doesn’t have a name rooted in frog-related biology but rather a visual of a frog hopping along from stop to stop just as you might see with a multi-drop transportation route.

There can be many different causes for an ODBC connection error, this article contains a couple of specific error messages along with resolution steps.

Error Message – SSL SYSCALL error: EOF detected

Resolution: Please make sure that the updated PSQL driver has been installed. This can be checked through your ODBC Data Sources Administrator

Latest versions of the drivers are located here: https://www.postgresql.org/ftp/odbc/releases/ from here, click on the latest parent folder, which as of June 20, 2024 will be REL-16_00_0005. Select and download the psqlodbc_x64.msi file. When installing, use the default settings from the installation wizard.

Error Message – SSL SYSCALL error: No error (0x00000000/0)

Resolution: Please confirm the PSQL drivers are updated as shown in the previous resolution. If this error is being thrown while running an Alteryx workflow specifically, please disable the AMP Engine for the Alteryx workflow.

Running a model is simple and easy. Just click the run button and watch your Python model execute. Watch the video to learn more.

To leverage the power of hyperscaling, click the “Run as Job” button.

When a Cosmic Frog model has been built and scenarios of interest have been created, it is usually time to run 1 or multiple scenarios. This documentation covers how scenarios can be kicked off, and which run parameters can be configured by users.

Model Run Screen

When ready to run scenarios, user can click on the green Run button at the right top of the Cosmic Frog screen:

This will bring up the Run Settings screen:

1. We are on the Run Settings screen.
2. On the left-hand side of the screen a list of all scenarios contained in the model is shown. Users can select 1 or multiple of these to be run.
3. To facilitate finding specific scenarios in the list, text can be typed into the search box to filter the scenario list down to scenarios that contain the typed text in their name.
4. Clicking on this icon with the horizontal bars allows the user to sort the scenario list. Two sort options are available:
   1. Default: the scenarios are listed in the order they were added to the model (i.e. the same order as they are in in the Scenarios module).
   2. A-Z Name: this sorts the scenario list in alphabetical order. Clicking on this sort option again results in sorting the list in reverse alphabetical order.
5. These are the 5 icons associated with each of the Cosmic Frog engines. From left to right: network optimization (Neo), simulation (Throg), inventory (Dendro), Greenfield (Triad), and transportation optimization (Hopper). These icons are shown here for reference only.
6. The checkbox at the top of the scenario list can be used to check / un-check all scenarios that are showing in the list simultaneously.
7. Each scenario has an icon in front of it to show which engine will be used to run this scenario. These match the ones discussed under bullet number 5. The 2 scenario icons outlined in green are a Greenfield and a network optimization scenario, respectively. The other scenario icon outlined in green further down the list is an inventory scenario.
8. At the bottom of the scenario list the number of selected scenarios is listed. Here none are selected yet.
9. User can select the Resource Size that they deem most appropriate for the scenarios to be run with. Larger resource sizes have more CPUs and more RAM available; however, they also have higher billing factors. Therefore, the aim is usually to choose a resource size as small as possible to limit the number of hours used for running the scenarios, while still being large enough for the scenarios to not run out of memory. More guidance on Resource Size selection and assessment can be found in this help article “Resource Size Selection (Neo)”.
10. For each engine, run parameters are available for configuration by users. We will go through these for each engine in the following sections of this documentation. Note that no parameters are available here for Greenfield runs; parameters to run Greenfield scenarios are all specified in the Greenfield Settings input table, which are covered in this “Greenfield Settings Explained” Help Center article.
11. When ready to start running the selected scenario(s), user can click on the Run button. Note that it is now greyed out and unavailable as no scenarios have been selected. It will be available and green when 1 or more scenarios are selected. Should user decide to not run any scenarios at this time, they can close the Run Settings screen without kicking off any runs in 2 ways:
    1. By clicking on the Cancel button. If changes were made to any parameters, these changes will not be saved. In other words, the parameter values will be reverted to those that were there when the Run Settings screen was opened.
    2. By clicking on the x-icon at the right top of the Run Settings screen. If changes were made to any parameters, these changes will be saved.

