Abstract for: System Dynamics Model Documentation Tool (SDM-Doc)

Extending work by Oliva (2001), the System Dynamics Model Documentation Tool (SDM-Doc) developed at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) creates HTML-based documentation of models developed with Vensim. The model documentation created by the SDM-Doc tool allows modelers to navigate through model equations and views in a very efficient and practical way creating documentation of the model sorted by variable name, type of variable, group, view, module, or module/group/name. The tool also verifies some desirable characteristics of the model helping in model assessment and development. The tool will be presented using several examples. Participants are encouraged to bring their laptops to the workshop to use the tool with their own models as practice during the workshop. A copy of the software will be distributed to participants at the workshop.