In: Weber, Ehrig, Reisig (Eds.): Proc. of 2nd Int. Coll. on Petri Net Technologies for Modelling Communication Based Systems, pages 75-92. DFG Research Group "Petri Net Technology", September 2001.
Abstract: The Petri Net Kernel (PNK) of the >>Petri Net Baukasten<< is a tool infrastructure for editing, simulating and analyzing Petri nets of different net classes and for integration of other Petri net tools. A generic, domain-specific animation of net behavior, however, is not yet supported by the PNK. The GenGEd approach, developed at the TU Berlin, allows for the generic description of visual modeling languages such as different Petri net classes. In this paper, we extend GenGEd in order to support the description and implementation of animation views for differen Petri net classes. In our framework, the animation view of a system modeled as a Petri net consists on the one hand of a domain-specific layout (which is based on a combination of suitable icons for each system state corresponding to the net marking) and on the other hand of a transformation between the icon-based layouts according to the firing rules of the Petri net. The basic idea is to define visual behavior and animation rules based on visual syntax rules defining the corresponding Petri net language. For this purpose we propose a view transformation from the classical Petri net layout to the animation layout. The well-known producer/consumer system modeled as an elementary Petri net serves as running example. The animation view of the model in the application domain of a kitchen shows directly the production and consumption of cakes. Finally, the implementation of animation concepts in the GenGEd environment is presented, including a discussion about the integration of GenGEd and the PNK via a transformation of corresponding XML-based interchange formats.