Please note that:

• Scenarios which are run with the same engine will use the same set of parameters when kicked off simultaneously. Should there be a need to run scenarios with different parameters, user currently needs to kick them off in separate batches.
• Scenarios that are run simultaneously, will currently all use the same selected resource size. Should there be a need to run scenarios using different resource sizes, user currently needs to kick them off in separate batches. More to come in future releases!
• Users can check the progress of all runs in Optilogic’s Run Manager application:

1. To open the Run Manager, click on the Run Manager icon with the vertical bars on the left-hand side of the screen while on the Optilogic platform.
2. If the Run Manager application is not showing on the left-hand side of the screen while on the Optilogic platform, find the icon with the 3 dots and click on it to start showing all Optilogic applications. Then click on Run Manager.
3. There are 4 jobs listed here which, from bottom to top, are the overall job “General Demo_V3 (neo)” of kicking off network optimization (Neo) scenarios in the model named General Demo_V3. Three scenarios have been kicked off and are currently still running as their State = “running”: Sc1d_Site selection, Sc2_CoPacker, and Sc3_Prebuild Inventory.
4. There are 4 jobs listed here which, from bottom to top, are the overall job “General Demo_V3 (triad)” of kicking off Greenfield (Triad) scenarios in the model named General Demo_V3. Three scenarios have been kicked off and have finished running as their State = “done”: Sc1a_Greenfield 1 New Site, Sc1b_Greenfield 2 New Sites, and Sc1c_Greenfield 3 New Sites.
5. There are 2 jobs listed here which, from bottom to top, are the overall job “General Demo_V3 (dendro)” of kicking off inventory (Dendro) scenarios in the model named General Demo_V3. One scenario has been kicked off and has not completed successfully as its State = “error”: Sc9a_Dendro_Clean.
6. When selecting an individual job by clicking on the circle to the left of it, additional details of the run can be viewed on the right-hand side (not shown in screenshot). This includes job info, job (error) logs, job resource usage metrics, etc.
7. Not shown in the screenshot above, but if a user wants to end a run for example in case it was kicked off accidentally or it has been running for a long time without finishing, user can right-click on the job and choose “Cancel Job” from the context menu.

While we will discuss all parameters for each technology in the next sections of the documentation, users can find explanations for each of them within Cosmic Frog too: when hovering over a parameter, a tooltip explaining the parameter will be shown. In the next screenshot, user has expanded the Termination section within the Optimization (Neo) parameters section and is hovering with the mouse over the “MIP Relative Gap Percentage” parameter, which brings up the tooltip explaining this parameter:

When selecting one or multiple scenarios to be run with the same engine, the corresponding technology parameters are automatically expanded in the Technology Parameters part of the Run Settings screen:

1. 3 scenarios are selected in the scenario list; they are all optimization (Neo) scenarios.
2. When one or multiple optimization scenarios are selected in the list, the Optimization section in the Technology Parameters part of the Run Settings screen is automatically expanded.
3. User can manually expand/collapse these parameter sections by clicking on the greater than icon to expand, and the downward caret icon to collapse.
4. In the Optimization section of the Technology Parameters part of the Run Settings screen, there is 1 general parameter (Check Infeasibility) and 4 additional categories of optimization parameters: Termination, Network Output Reporting, and Troubleshooting. These sections are all collapsed at the moment; we will cover each and their parameters in the next sections of this documentation.
5. Note that the run button has now turned green as 3 scenarios have been selected in the scenario list.

Optimization (Neo) Parameters

When enabled, the Check Infeasibility parameter will run an infeasibility diagnostic on the model in order to identify any cause(s) of the scenario being infeasible rather than optimizing the scenario. For more information on running infeasibility diagnostics, please see this Help article.

Optimization (Neo) – Termination Parameters

1. Solve Time Limit (Minutes) – specify the maximum amount of time in minutes the scenario is allowed to run. If a feasible solution has been found within this time (regardless of the MIP Relative Gap), it will be returned. If no feasible solution has been found, the scenario run will end without returning results. The default is blank, meaning scenarios will run until a solution is found within the MIP Relative Gap Percentage, see the next bullet. In case needed, long running scenarios can manually be stopped by cancelling the job through the Run Manager application, as explained above.
2. MIP Relative Gap Percentage – once the difference (gap) between the best bound and currently best-found solution is less than this defined gap, the solver terminates, and the solution is returned as the solution. To set a value of 1%, enter 0.01. The default is set to 0.0001, meaning 0.01%.

