Oracle Crystal Ball 11.1.1.0.00
Release Notes

July 2008

Contents

Introduction
Crystal Ball Issues
Crystal Ball Developer Kit Issues

Introduction

Oracle^® Crystal Ball 11.1.1.0.00 is the current version of Crystal Ball. It has been developed to run on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5.

Oracle Crystal Ball 11.1.1.0.00 includes these updates:

• The following tools were rewritten with a new wizard interface: Batch Fit, Bootstrap, Decision Table, and 2D Simulation.
  
• A new tool, Decision Analysis, was added to support the importation and analysis of raw data.
  
• OptQuest has been completely rewritten with a new wizard interface and new analysis, reporting, and data extraction capabilities.
  
• Three new decision variable types are available: binary, category, and custom.
  
• The following distribution fitting enhancements were added: fitting to discrete as well as continuous distributions, p-value display for fitted data, auto-selection of distributions to fit and ranking methods, parameter locking for distributions with shape, location, or degrees of freedom parameters.
  
• New licensing that does not require an Internet connection.
  
• Bug fixes.

The following are a few known issues you should be aware of as you begin using the current version of Crystal Ball.

Crystal Ball Issues

Only Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5 can be used
This version of Crystal Ball is not translated
Extreme Speed enhancements included in this version of Crystal Ball
Extreme Speed and custom functions
Extreme Speed and non-English Analysis Toolpak functions
Crystal Ball grabbers are now dual-anchoring
Restored results are not resaved with simulation results
If an assumption's input parameter refers back to the assumption cell, the reference is static
"System clock set back" errors
Issues with preferences and the memory warning dialog
Restored results with capability metrics
Crystal Ball with custom menus and toolbars
Incompatibilities when running models in earlier versions of Crystal Ball 7.x
LOOKUP functions can affect speed
Overlay chart probability data can be inaccurate for series with less data
Extract Data information might not be accurate for the last bin
Using Crystal Ball with multiple versions of Excel installed
Distribution change note
Issues concerning Crystal Ball for EPM integration with Smart View and Workspace
Other known issues

Only Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5 can be used

If you have Microsoft .NET Framework 1.x installed as well as .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5, warning messages might appear when you try to start this version of Crystal Ball. You might also find that Crystal Ball does not load at all when you start it. If this happens, choose Start > Programs > Crystal Ball > Application Manager. Be sure this setting is checked in the Crystal Ball Application Manager: "Use Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0, 3.0, or 3.5 (Recommended)." Then, click OK and restart Crystal Ball.

Notice that errors can result if you try to check the .NET Framework setting in the Application Manager and do not have the required permissions to make that change.

If you have not yet installed Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5, follow the instructions in your Crystal Ball Installation and Licensing Guide, located in the folder where you unzipped the Crystal Ball installation file or in the Docs folder under the folder where Crystal Ball is installed (by default, C:\Program Files\Oracle\Crystal Ball). The main installation document is named CB Install&Licensing.pdf. You can start installing Crystal Ball. If the appropriate version of Microsoft .NET Framework is not found, it will be installed through an automatic download process.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 or 3.5 is installed as part of Microsoft Windows Vista.

This version of Crystal Ball is not translated

If you install this version of Crystal Ball over a non-English version of Crystal Ball 7.2.x, Crystal Ball will appear in English. You must uninstall this version of Crystal Ball and re-install the earlier translated version to restore the non-English version of Crystal Ball.

Extreme Speed enhancements included in this version of Crystal Ball

If it is available to you, Extreme Speed is switched on by default. While Crystal Ball simulations run 10 to 100 times faster at Extreme Speed, there are a few compatibility issues to consider.

For more information on Extreme Speed, see the appropriate appendix of the current Crystal Ball User Manual or search for Extreme Speed in online help.

Go To button

When a calculation error occurs and a specific cell is identified, a Go To button appears in the error dialog. You can click it to move to the incompatible cell.

Extreme Speed and custom functions

Note: The following compatibility issue is not included in the current Crystal Ball User Manual.

In Extreme Speed, circular references with short Iteration settings might not match Excel's because of differences in calculation algorithms. For most consistent results, set Iteration to at least 1,000.

Extreme Speed and non-English Analysis Toolpak functions

Note: The following compatibility issue is not included in the current Crystal Ball User Manual.

Currently, non-English names of the Analysis Toolpak functions are not supported in Extreme Speed simulations in versions of Excel older than Excel 2007. In Excel 2007, the Analysis Toolpak is included as part of Excel.

