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Import From DOE PRO XL¶

This command reads a design built by DOE PRO XL and rewrites it as a Quantum XL design sheet, so an existing experiment can be analysed with the Quantum XL tools.

QXL DOE New > Create Design > Import > Import From DOE PRO XL

When to use it¶

Use it when the design and its responses already exist in a DOE PRO XL workbook and you want the Quantum XL regression, charts and Optimize to work on them. It saves re-entering the design by hand, and it keeps the run order and the responses together.

What it needs¶

An open workbook containing a DOE PRO XL design. The command reads the active workbook, so open the DOE PRO XL file first and then run it.

What it does¶

The import reads the factors, their settings, the run structure and any responses that have been entered, then writes a Quantum XL design sheet from them. From that point the sheet behaves exactly like one Quantum XL created itself: you can run a regression on it, chart it, and modify it.

The design that comes out carries the Quantum XL defined names that mark a sheet as a design sheet, which is what makes the rest of the DOE tools recognise it.

If it cannot read the workbook¶

A failure to read reports what stopped it, for example There are no DOE PRO XL design sheets in the active workbook., and writes nothing. Nothing is changed in the source workbook either, so a failed import is safe to retry after fixing the problem it named.

One failure is silent and leaves you with less than you asked for. If the interaction text on the source sheet cannot be parsed, the import drops all of it without a message and continues, so the design arrives with no interaction terms. That is why checking the interactions afterwards is on the list below.

What to check afterwards¶

The import brings the design across, not the analysis. Check three things before relying on the result:

The factor types. Every imported factor arrives as Quantitative, with its low and high read from the DOE PRO XL columns. The import cannot produce a categorical factor at all, and a non-numeric low or high stops it. A factor that should be Categorical has to be changed afterwards, in Modify Design > Input Name, Low/High, and Type.
The coding. The imported sheet has its own coding setting, and the coefficients a regression produces depend on it.
The model terms. Which interactions are included is part of the Quantum XL design, so confirm the term list matches the model you mean to fit. If the interactions arrived empty, see the silent failure above.

A factor is either Quantitative or Categorical, and the choice changes what the software can do with it.

A Quantitative factor takes numeric values on a scale, so the model can interpolate between the settings you ran and predict at a value you did not run. It is coded to a common scale before the regression, and it can carry an axis on a surface or contour chart.

A Categorical factor takes named levels with no scale between them. It is never coded to a numeric range; instead each non-reference level gets its own coefficient. There is nothing between two levels to predict at, so a chart that needs to evaluate the model between settings either refuses a categorical factor on that axis or draws it as separate levels rather than as a line. Which of the two depends on the chart, and each chart page says.