Quantrix Feature and Improvement Requests

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Greetings Forum Community,

What improvements and new features would you like to see in future versions of Quantrix? User feedback is an important piece of our product planning. Use this thread to let us know what we do well, what we can do a better job at and the new features you would like to see in the Quantrix application.

Thanks!

-Mike

S A U Changed status to publish October 30, 2018
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See, this is a combined chart made by me in the QM. It consists of five separate components. When constructing such charts, it is necessary to combine the axes of several individual components. For this purpose the axes of all its components should have the same formatting: fonts, thicknesses and color of lines and other attributes…
Imagine, QM has a built-in [b:lae3wb8t]Copy Selected Chart Axis Format [/b:lae3wb8t]tool like the [b:lae3wb8t]Copy Selected Cell Format[/b:lae3wb8t]. How easier and quicker the creation of such graphs will be in that case?

Also obviously, in the QM’s [b:lae3wb8t]Format Toolbox[/b:lae3wb8t][b:lae3wb8t]Chart Axis[/b:lae3wb8t] lacks the [b:lae3wb8t]Show Axis Ticks[/b:lae3wb8t] option.

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QM must have a built-in color eyedropper tool. A CED tool will dramatically speed up and facilitate the creation of professional looking dashboards on the canvas. RGB color model QM obliges the modeler to enter 3 numbers per color. When working with gradient fills, it is not possible to select already defined colors in the previous steps of model editing; and these colors need to be manually entered again.
In the attached files I showed my vision of a CED tool implementation in the Format Toolbox options. A CED tool сan be placed on the QM’s [toolbar as well.

S A U Changed status to publish October 30, 2018
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Can you either improve upon or write a new substitute function that substitutes a text string for all instances of the text? For example I have an account number that looks like this: 1-1-0010-001-000-0000
I want to remove all the "-" so it will look like this 1100100010000000

Using substitute: substitute(AccountNumber, "-","", 1) produces this : 11-0010-001-000-0000

To remove all "-" requires as many nested substitute functions as there are instances of "-".
substitute(
Substitute(
Substitute(
substitute(
substitute(AccountNumber, "-","", 1), "-","")
,"-","")
,"-","")
,"-","")

It’d be nice if there was another option or function that allowed you to specify to substitute all of the instances.

Regards,

Rich Lopez

PS see attached model as necessary.

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A right-click menu option to "filter on selection" for both an individual or group of item values and category values would be a huge improvement to Quantrix usability.

Regards,

Rich

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Hi,

it would be great to have a built in generalized logistic function such as this [url:ux3uqvq6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalised_logistic_curve[/url:ux3uqvq6]

Thanks,

Anna.

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[quote="Quantrix Staff":dcktlkfd]RJH – format painter is coming with the next release, later this year… in the meantime, you can right click and use the “copy cell format” and “paste cell format” options to copy a cell format to other cells…[/quote:dcktlkfd]

Thank You!!!

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It would be a nice feature to have the ability to input a value (ie pct growth or Scenario Selection) and fave the model update.

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RJH – format painter is coming with the next release, later this year… in the meantime, you can right click and use the “copy cell format” and “paste cell format” options to copy a cell format to other cells…

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A format paintbrush, like Excel has! It’s a very small item, but enormously useful. Allows you to copy and paste format attributes from one cell to others.

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I propose introducing into Quantrix a new kind of matrix, which I would call “on the fly matrix”. The main difference to ordinary matrix is that it wouldn’t have the ability to store any data, even these from calculation. For the purpose of displaying, data would have to be calculated “on the fly”. This matrix would serve as a subroutine during calculation, for every item within categories linked into it.
What is the need behind such object and what would be the consequences:
– the need I will describe on the example:
I have a database with financial contract and payments schedules, every 60 months long. I need to recalculate very specific IRR, and neither rate, irr nor xirr function doesn’t suit this purpose. So I have to calculate it with painful iterations looking for proper rate. The size of the matrix is: 5 columns of data X 60 months X 80 iterations, which gives 24000 cells. For one contract! Hopefully I had only 500 contract to recalculate, so it limited the number of cells to 12 million and the size of the model to 33 MB. But if I had to recalculate 20 000 contract, that wouldn’t be possible. I don’t need 95% of data stored in that model. It only contains temporary data for calculations. Certainly, this is where scripting could be used, but not everyone knows how to write scripts and having a matrix is useful for debugging.
– consequences: Quantrix becomes even more powerful tool for data analysis and financial models. It expands into territories where now hard coding is required or sophisticated, dedicated software.

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Here’s an annoying behavior that would be nice to eliminate.

Double clicking a model (e.g. on desktop or in a folder) to open causes Quantrix to display all models that are currently open but minimized. The result is one has to reminimize all the other open models.

Opening a model should only display that model.

Not sure if this is within control of the program – it might be a Windows behavior.

