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Options

This page is the control by control reference for the pages the Design Wizard builder shows for this design. What the design is and what it gives you is on Design Wizard.

Moving around

A strip of step buttons runs across the top of the dialog, and clicking one jumps straight back to that page. The steps are Levels, Number of Factors, Categorical, Designs, Center points, Factors, Replicates, Outputs and Runs. They are revealed one at a time as you advance, so the strip shows how far you have got as well as where to go back to. Back steps back one page and is disabled on the first.

Finish appears four pages before the end, from the Factors page onward, and taking it early fills in the pages you skipped without asking:

Skipped What is used
Replicates for a 2-level factorial, the replicate count the software suggests for that run count; for anything else, 1
Blocking one block, blocked on replicate
Folding no fold
Outputs a single output named Output 1
Randomize runs the current Run order for new design setting from the Options dialog

The questions, in order

The first page is How many levels? and it has three answers: Two levels, Three levels and Mixed. That answer decides the whole route through the rest of the wizard.

Two levels Three levels Mixed
1 How many levels? How many levels? How many levels?
2 How many factors do you have? How many factors do you have? Enter Factor Names and Coding
3 Choose a n-factors design Do you have any Qualitative or Categorical Factors (Inputs)? Enter number of replicates and blocks (optional)
4 Enter Factor Names and Coding Choose a n-factors design Define outputs (optional)
5 Enter number of replicates and blocks (optional) Enter Factor Names and Coding Do you want to randomize runs?
6 Define outputs (optional) Enter number of replicates and blocks (optional)
7 Do you want to randomize runs? Set number of center points and alpha value, only when you answered No to the qualitative question
8 Define outputs (optional)
9 Do you want to randomize runs?

How many factors do you have? carries one control, Select number of factors:, and the range it accepts depends on the route: 1 to 19 on the Two levels route and 2 to 23 on Three levels. Mixed has no such page, taking you straight to the factor grid. A value outside the range is refused with Number of factors must be a number between n and m.

Two of those pages need explaining, because what they do is not obvious from the wording.

Do you have any Qualitative or Categorical Factors (Inputs)? is asked on the three-level route only, and answering Yes removes the center points page. The page explains the term on screen: categorical or qualitative factors (inputs) are those that take on values that are names or labels, such as Gender (Male, Female) or Color (Red, Green, Blue).

Set number of center points and alpha value appears only on the three-level route and only when you answered No to the qualitative question. When the design has no alpha to set, the same page appears with the shorter heading Set number of center points.

Choosing the design

Choose a n-factors design lists the designs that fit the number of factors you gave, with a comment about each one beside the list.

With one factor the wizard stops and hands over. The page reads One factor, and finishing closes the wizard and opens the Statistical Tools hypothesis test wizard instead, because a one-factor experiment is a hypothesis test rather than a design of experiments. No DOE Design sheet is written.

This is reachable only on the Two levels route, whose factor count starts at 1. The Three levels route starts at 2, and Mixed has no factor-count page at all, so neither can arrive here.

The last two pages

Define outputs (optional) is the same page the builder uses, and the word optional is accurate: you can finish without naming an output and add it later with Modify Design > Add/Remove, Change Name/Type. See Define outputs.

Do you want to randomize runs? is Yes or No, with Use this setting always beside it. Ticking that box writes your answer into the Run order for new design setting in the Options dialog, so every later design follows it without asking. The page also states why the question is there: randomization is a way to reduce the effect of external noise on a design.

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