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Pathfinder Technical Reference
Behaviors and Goals
Behaviors and Goals
Each occupant has a behavior assigned to them in the user interface. A behavior
dictates a sequence of goals that the occupant must achieve in the simulation. There
are two main types of goals in Pathfinder: idle goals and seek goals. Idle goals are ones
in which an occupant must wait at a location until an event occurs, such as a timeinterval elapses or an elevator reaches a discharge floor. Seek goals are ones in which
an occupant moves toward a destination, such as a waypoint, room, elevator, or exit.
Seek Goals
When an occupant seeks, they are trying to find a destination on the mesh. The
occupant uses path planning, path generation, and path following to reach the
destination as discussed in Paths on page 14. The types of seek goals that can be
defined in the user interface and the criteria for an occupant reaching them are defined
as follows:
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Waypoint – a point is defined on the mesh along with a radius. The occupant
attempts to reach the point. The waypoint is reached once the occupant is
within the radius of the point.
Room – a room or set of rooms is defined that the occupant should seek. This
goal is reached once the occupant crosses a door leading into one of the rooms.
Elevator – an elevator or set of elevators is defined that the occupant should use.
This goal is implemented in Pathfinder through a combination of a room-seek
goal and an idle goal (the idle goal is discussed in the next section). As discussed
in Elevators, there is a virtual pickup room representing the elevator at each
floor to which the elevator attaches. The room-seek portion of the elevator goal
points to one or more of these virtual rooms. The virtual rooms are selected
based on the location of the previous seek goal. If the previous seek goal is
attached to the elevator on the same floor, the elevator’s room on this floor is
selected as the target room. If not, the next floor down is tested. This continues
until the bottom floor is reached. If no elevator connection is found, the search
continues with the next floors up from the previous seek goal. This continues
until an elevator pickup room is found that connects to the previous seek goal.
Exit – a door or set of doors is defined that the occupant seeks. The goal is
reached once the occupant crosses one of the exit doors. Additionally, the
occupant is removed from the simulation.
Idle Goals
When occupants idle, they wait until an event occurs. While the occupant is waiting in
SFPE Mode, they stand still until the event occurs. While the occupant is waiting in
Steering Mode, they use separation to maintain a distance from other occupants (see
Idle Separate on page 26).
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