I would find i a big help if there was a option to show not just the "Max" rate but a rate that was limited but the other machines in the selection

Example
using just 2 assembly machine 1 to make green circuits
Currently it show that input is 1 copper and 1 iron per second output 1 green circuit

with limited through put it would show
1 copper and .66 iron input and an output of .66 green circuit

Also to limit in the other direction with 2 cable machines and 1 green circuit machine it would be
input would be 1.5 copper and 1 iron with output 1 green circuit

My thought would be to have a checkbox at the top to choose the mode, limited or full

i use this mode ALL THE TIME :) it is hugely useful and adding this option would make the weird ratios in bobs/angles much easier to work with.

Thanks for the great work

currently i can see surplus and missing resources and also how many more/less assemblers i would need to have balanced input and output, and mostly this is good enough for me, especially when only looking at small partial setups. thus it is also one of my "QOL-MUSTUSE" mods :-)

the additional functionality of limiting the display to the lower or upper bounds would be nice, and of course that would require a threeway switch lower/unlimited/upper. but such a functionality would be quite difficult to do for larger setups where some output resources are (directly or indirectly) fed back to the inputs. such circular production chains can easily lead to situations where input is capped according to output, which in turn lowers the computed output which in turn caps input more, until finally 0 -> 0 is the result (doing nothing costs 0 and produces 0). capping to the opposite limit would similarly increase the amounts until "an unlimited number of assemblers makes endless output from endless input" might be shown (or you get an overflow error). and it will be even more difficult when one resource has a positive feedback effect while another has a negative feedback. besides these problems, many production chains have alternatives, eg oil: should it be capped according to heavy, light or petrol production, and how much is cracked by the chemplants ? finally, input and output can also be capped according to the transport (cap to a single yellow belt of input or 3 blue belts of output, direct insertion), etc etc etc
there once was an external program "Foreman" (not to be confused with the foreman mod) that did this perfectly, but failed miserably when unexpected recipe-mechanics were used, and that already included simple circular or merging chains like greenhouses or oil handling. I don't want this to happen to this mod :-)

thus this mod simply adds up all inputs and all outputs of the assemblers that were included with the tool, even gives the amount of surplus or what is missing, and tells how many more or fewer assemblers would be needed to match inputs with outputs. then you can build more assemblers of what is missing (can also be temporary and at any place, without belts and inserters) and check again.

i absolutely would love to have such additional options, but it will probably be far out of scope of this easy to use mod. just have a look at the helmod mod, or for vanilla look at the website https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html (for the example with green circuits: https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html#zip=bYxBDoMwDAR/k1NzqHqpjPKY1BjJkokjx/k/KYIDiNt6vDuWnVILS7eScSTXQvG4AjutLZEQumlhjMiGnR0WeIdV5y7UEmqtZBHzTwim0kXg+zpglaGHqX0GetCcbR740kXNAv/nzadGF7wPb3AD )

i use that website to plan first (at least that part that is vanilla), then build, and check details of partial setups (or non-vanilla assemblers and recipes) with this mod. although it may cost UPS for bigger factories, i also check my early factories with the mod Bottlenck and with Utilization Monitor.

ps: the only extension that might be easy to add to this mod could be to also have a row for the energy usage (eg by default simply listing the power in Watts, optionally even mod settings like "xx MW" and "coal" for converting xx MW to wood/coal/solidfuel that is handled and summed up as some input resource). Maybe we can something similar when the mod has to be updated for 0.17 anyway ? :-) :-)

Other people have asked for it to include energy calculations, I will ponder that.

I’ve thought about having other calculation modes, but I always wind up confusing myself :)

I’ve also thought about a way to combine the calculations of two selected areas together - someone suggested something on those lines.

Other people have asked for it to include energy calculations, I will ponder that.

that would be GREAT :-)

I’ve thought about having other calculation modes, but I always wind up confusing myself :)

that seems to be the nature of calculating and handling cicular and chained recipe chains as well as positive and negative feedback loops. i wouldn't mind an attempt to do that in your clear and easily visible way (in contrast to the not-so-easy-to-handle helmod, etc. but it probably should be a new mod, keeping this mod simple and stable.

I’ve also thought about a way to combine the calculations of two selected areas together - someone suggested something on those lines.

as soon as setups are not long straight lines but a bit of spaghetti, it sometimes is difficult to select the important assemblers and skip those that are not needed and might be using the same resources and thus messing up the summed up results.

maybe, it could be done along the lines of blueprints, eg taking a blueprint, deselecting assemblers in the blueprint and then doing the calculations based on what is in the blueprint ? and with the changes the blueprints will get in 0.17 (eg copy&paste etc) this might be better suited to be done after 0.17 is released.

Good to see some discussion on this :)

I think the way to deal with the production cycles would be this

1. start with current max rates calcs
2. using the shortage of machine math reduce the outputs to get true output
3. using the now current outputs and reverse the math to get reduced inputs
   -- does not need to be done on a per machine basis just on the totals

There are many situations that can make this a nightmare to fully specify but a first approximation is still useful.
I feel that can be left to the player much like other aspects are left to the player like making sure the inserts are fast enough for each machine or that the belt can deliver enough items

Thanks again for the great work
Additionally I would also love to see the power usage but i should include the beacon power (in selection) not just the assembly machines

@millaaron: after step 3 you are not done yet ...
4. if those reduced inputs are the results/outputs of assemblers, those have to be adjusted too
5. the inputs have to be adjusted again for those newly reduced outputs
6,7,8,9,.... repeat the calculations until you finally get the true needed inputs to the whole setup

and when there is a circular production chain, this might continue for quite a while :-) :-(
which leads back to what i wrote above:

that seems to be the nature of calculating and handling cicular and chained recipe chains as well as positive and negative feedback loops. i wouldn't mind an attempt to do that in your clear and easily visible way (in contrast to the not-so-easy-to-handle helmod, etc. but it probably should be a new mod, keeping this mod simple and stable.

All that is true :)

But you don't have to be perfectly accurate in all cases.
Correct for 90%+ would still be a very large improvement

Users would still have the current behavior to fall back on.

Maybe add a small note that circular chains are not supported

if you add a checkbox in the ingame window to quickly switch between the two modes, and also add some indicator (like (*) or [1], etc) for items with adjusted values, eg indicatior for chained recipes, circular recipes, etc ... then I'm also in favor. but i still believe that that might make the mod unnecessarily more complicated (both to program and to use easily), and a second mod which does this properly would be better.