Optimization (Neo) – Network Parameters

1. Lane Creation Rule – this parameter dictates how the transportation policies and sourcing policies (Customer Fulfillment Policies, Replenishment Policies, and Procurement Policies) input tables are used to create the lanes (origin-destination pairs) that are considered during the optimization. Options are:
   1. Transportation Policy Lanes Only: lanes are only created based on the origin-destination pairs specified in the Transportation Policies input table. This is the default setting for this parameter.
   2. Sourcing Policy Lanes Only: lanes are only created based on the origin-destination pairs specified in the Sourcing Policies input tables (which are: Customer Fulfillment Policies, Replenishment Policies, and Procurement Policies).
   3. Intersection: lanes are created for those origin-destination pairs that exist in both the Transportation Policies and Sourcing Policies input tables.
   4. Union: lanes are created for all origin-destination pairs that exist in the Transportation Policies and Sourcing Policies input tables.
2. Max Number Of Sources To Consider For Customers – when set, individual customers cannot source from more than this number of sources in total throughout the model horizon and over all products together. The sources are evaluated based on distance. For example, if 5 sources are set up for a certain customer in the model, and this parameter is set to 2, then out of those 5 sources, only the 2 that are closest in distance to the customer are considered as sources. The default is blank.
3. Max Number Of Sources To Consider For Facilities – when set, individual facilities cannot source from more than this number of sources in total throughout the model horizon and over all products together. The sources are evaluated based on distance. For example, if 3 sources are set up for a certain facility in the model, and this parameter is set to 1, then out of those 3 sources, only the 1 that is closest in distance to the facility is considered as a source. The default is blank.
4. Apply Max Number Of Sources By Location Only – when values are set for the previous 2 parameters, this parameter specifies if those max number of sources parameters are applied for each product-mode-period combination at that location or over all product-mode-period mode combinations together. When this parameter is off (the default), the max number of sources parameters will limit the number of sources for each destination across all product-mode-period combinations. When this parameter is turned on, the max number of sources parameters will limit the number of sources for each unique destination-product-mode-period combination.
5. Allow Cross Period Flows – turn this parameter on when flows that depart in one period and arrive in a later one need to be allowed in the model. I.e. (some) transportation times are longer than the period lengths. By default, this parameter is off, and flows will depart and arrive in the same period regardless of the transport times specified in the model.
6. Open Close At Most Once – when turned on (the default), facilities and work centers which can be opened and/or closed during the model horizon are not allowed to change status more than once during the model horizon. When turned off, facilities and work centers are allowed to change between open and close states an unlimited number of times during the model horizon.

Optimization (Neo) – Output Reporting Parameters

1. Print Detailed User Defined Variable Summary – when turned on, the Optimization User Defined Variable Summary and Optimization User Defined Variable Term Summary output tables are populated with all outputs related to user defined variables, including records with value of 0. When turned off (the default) these output table are only populated with non-0 values.
2. Print Constraint Summary – when turned on, the Optimization Constraint Summary output table will be populated, whereas when this parameter is turned off (the default) it will not be populated. As this table can contain a lot of records, it can be helpful to turn it off and only turn it on for troubleshooting purposes or for select scenarios to review how close some constraints are to maxing out for example.

Optimization (Neo) – Troubleshooting Parameters

1. Feasibility tolerance – since numbers have finite precision on digital computers, sometimes constraints cannot be met exactly. Therefore, the feasibility tolerance sets a limit on the amount of violation allowed on a constraint while still considering it “satisfied”. The default value is 0.000001, and for most models users will not need to change this. Should a user suspect a model turns infeasible due to slight constraint violation, user can test this out by relaxing the feasibility tolerance and setting it to a higher value, e.g. try 0.00001 first, then 0.0001, etc.
2. Write LP (linear program) File – when turned on, this will produce a file containing the linear programming formulation of the model that is being optimized. Experienced users may be able to review this for troubleshooting purposes, and Optilogic’s support team may ask for this when troubleshooting any models. The LP-file can be found in Explorer > My Files > debug_data > model_name > scenario_name > NEO.lp. By default, this option is turned off. The following screenshot shows where the NEO.lp file can be found when running a scenario with this parameter turned on:

1. 1. While in any application on the Optilogic platform, user can open the Explorer by clicking on the greater than icon at the top left of the screen. It will then turn into a less than icon, which clicked will hide the Explorer.
   2. To quickly find the NEO.lp file, we can search for “debug” in the search box.
   3. The file we’re looking for is located in:
      1. The folder “My Files”
      2. The sub-folder “debug_data”
      3. The sub-folder with the name of the model, in this case “General Demo_V3”
      4. The sub-folder with the name of the scenario, in this case “Sc1d_Site selection”
   4. The NEO.lp file in this folder is the file containing the linear programming formulation of this scenario.
   5. The input_solver sub-folder contains the .csv files that are generated when the next parameter “Write Input Solver” is turned on, see the next bullet.
2. Write Input Solver – when turned on, this will write all the data of the input tables that are used during the scenario run into .csv-files. This means that following have been applied before writing these files: scenario changes, excluded records are removed, and records using groups/named table filters are enumerated into records for the individual group/filter members (for groups used in constraints tables only where the group behavior field is set to enumerate). The .csv-files can be found in Explorer > My Files > debug_data > model_name > scenario_name > input_solver, see the screenshot above. By default, this option is turned off.
3. Relative Constraint Tolerance Percentage – constraints of type “Fixed With Tolerance” are relaxed by this amount. The default of 0.02 means a relaxation of 2%. For example, if a constraint of type “Fixed With Tolerance” is set to a constraint value of 500, then with a Relative Constraint Tolerance Percentage of 0.02 (2%), values from 490 up to 510 are accepted as satisfying the constraint.
4. Allow Lazy Constraints – when this option is turned on, constraints that are computationally expensive are at first turned off during the optimization and are added back in later in the process, so they are still respected in the final solution. By default, this option is turned off as it can slow the optimization down. Users are advised to turn it on when a performance issue is detected on a model, in which case it may be able to speed up the optimization.
5. Logical Constraints – if a model is poorly scaled (for example due to having both very small and very large demand quantities or cost numbers in it), turning this option on may prevent numerical issues leading to infeasibility of the model. Models can run longer when this option is used, however. By default, this option is turned off.

