Implied Logic maintains a constant balance between long-term
development initiatives and more immediate response to achievable requests from
users. A wealth of new cost-allocation features are taking shape and the new eSTEM
Web interfaces are already on trial in prototype, as we continue to round out some
obscure issues in the STEM 6.2 Results program. You may be interested to read about
a number of useful incremental features which we have slipped into the latest software
builds.
Consolidation of quarterly and monthly results in Excel
The STEM add-in for Excel provides a familiar interface for STEM users
(and their colleagues and customers) to link inputs and outputs of a STEM model,
and to control the generation of results. One key element of this integrated solution
is the worksheet functions, implemented in VBA, which map down onto the STEMRES.DLL
interface in order to access STEM model results.
Previously, these functions would return period labels, lengths and results for
all the periods of a model run, including any initial months and quarters. While
you could access annual or quarterly results from the Consolidation menu in the
Results program, there was no corresponding interface for Excel. Now the relevant
functions have been extended to overcome this limitation through the addition of
an optional consolidation parameter.
|
Function
|
Parameters
|
|
StemGetPeriods
|
model, scenario [, consolidation]
|
|
StemGetPeriodLengths
|
model, scenario [, consolidation]
|
|
StemGetResult
|
model, scenario, element, result
[, consolidation]
|
|
StemGetResultsStatus
|
model, close, after
|
So you can use StemGetResult(model,scenario,element,result) for normal, unconsolidated
results, or StemGetResult(model,scenario,element,result,consolidation) for consolidated
results, where consolidation = Annual or Quarterly. Both forms are demonstrated
when you click the Paste Sample Formulae button on the add-in toolbar. This implementation
of STEMRES.DLL is backwards compatible with the old add-in, and the new add-in is
also backwards compatible with the old DLL, so that it will still work with old
versions (and STEM 6.1). The new DLL is part of the latest software installation
and cannot be used to consolidate STEM 6.1 results.
Limit on pasting element names
The original add-in had a built-in limit (256) on the number of element names which
would be pasted with the Paste Elements button on the add-in toolbar. The new add-in
increases this limit to 4096.
New Resource Transformation basis
We have extended the set of bases for Resource Transformations to include Utilisation
as a possible driver. For example, you might wish to trigger the installation of
micro-cells in a mobile network once the utilisation of macro-cells reaches a certain
threshold.
This could previously have been achieved by scaling used capacity with a separate
internal reference to the unit capacity of the relevant Resource; but the new basis
removes the need for a separate expression, keeping a model concise and easier to
understand.
These new features will be incorporated in STEM 6.2 RC 7, which will be available
for download from 31 January 2003.