Schedules

A Schedule automates the execution of a Study by specifying when and how often it should run. Instead of manually launching an On Demand run, you can configure a Schedule to kick off hourly or daily, with Snapshot cases built relative to a dynamically determined Target Time.

Schedule Types

Cruncher provides three preset schedule types that correspond to common study workflows:

• Hourly (Future Hour Ahead) — Runs a Study multiple times per day, beginning at a user‑specified start hour and repeating at hourly intervals.
• Daily (Next Day Study) — Runs once per day at a fixed time, targeting midnight of the next day (so Snapshot offsets align with hours of the day).
• Daily (Week Ahead Study) — Similar to Next Day, but focuses on a smaller set of hours at predefined offsets for forward planning.

Schedule Configuration

Each Schedule is defined in a JSON file that points to a Study configuration and adds scheduling metadata. Within the Schedule Configuration dialog, the following options are available:

• Name — A human‑readable identifier for the Schedule (does not need to match the Study name).
• Description — Freeform notes about purpose or scope of the Schedule.
• Maximum Threads — Caps the number of SimAuto instances claimed when the Schedule runs, allowing resource sharing between multiple concurrent schedules.
• Quick Validation — Option to automatically run Quick Validation a few minutes before the scheduled start.
• Perform Analysis — Enables automatic Analysis after all Snapshots finish; if unchecked, only Snapshot cases are generated and Analysis must be launched manually later.
• Disable HUD — Suppresses automatic launch of the Heads Up Display after completion.
• CTG Results Filter — Overrides the Study’s Contingency Analysis filter if needed.
• Max Dist Procs — Overrides distributed computing limits from the Study.

Run Times

Run times determine when the Schedule will kick off. You can specify:

• Hourly schedules — Start time of first run each day and number of hourly repeats.
• Daily schedules — Specific clock time each day for the run to begin.

Schedules can be enabled or disabled for particular days of the week. If a day has no defined Seed Case mapping, the configuration falls back to a default Seed Case or the Study’s baseline configuration.

Seed Case Overrides

A Schedule may assign different Seed Cases depending on day of week and time of day. Cruncher supports a naming convention where subdirectories are labeled with <DAY>_HE<HH> or <DAY>_HB<HH> (e.g., MON_HE08 for Monday Hour Ending 08). Cruncher scans these folders to automatically map the correct Seed Case for each run.

Snapshot Overrides

If desired, a Schedule can override the Snapshot list defined in the Study. By enabling Override Study Snapshots, you can provide an alternate set of Snapshots specific to the scheduled run.

Alarms

Schedules can be configured with their own alarm settings to signal start, warning, error, or completion events. These alarms override alarm settings defined in the base Study.

Schedule Management

• Add New — Create a new Schedule from a preset or custom JSON.
• Edit — Open a Schedule in the Schedule Configuration dialog.
• Manage — View all loaded Schedules in a consolidated management dialog.
• Import / Export — Load or save one or more Schedules as JSON configuration files.
• Quick Validate Study — Run validation against the Study file associated with the Schedule.
• Toggle Pause — Pause or unpause a Schedule; paused Schedules skip their runs.
• Run On Demand — Launch the Study immediately using either the next or previous scheduled Target Time.