Simulation (Throg) Parameters

1. Number Of Replications – for simulation models that use variability in their inputs, multiple replications where different values are used for the variable inputs can be run. This can inform users on how robust a network is: out of all the replications run, how many show a well-functioning network in terms of cost, service and risk and how many do not? Running 20-30 replications is generally a good number to start with, keeping in mind that the more variable the input data is, the more replications should be used.
2. Run Replications in Parallel – when turned on, multiple replications will be run simultaneously rather than sequentially.
3. Log Progress – when turned on, a record will be printed in the job log of the simulation run for each day of the simulation horizon:

1. 1. Select the simulation run of interest in the Run Manager application on the Optilogic platform and choose to view the Job Log by clicking on the 4^th icon at the top right of the screen.
   2. The current date and time are printed for each record printed in the Job Log.
   3. The current simulation time is printed, a record for each day of the simulation is included.

This can help users troubleshoot issues. For example, if a simulation run takes longer than expected, users can review the Job Log to see if it gets stuck on any particular day during the modelling horizon.

4. Confidence Interval Percent – the confidence interval used for calculating half-width statistics. The default is set to 0.95 (95%).

Simulation (Throg) – Output Reporting Parameters

1. Inventory Reporting – choose whether and, if so, in what way the Simulation Inventory On Hand Report output table will be populated after a simulation run. Options are:
   1. End of Day Only: a record is printed for each facility-product combination at the end of each day.
   2. All Changes Only: a record is printed for facility-product combinations every time the inventory level changes.
   3. End of Day and All Changes: records are printed for each facility-product combination at the end of each day and also every time the inventory level changes. This is the default setting.
   4. None – the Simulation Inventory On Hand Report output table is not populated.
2. Print Order Report – when turned on (the default), the Simulation Order Report output table will be populated after a simulation run. This table tracks orders at all levels of the supply chain, e.g. production orders, replenishment orders, and customer orders. Users can see when a production order dropped, started, and was completed. For replenishment orders, users can see when they dropped, and when they were filled. If an order is (partially) cancelled, that will be indicated in this table too.
3. Print Shipment Report – when turned on (the default), the Simulation Shipment Report output table will be populated after a simulation run. All product movements are captured in this table, including what time the shipment departed, when it arrived, and what the due date was (if applicable).
4. Print Process Report – when turned on (the default), the Simulation Process Report output table will be populated after a simulation run. If any production, (un)loading), or (de)stocking processes are used in the simulation model, the details of when which process was used for what amount of product and time can be found in this output table.
5. Print Production Report – when turned on (the default), the Simulation Production Report output table will be populated after a simulation run. All productions of the simulation run are detailed in this output table, including start and end time, quantities, and cost associated with the production.
6. Queue Depth Reporting – choose whether and, if so, in what way the Simulation Queue Depth Report output tables (for Work Centers, Lanes, Lane Mode combinations, and Order Fulfillments) will be populated after a simulation run. There can be queues where items are waiting for Work Centers, Lanes, or Lane-Mode combinations to become available. These queue depth reports list how many items there are in these queues at certain times. Options are:
   1. End of Day Only: a record is printed for each queue at the end of each day.
   2. All Changes Only: a record is printed for queues every time the queue depth changes.
   3. End of Day and All Changes: records are printed for each queue at the end of each day and also every time the queue depth changes.
   4. None – the Simulation Queue Depth Report output tables are not populated. This is the default setting.
7. Print Work Center Throughput Report – this parameter is not currently used by the simulation engine.
8. Print Failed Sourcing Report – this parameter is not currently used by the simulation engine.

