Manifold

A Manifold is one selection over several interchangeable vessels. It holds nothing itself; it decides which of its member tanks to use at any moment.

Direction

A Manifold works in one direction. A source manifold draws from its members; a destination manifold fills them. All of its members share one material.

Figure 1. A Raw Draw manifold: four tanks, selected by rotation.

The rules

A manifold picks its member by the rule you choose under Pick the Tank By:

• Priority: the roster order. Always the highest-priority member that can take part.
• Rotation: take turns. It moves the scan start each time, so the last tank in the set is never stranded.
• Level: the fullest to draw from, the emptiest to fill, so a set of tanks stays balanced.
• By product: following the plan, keyed to a run table, so the tank in use follows what the day is making.

Duty and standby

By default Feeding the Consumer is One at a time, and because a manifold then uses one member at a time, the others stand by. That is duty and standby: one tank works while the rest wait, and the manifold can wash each one on handover. Two members that wash on handover may not share a single clean group, so give each its own.

Set Feeding the Consumer to All at once (a common suction header) and every tank with material feeds together instead, each with its own Share, the rate it pushes into the header. Pick the Tank By is hidden then, because a header picks no single tank.