Crystal Ball grabbers are now dual-anchoring

Certainty grabbers in forecast windows are now anchored at both ends. A grabber is anchored when users enter a value or click and move the grabber. Clicking the grabber without moving it toggles the anchor state of the grabber. Ctrl-clicking or Shift-clicking a grabber anchors or unanchors both grabbers, depending on the previous state of the clicked grabber. When both grabbers are positioned to infinity, both grabbers are unanchored. When just one grabber is positioned to infinity, the anchor state of the grabber at infinity is set to the opposite of the other grabber.

Anchoring both grabbers changes the certainty. Changing the certainty with both grabbers unanchored adjusts both grabbers centered on the median. When one grabber is anchored, the certainty value sets the free grabber’s position. When typing in a minimum or maximum certainty range, Crystal Ball sets only the location of the corresponding grabber; the modified grabber is anchored and the certainty value is updated.

Restored results are not resaved with simulation results

If restored results are used with results from the current simulation – in an overlay chart, for example – the restored results are not resaved with Analyze > Save Results. When the saved results are later restored, only the results from the current simulation are restored.

Likewise, if preferences – for example, chart preferences – are set for the restored results, those preference settings are not saved either.

If an assumption's input parameter refers back to the assumption cell, the reference is static

If a cell reference refers to an assumption cell, the cell reference is replaced by the base value (value at the start of the simulation) for the duration of the simulation. This makes the cell reference static.

"System clock set back" errors

If a computer's system clock is set back at some point to a date earlier than the current date, Crystal Ball's licensing system recognizes this. When you try to start Crystal Ball with a time-limited license under these conditions, startup fails and a "system clock set back" message appears. Set the clock to the current time and try again. If your Crystal Ball license has not expired and the problem still occurs, contact technical support.

Issues with preferences and the memory warning dialog

If you run an Extreme Speed simulation multiple times on a large or complex model, you might find that you receive the "Sufficient memory may not be available..." warning dialog. This dialog lets you disable the Store Assumption Values run preference and change the number of trials to run. Notice that these changes in the warning dialog reset those preferences in the Run Preferences dialog on the Trials and Options tabs. They are then applied to other models unless you reset them after the large model has run.

Restored results with capability metrics

The following rules apply when you calculate capability metrics, store the results in a .cbr file, and then restore the results:

1. The restored results use the preference settings on the machine where the results are restored, which might be different from the settings when the original simulation was run and stored.
   
2. Crystal Ball refits the data when the results are restored, so results might differ somewhat from the original results.

Crystal Ball with custom menus and toolbar

If you create custom menus and toolbars for Excel in folders Excel loads at startup, the Crystal Ball menus and toolbars are removed. You can still use the Crystal Ball Developer Kit to run Crystal Ball but the standard user interface cannot be restored and used unless the custom files are specially set up to allow this.

Incompatibilities when running models in early versions of Crystal Ball 7.x

Certain Crystal Ball distribution types are not compatible with pre-7.1 versions of Crystal Ball 7.x or 11.x. For example, if you create a model in Crystal Ball 7.2 or later that includes linked custom distributions, #NUM! appears in the assumption cells when you run a simulation in Crystal Ball 7.0 at Normal Speed with the following custom distribution types: continuous range, discrete range, sloping continuous range, and sloping discrete range.

LOOKUP functions can affect speed

Crystal Ball now supports LOOKUP functions in both Normal and Extreme Speed. However, if you use more than a thousand in a model, this can slow down the initial parsing time and cause the simulation to run slowly.

Overlay chart probability data can be inaccurate for series with less data

Overlay chart data are attached to the frequency axis of the chart, not the probability axis. For this reason, probability data can be inaccurate for all series except the one with the most data.

Extract Data information might not be accurate for the last bin

If you choose the Chart Bins statistic in the Extract Data dialog, information for the last (rightmost) bin might not be accurate. Crystal Ball determines bin location by evaluating whether data is equal to or greater than the minimum and less than the maximum for each bin. If data is equal to the maximum for the highest bin, it is not counted.

Using Crystal Ball with multiple versions of Microsoft Excel installed

Crystal Ball always runs against the default version of Microsoft Excel, which is typically the most recently installed version. To run Crystal Ball with another version of Excel, choose Start > [All] Programs > Crystal Ball > Application Manager. Then, choose the correct version of Excel in the dropdown list and click OK.

