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Create Monte Carlo Design Sheet

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QXL Monte Carlo New > Design > Create/Modify Design Sheet > Create Monte Carlo Design Sheet

Writes a worksheet laid out as a model: a block for each input and a row for each output, with every row already marked as a real Monte Carlo input or output.

It is the alternative to building a model in your own worksheet and marking the cells yourself. The dialog states what it does:

Writes a new worksheet with a block for each input and a row for each output, every one of them already a Monte Carlo input or output. The outlined cells on it are yours to edit.

The rows are marked with the same machinery Mark Input and Mark Output use, so a design sheet row is a marking like any other. You can open either dialog on one of its cells and edit it there.

What the dialog asks for

Three things: how many inputs, how many outputs, and whether the two truncation columns are shown. Every control is on the Options page.

If the workbook already holds a design sheet, you are asked first whether the new one goes in a new workbook (recommended), in this workbook, or not at all.

The sheet it writes

The tab is called MC Design Sheet, and a number is added if that name is taken.

The corner carries Quantum XL over Monte Carlo Design Sheet, and two header bands name the halves of the sheet: Process Inputs on the left, Process Outputs on the right.

One block per input

Column What it holds
Input Name the name used in reports. Starts as Input 1, Input 2 and so on
Distribution chosen from a list on the cell. Every distribution the workbook offers is on it
the parameter columns the selected distribution's parameters. The titles change with the distribution, so the sheet always names what the cell below holds
Truncate Left, Truncate Right only when the truncation columns were asked for
Input Value the cell the simulation writes a trial value into. This is the cell that carries the input's marking

A distribution whose data lives in the workbook, a custom distribution or an Empirical variable, has no parameters to fill in, and the parameter titles say so:

No parameters (data in workbook)

One row per output

Column What it holds
Name the output's name in reports
Function the equation. This cell carries the output's marking
LSL, USL the specification limits, both optional
Collect Statistics X when the run reports on this output

An empty Function cell reads Enter Equation here until you type over it.

The equation primer

Under the outputs the sheet carries a short block headed How to write an output equation, which names the actual cells on the sheet you are looking at rather than describing them in general. It says to build each equation from the Input Value cells of the inputs it uses, and gives a worked example using the first input and the first output of that sheet.

The sheet is protected

The sheet is protected with no password, and only the cells meant for you are left unlocked, which is the outlined ones. That is what stops the layout being edited by accident while leaving the marking dialogs able to work on the sheet's own cells.

Unprotect it from Excel's Review tab if you need to change something the protection covers.

A second, hidden sheet named QXL_DesignSheetLists holds the distribution names and parameter titles the in-cell lists read. It is protected too. Nothing on it is meant to be edited.

Changing it later

Use Modify Monte Carlo Design Sheet to change the number of inputs or outputs, or to add or remove the truncation columns, keeping what you have already entered.