problem exporting dashboard data from experiment

Hi,

i'm not sure if i'm missing something, but after i have my PFMs as dashboard widgets, run the experiment and then export the dashboard data, the resulting excel file have all the sheets created and labeled, but there is no data on them.

any idea what might be the problem?...

regards

Pablo Concha Erilkin

Is it possible that your experiment generated historical data files in excess of 65,535 records (maximum number of rows for a single sheet in Excel)? You could test this theory by running the model for a shorter period of time and/or fewer replications and/or fewer scenarios.

We have changed the output process so that if the number of records exceeds the maximum number for a single sheet, the output is continued onto another sheet rather than choking and dying. This change will be in 4.0.4 which we hope to have ready within a week or so.

In case the problem is due to a misunderstanding on your part of how to set up a dashboard and/or experiment (which I doubt is the case with someone as smart as you ), I have attached an example model that is set up to run an experiment with a dashboard. The zip file also contains the Excel output file I generated by clicking the "Export Dashboard Data" button and subsequent "Export to Excel" button so that you know what to expect.



Example Dashboards.zip

Hi Cliff,

i tried to export the dashboard data from your example and i'm still getting the problem. i wouldn't discard the problem to be between my seat and the keyboard, i'm not sure if i'm missing some step.

when exporting it takes a while like it's working, and the file is created with the correct sheets labeled, but i'm getting no data on those sheets exactly the same with my example model.

any idea where to look for a solution?...

regards

Pablo

Hi,

I can't help for HC, but maybe it has something to do with the Language settings in your system. Perhaps the decimal characters differ to the Anglo-American.

Jörg

Originally Posted by Jörg Vogel

Hi,

I can't help for HC, but maybe it has something to do with the Language settings in your system. Perhaps the decimal characters differ to the Anglo-American.

Jörg

Hi, i thought it was something like that, but i think the export of output files work ok, so does single import/export to excel.

regards

Pablo

Pablo,

Here's some things to check:
1. Make sure you have all instances of Excel closed before clicking the "Export Dashboard Data" button on the Simulation Experiment Control window.
2. In the "File name:" field of the "Export Dashboard Data" window try two things: first try browsing for an Excel file that already exists, and second try typing in the name of an Excel file that does NOT exist. In both cases, define a path that is to a directory for which you have administrative right privileges such as the FlexSimHC4 directory within your Documents folder, and in both cases use an xls file and NOT an xlsx file.
3. Copy the attached test.csv file to your desktop and see if it will automatically open in Excel when you double-click on it. If not, then train your computer to always open csv files with Excel, and see if this fixes the problem for you. test.csv
4. Check to see what the size of the xls file is after exporting. To do this, close the Excel application (without saving, because it already should be saved at this point), and then go look at the file size with your file explorer. If data was recorded to the file, then the file size should be about 10,000KB, but if not, the size will be less than 30KB.
5. Check to see if data even got recorded to the history bundles found in the model tree. You can check the number of entries in each bundle by looking in the model tree as shown below in the screen capture after an experiment run of the Phase8V4 model. You should also check that the number of entries does not exceed the 65,535 number for any given bundle when running another model.

6. To see if the problem has something to do with an experiment, try running the Phase8V4 model just once manually, and then open the Experimenter and click the Export Dashboard Data button. This export option should work regardless of whether you ran an experiment or not.

Good luck, and let me know what you find out!

Cliff

Cliff,

i've tried what you recommend and i'm still having this issue. when exporting i can see the .csv files being created and disappear, but then the final .xls is empty, except for the sheets correctly labeled. Comparing your file with one created here it's not the same size by a lot: 10mb vs 27kb. i've checked on the tree and the data bundles looks ok.

Tried exporting directly from the dashboard and i get the same results... empty xls file except for the sheets, but when i export only one widget i get the correct .csv.- i tried exporting a global table from the table import/export and it works ok..

thanks for your help,

regards

Pablo

What was the results of points 3 and 5?

Originally Posted by Cliff King

What was the results of points 3 and 5?

3.- yes.. i can open .csv double clicking..

5.- the data bundles look ok.. no more than 65,535 entries.

regards

Pablo

Pablo,

It sounds like you're doing everything right. Please contact me directly ([email protected]) and we can arrange a time for a GoToMeeting so that I can see exactly what's happening. Hopefully that will help us solve this. Thanks.

A.J.

For everyone's benefit, here's what happened in this situation. The system that exports the dashboard and history data uses several calls to the excelmacro() command. The commands that are passed to Excel this way are different depending on what language Excel is in. I wrote the export to work with the English version of Excel that I have installed. As a result, it doesn't work correctly with other languages. I tried a number of different things to make it work with non-English versions, but with no success. As a result, I have added a new option for version 4.04 that will allow you to export the data to .csv files instead of an Excel file. These .csv files can then be imported into whatever version of Excel you are using.