Distribution change note

In Crystal Ball 7.3.x, fitting routines were changed for some distributions (gamma, lognormal, Weibull and Student's t) to calculate better distribution parameters for a range of data points within a reasonable time. These changes might affect the fitting results for your data. The new routines have been tested and give results that are close to the previous results and compare favorably with other commercial applications.

The fitting routine for the Student's t distribution has been changed to improve performance with simulations greater than 3000 trials. If the number of data points is more than 3000, the new algorithm randomly samples 3000 points from the original set and runs the fitting routine on that. For simulations with more than 3000 trials, accuracy can drop slightly because the full dataset is not used in fitting.

Issues concerning Crystal Ball for EPM integration with Smart View and Workspace

Oracle Crystal Ball for Enterprise Performance Management (Crystal Ball for EPM) version 11.1.1.0.00 has areas of integration with Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office (Smart View). Also, a listing of Crystal Ball for EPM files in the Enterprise Performance Management central repository can be viewed within Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Workspace (Workspace). The following defects are currently logged in the Crystal Ball tracking system against the integration of Smart View and Workspace with Crystal Ball for EPM:

• The Smart View Data Source Manager is ignoring the entry in the Server field in the Options dialog (22359).
• The Smart View Data Source Manager is unable to add an open file to the Crystal Ball repository (22426).
• Smart View displays an ObjectNotFoundException if a file has been deleted from the Crystal Ball repository and another user refreshes the repository folder in the Data Source Manager (22429).
• The simulation and forecasting (Excel) workbooks uploaded to the Workspace repository through the Smart View Data Source Manager are encoded and can be used only by Smart View (22443).

Other known issues

The following are other known issues that exist in Oracle Crystal Ball version 11.1.1.0.00:

• Unexpected errors that seem to concern memory protection can occur when running in Extreme Speed (18671, 21240) and creating reports with Excel charts in Microsoft Excel 2007 running on Windows Vista (20766).
• When an OptQuest report contains Excel charts with very small numbers (in the range of 1E-5 to 1E-6), y-axis values are sometimes not visible in the charts (21014).

Crystal Ball Developer Kit Issues

Always use CB.CheckData before a CB.Get... call
CB.ExtractDataND can now extract multiple data types
Issues with CB.DefineAltParms and CB.GetAssum
Other Crystal Ball Developer Kit issues

Several new calls have been added to the Oracle Crystal Ball Developer Kit for this version of Crystal Ball. For a list, see Appendix B of the current Crystal Ball Developer Kit User Manual. Then, see Chapter 3 for a description of each new call.

Always use CB.CheckData before a CB.Get... call

To ensure that data is properly synchronized, always call CB.CheckData immediately after you insert, delete, move, or otherwise edit cells in a model, particularly before you use one of the CB.Get... functions.

CB.ExtractDataND can now extract multiple data types

You can now use CB.ExtractDataND to extract more than one type of data. To do this, use cbExtDataType followed by the type of data, and then follow that by a boolean Value2 parameter.

For example, the following lines of code extract both statistics and values:

   CB.ExtractDataND cbExtDataType, cbDatStatistics, True
   CB.ExtractDataND cbExtDataType, cbDatValues, True
   CB.ExtractDataND cbExtOK

Issues with CB.DefineAltParms and CB.GetAssum

There are problems in defining and updating assumptions with lognormal distributions with alternate parameter sets created by the CB.DefineAltParms call. For example, if you are defining a lognormal distribution assumption with the log mean and log standard deviation, the low cutoff value or high cutoff value is being assigned to the mean and standard deviation. Workarounds are to avoid cell references; pass in the actual values for the parameters rather than cell references. Also, consider using the DefineAssumND call to define means and standard deviations.

Other Crystal Ball Developer Kit issues

There are additional issues with the Oracle Crystal Ball Developer Kit and OptQuest Developer Kit that you should consider for optimum code performance:

• Always use the English list separator character (,) and the English decimal separator (.) (20370, 21375).
• Avoid running old-style Crystal Ball tools, such as Compare Run Modes, while Crystal Ball Developer Kit code is stopped at a breakpoint (21829).

User-reported Defect Fixes

The following user-reported defects were fixed in Crystal Ball 11.1.1.0.00. Note that any defects involving the previous licensing system have been fixed by moving to a new system and are not listed here. Many unlisted user-requested enhancements were also added to this version of Crystal Ball.