Version History

Fixes

1. Fixes various issues.

Fixes

1. Fixed an issue where the segmentation combinatorial setting is not saved.
2. Fixed an issue where the conditional pricing and revenue/cost buttons are disabled.

Features & Improvements

1. Segmentation in the Choice Simulator has changed. Previously multiple segments were combined into segments representing each combination of the variables. Now segments are reported independently be default; however, the combinatorial style may still be used.

Fixes

1. Fixed an issue the Choice Simulator where the same scenario would appear to give different results.
2. Fixed an issue with Genetic Search where removing the none option results in an error when running the simulation.
3. Fixed an issue with running WTP scenarios when there are conditional price tables.
4. Fixed an issue WTP creating scenarios when there are conditional price tables.
5. Fixed an issue where a prohibition is reported in the scenario if both alt-spec rules and conditional price tables are used.

Features & Improvements

1. The Choice Simulator has a new extrapolation limit setting for Willingness to Pay scenarios.
2. The Choice Simulator now allows running cost searches without a price attribute.

Fixes

1. Fixed issue in Willingness to Pay where results appeared wrong when values were extrapolated and conditional pricing was used.
2. Fixed issue in Willingness to Pay where results differed depending on whether a default value was specified or not.

Fixes

1. Fixed issue with conditional prices when labels match a level value for a different level.
2. Fixed error when importing utilities with user-specified columns.
3. Fixed random crash when simulating large data sets.
4. Fixed odd results from willingness to pay when using conditional pricing.

Features

1. Excel-based simulators now include the scenario's selection of whether the none option is to be included in the simulation results.

Fixes

1. Fixed interpolation problem with Excel simulators containing attributes with descending level values.

Fixes

1. Fixed issue in version 1.8.2110 of the Excel RFC plugin where #VALUE! occurred in simulators using Randomized First Choice.
2. Fixed error message about overlapping merged cells when using segmentation in the simulator.
3. Fixed Willingness To Pay scenarios to use localized separator instead of defaulting to a comma.

Fixes

1. Willingness to Pay scenarios are now created using the delimiter from the locale settings.
2. Fixed error about merged cells when using segments.
3. Fixed issue where the utility report wouldn't display.

Fixes

1. Fixed license error running Willingness to Pay simulations in client simulator.
2. Updated Excel RFC Plugin to work with newer Excel versions.

Fixes

1. Fixed problems running Willingness to Pay simulations involving alternative-specific designs or conditional pricing.

New Features:

Fixes & Changes:

Excel simulators using Randomized First Choice now export a tab containing the RFC settings, which can be customized by the analyst. The new version of the plugin can still read simulators exported from previous versions of the Choice Simulator.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed an issue where conditional price values with overlapping values can result in an error when searching on conditional attributes.
2. Fixed an issue where search cannot proceed with Exhaustive or Genetic searches if the search space exceeds 2^63 combinations.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed an issue where numeric level text which overlaps with level values causes a problem parsing the text.

Improvements

1. The simulator can now take in utility files in CSV (Comma-separated values) format. Files should contain ID and fit columns followed by utilities (including any 'None' option).
2. Performance of clicking on the segments or weights ribbon buttons is improved when there are many demographic variables.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed the attribute level helper to show a scroll bar when there are a large number of levels.
2. Fixed an extrapolation error when using Randomized First Choice with the SolveForShare function.
3. Fixed simulation reports where demographic variables had a Total or Other category.
4. Fixed an issue where a conditional price value may not be found if there are complicated alternative-specific rules.

Improvements

1. The software now allows the graph minimums and maximums to be overridden by the user.
2. Pricing tables will now include N/A fields when alternative specific rules are present.
3. Sensitivity analysis in Parallel mode has been modified such that attributes are changed in lock steps. For example, if product A has values {1,2,3} and product B has values {4,5,6}, three simulations will be run with values 1 & 4 (for the respective products), 2 & 5, and 3 & 6.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed an issue where a client package could crash when the File menu was displayed.
2. Fixed an issue where an error 'Prism.Core.dll v6.3 could not be found' was displayed.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed an issue exporting Excel simulators when there are attributes coded linear.
2. Fixed an issue exporting Excel simulators with linear and alternative-specific attributes.

Improvements

1. The software now allows segmentation where a respondent fits into more than one segment. Segmentation variables can be created using logic to determine whether the respondent should be included.
2. The software now allows users to specify alternative-specific rules. Alternative-specific rules are used to filter out combinations in searches that contain attribute levels which don't apply.
3. The client package wizard and the available permissions have been improved.
4. Scenarios now have an auto-run feature where the simulation will update each time a level has been changed.
5. The SolveForShare() function is now available in scenarios. It finds the value (typically price) which will result in the specified share (e.g., 50).
6. The PercentRange() function is now available in scenarios. It creates a range of values, including a specified value and +/- the specifed percentage.
7. Simulation results are now saved to the simulation project, and restored when loaded.

Improvements

1. The software now allows using more than two segmentation variables.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed an issue which resulted in an error 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object'.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed an issue in the Excel RFC plugin where utility runs with attributes coded Excluded or Linear would result in an error. For existing Excel simulator files, only the plugin needs updating. The Excel file does not need to be recreated.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed issue where conditional price tables from previous versions did not convert correctly.