Inventory (Dendro) Parameters

The inventory engine in Cosmic Frog (called Dendro) uses a genetic algorithm to evaluate possible solutions in a successive manner. The parameters that can be set dictate how deep the search space is and how solutions can evolve from one generation to the next. Using the parameter defaults will suffice for most inventory problems, they are however available  to change as needed for experienced users.

1. Number Of Generations – the number of generations the genetic algorithm will go through and calculate. The default value is 5.
2. Number Of Genes Per Generation – This is the population size, i.e. the number of candidate solutions maintained in the population throughout the algorithm. The default value is 20.
3. Number Of Offsprings – this specifies how many offsprings are considered from the 2^nd until the last generation. This is the number of new candidate solutions created during a step (generation) of the genetic algorithm. The N best solutions from the current population and these offsprings are kept, where N is the population size parameter (Number Of Genes Per Generation, see previous bullet) and then the algorithm moves on to the next step. The default value is 20.
4. Mutation Probability – the chance that a gene factor will mutate from one generation to the next. The default is 10.
5. Max Values To Mutate – the maximum number of gene factors that are allowed to mutate from one generation to the next. The default value is 5.
6. Crossover Probability – the chance that crossover will occur between genes, e.g. genes are swapped. The default value is 90.
7. Number Of Crossovers – the number of crossover points. The default value is 2.
8. Random Seed – set the seed of the random number generator of the algorithm to start generating the initial population in an area where optimal solutions are likely to be found. When left blank (the default value), the initial population is generated randomly.
9. Fitness Score Calculator – available to enable using a customized approach and class name in the code (Optilogic can provide advice and the options for this). When this is left blank (the default value), the data from the Output Factors input table is used.

Transportation (Hopper) Parameters

1. Run Load Balancing – if weekly demand needs to be balanced over a week, the Load Balancing Demand and Load Balancing Schedules input tables can be used to set this up. If both the Shipments table and the Load Balancing Demand/Schedules tables are populated, by default the Shipments table will be used and the Load Balancing Demand/Schedules tables will be ignored. To switch to using the Load Balancing Demand/Schedules tables (and ignoring the Shipments) table, the Run Load Balancing toggle needs to be switched to on (toggle to the left and grey is off; to the right and blue is on).

Please feel free to contact Optilogic Support at support@optilogic.com in case of questions or feedback.

Running a model from Atlas via the SDK requires the following inputs:

1. A model location with data loaded for that model
2. A completed run_model.py file with the information needed to solve the model such as:
   1. MODEL – either file string or .frog model name
   2. ENGINE – neo or throg
   3. SCENARIOS – use ‘all’ to run scenarios or individually run scenarios by placing the scenario name within single quotes
   4. RESOURCE_CONFIG – the machine size used to solve the model
   5. WORKSPACE – the name of Atlas workspace, most likely this will be called ‘Studio’

1. Model Storage

Model data can be stored in two common locations:

1. Cosmic Frog model (denoted by a .frog suffix) stored within Postgres SQL database in the platform

2. .CSV files stored within Atlas

For #1 simply enter the database name within single quotes. For example to run a model called Satellite_Sleep I will need to enter this data in the run_model.py file

For #2 you will need to create a folder within Atlas to store your .CSV modeling files:

• Create a folder for your model inputs within your library – right-click the my_models folder to create a new folder
• Items to place in your folder:
  • input_modeler
    • Contains the tables where model data will reside
    • Unused tables are not needed within the model file structure

• Add your model tables to the input_modeler folder using your preferred data utility

2. Setting up Run Model (run_model.py)

Each Atlas account is loaded with a run_model.py file located within the SDK folder in your Model Library

Double click the file to open it within Atlas and enter the following data:

1. MODEL – either file string or .frog model name
2. ENGINE – neo or throg
3. SCENARIOS – use ‘all’ to run scenarios or individually run scenarios by placing the scenario name within single quotes
4. RESOURCE_CONFIG – the machine size used to solve the model
5. WORKSPACE – the name of Atlas workspace, most likely this will be called ‘Studio’

Tips:

• If your model is saved in Atlas, you will need to enter the file location of the model. This can be done by right-clicking the model folder and selecting “Copy Path” to get the full path
• If you running a .frog model, the model name must match exactly this includes items like blank spaces.
  • you can copy the model name from your browser window

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The use of non alpha-numeric characters can present the possibilities of data issues when running scenarios. The only special characters that will be officially supported are periods, dashes, parentheses and underscores.

Please note that while other special characters in input data or scenario names can still function as expected, we can not guarantee that they will always work. If you encounter any issues or have questions about the data being used, please feel free to contact support at support@optilogic.com.