It is extremely time consuming to start the entire simulation after making modifications to a single component, especially when working with a large amount of input records in a project that consists of dozens of components. On the other hand, it can be frustrating to single step through a large project when you are only interested in simulating a component somewhere in the middle of a complex simulation flow. The commands Step through and Initialize through provide an effective way of multi-stepping a project to your point of interest.
To validate your current project by starting from a component somewhere in the middle of a project, select the component, and then select Start Through from the Run menu. The simulation starts the current project, processes all components between the current and the selected component, and finally processes the selected component.
The number you enter as the Read Block Size defines the number of records fetched by the component during a single simulation step. You set the Write Block Size to define the number of records to be written. Most Data Provider components possess a Read Block Size property; most of the Data Sink components offer to customize the Write Block Size. Transformation components like the Staging component offer to customize values for both reading and writing.
The Block Size property is evaluated during both project
simulation and project execution. A small number might be suitable
for simulation purposes, but will slow down execution time when
you click Execute.