New Features

1. Added option to search using the Genetic algorithm, with options for multi-objective and targeted initial populations.
2. Added ability to create Excel simulators from a scenario, including the product configurations and exponent value. Options such as Product Availability or Awareness are not included into the simulator.
3. Added option to select a different currency for the simulation reports.
4. Added filter bar allowing for searching for a specific segment or weighting variable. In addition, variables can be optionally hidden from the segment and weighting variable lists.

Improvements

1. Improved Randomized First Choice so that identical products will get exactly the same shares.
2. Improved Attribute Info window will now ask on close if you would like to remove price attributes from the list of attributes using correlated error in Randomized First Choice.
3. Improved warnings such as when there are identical products in the scenario.
4. Improved performance of simulations involving segmentation.
5. Improved performance of rendering pie charts when there are many (>50) products with very small shares.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed issue with searches involving incremental pricing. The pricing in some cases may be applied twice. This issue is present in v1.3 of the simulator.
2. Fixed possible multithreading error when using Product Availability.
3. Fixed issue with share and standard errors having minor decimal differences due to multithreading.
4. Fixed issue where client packages would lose licensing information when using Save As.
5. Fixed issue where Academic Research license could not run product searches.

Bug Fixes

1. This release fixes a problem in the initial v1.3 release where creating a client simulator package could result in the software freezing.
2. This release fixes a problem in the initial v1.3 release where changing the exponent in an Excel Simulator using Randomized First Choice would not update the simulation results.

Bug Fixes

1. This release fixes an issue in the previous release which incorrectly flagged level values less than zero as invalid.

Features

1. The Choice Simulator now has the ability to perform optimization searches using the Exhaustive and Grid algorithms. Exhaustive has the ability to use multiple objectives (such as Share, Revenue, Profit, Cost or Volume).
2. Excel-based simulators can now be created with an optional exponent field for Share of Preference or Randomized First Choice (providing a client with a RFC simulator including the exponent will require the client to update to the most recent version of the Excel Plugin).

Bug Fixes

1. Formulas used in scenarios must now be preceded with an equals (‘=’) sign. For example, when specifying a range, it should appear as ‘=range(1,4)’ or ‘=1-4’.
2. In sensitivity analysis, when a default value is assumed for a cell with a range (not specified by the user), the software will assume the first level of the attribute. Previously the software used the median value of the level values.

Bug Fixes

1. Bug: Sensitivity graph results were incorrect.
2. Bug: N/A was not handled correctly in prohibitions.

Features

1. Feature: The ability to create tables for costs and incremental prices, and use that information in conjunction with the ability to report multiple metrics. Cost, Revenue and Profit can be reported alongside shares of preference. These are available for all types of simulation (standard, sensitivity, and the upcoming optimization searches), although it should be noted that incremental prices will only be used in optimization searches.
2. Feature: The selected utility run is now saved for the next time the project is used.
3. Feature: Individual results now include segmentation information.

Changes

1. Change: Randomized First Choice now uses a faster method of producing multivariate normals used in the algorithm. However, this means that results will differ slightly from previous versions.
2. Change: Randomized First Choice has improved behavior in conjunction with Product Availability (multistore) settings.

Bug Fixes

1. Bug: Individual results would change order in repeated simulations.
2. Bug: Certain proxy configurations were not able to connect to Sawtooth Software Account. While this has been improved, there may be configurations that still prevent access.
3. Bug: Various areas in the simulator did not utilize locale-specific number formatting correctly.
4. Bug: Prohibitions involving ‘All Levels’ were not being flagged as prohibited.
5. Bug: Reports involving segments and netted shares did not report the correct shares.

Changes

In the Choice Simulator a change was made in the way Randomized First Choice operates when applying product availability adjustments via multi-store shopping. Previously, we were first computing share adjustments to account for product availability in stores according to the share of preference (logit) rule, followed by a secondary adjustment for product similarity according to Randomized First Choice. Now, the entire process is more true to Randomized First Choice in that it is used (rather than logit) throughout the entire multi-store simulation procedure. The results are usually not very different, but now with a little bit stronger correction for product similarity.

Bug fixes

Simulations using both the First Choice simulation method and adjustments for product availability (multi-store) would calculate incorrect product shares.

New Features

1. The ability to export a PowerPoint-based report of simulation results is now available.
2. The simulator now supports the Academic Lab and Academic Research licenses.
3. Simulations now utilize multi-processing, leading to improved performance.
4. Scenario progress is now shown in the Windows taskbar.
5. When importing a demographics file, if a labels file (from SSI Web or Lighthouse) is available, the simulator will use the variable types and category labels found in the file.
6. The maximum number of products that can be created in an Excel simulator is now 25 (previously 15).
7. The main window height will now better accommodate smaller resolutions.

Bug fixes

1. When uninstalling the RFC Excel plugin, the installer now checks to ensure Excel is not running.
2. The utility report now uses Effective Sample Size in calculating the average utility’s standard error.
3. Columns will no longer disappear when renaming attributes and and there are no defined products.
4. Scenarios will now check for errors in the conditional price tables before they can be simulated.
5. Error checking in conditional price has been fixed to show the correct row numbers.
6. Attribute level values now display correctly under certain foreign locales.
7. Randomized First Choice now removes attributes coded as excluded from the active attribute count.
8. Import of demographics now handles text variables where the text has text in quotes.

1. Initial release.