Q4.1, Windows

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thanks Brian – that is fantastic that you can open up only certain items to editing and makes my model (which is getting large) far more secure.

Any thoughts on my other points in the post above??

Thanks,
Ashley

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Hi Ashley,

Thanks for your questions. It is possible using roles and permissions to lock ranges of cells specified by items. For example in the permissions tool pane, switch to user and unfold “Allow Interactions” and “Edit Input Cells”. You can then deselect the Matrix. You can then specify particular cells that a user can edit by clicking on a row or column. You will see a check box appear at the bottom of the permissions tool pane that says “Allow cell edit: <range>”. You check that button to allow edits of those cells.

When the user logs into the model as a User, they will only be able to edit those cells.

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A final one I would like to add…. is it possible to ‘lock’ for editing certain ranges within a matrix? For example, say I have some monthly input figures such as revenue in various states. I would like my employees to be able to update the revenue each month, but once all the data has been updated, for those cells to be locked such that it is not possible to accidentally alter them in the future (unless you manually unlock the locked range). is this possible to enable some items in a category to be ‘locked’ for editing while other items in the category are unlocked? If it is not possible to do this naturally is there a workaround method maybe using scripts?

Thanks,
Ashley

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Hi,
I have been using Quantrix for about 2.5 months now and I am an extremely happy user, I won’t be going back to Excel for analytical work.

Would be grateful for feedback on the following points which I have logged from my experience, maybe some of it is possible already.

– I would like to be able to sort by multiple columns (I think this was mentioned a while ago on this forum but I don’t think it has been implemented yet?)

– Is there a simple way to be able to count the number of items in a category? I typically have over 300 items in one of our Categories and would be very nice to be able to see at a glance or from the toolbar menu how many items there are in a particular category.

– In relation to formulas, is it possible to reorder the formulas based on order of the items in a category?

– It would be nice if when you clicked on a formula it highlighted (maybe with a box) the relevant rows/columns of data that formula refers to (like Excel does).

– It would be great to be able to segregate ‘real formulas’ from ‘input formulas’ (eg a filter for formulas that reference entire items vs formulas that are cell specific). By input formula I mean where for a particular cell you want to input the value, but you want that value to be a formula so it is clear where that value came from. Eg say I was logging the cost of various assets in US$, and I had a particular unit that I purchased in GBP, then I would like to input the value of that asset as = 60000 * 1.6 (ie GBP price multiplied by exchange rate) just to give an indication of where the number came from. However I don’t want to litter my model with thousands of such ‘input formulas’ if I can’t segregate them from the real analytic formulas since it is messy and makes it more difficult to audit the analytical aspect of the model.

– Is there a keyboard shortcut to move categories, eg from x-axis to the y-axis or to the dropdown menu? It can be fiddly sometimes getting the category to ‘snap’ into position.

– When adding / editing a note, I would like it to log and display who made the edit and what time/date.

– Would be nice to be able to ‘mass import’ item names (eg if you had 1000 different SKUs)

I think that will be all for now…. Look forward to hearing feedback.

Thanks,
Ashley

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I would like to set a default preference so that new items are LH justified instead of centered

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[quote="J Scott":26iymu68]A formatting feature that would be handy in Quantrix is text orientation. Sometimes it would be nice to orient text so that words run from top to bottom. This could be used in groups (to save on whitespace) and also for in-cell charts using the REPT() function. See the attached picture of an Excel file for examples of a Quantrix matrix with text orientation. In Excel this setting is accessed through the Format Cells > Aligment menu.[/quote:26iymu68]

I’d still like to see this feature. The ability to change view layout from normal to outline is handy. Many times, however, the normal layout is desired but long group names waste a lot of space. (see the example in the original post)

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[quote="lerzegov":2feqvd5f]When one exports parts of a Quantrix model in excel format, the resulting spreadsheet is often shared with someone else who may need to manipulate exported data. Whenever I export in excel, I wonder why Quantrix makes the sheets protected, so one has to open the file and unprotect them manually.
Would it be possible to make them unprotected as default, or to allow the user to set the option before exporting?[/quote:2feqvd5f]

This is relevant feedback and I have added your vote to this request in our database.

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[quote="lerzegov":25byvzkf]Hi. I am doing a tour de force auditing models developed by my students in the financial planning lab class. I have found that a lot of time is consumed with recurrence formulas along nested dimensions, e.g.
In year[FIRST]:month[FIRST], revenue = some input value
revenue = revenue:month[PREV] * growth rate
In month[FIRST], revenue = revenue:year[PREV]:month[LAST] * growth rate
Time is consumed because:
– you have to write at least three formulas
– this is a frequent cause of errors.

It would be great to have nested recursion, i.e. being able to write something like
revenue = revenue:[year:month][PREV] * growth rate
I have tried several tricks with select() and nested counters (#year:month) or even scripting, but didn’t found anything satisfactory.
I remember that this feature has already been requested by users.
Any update?
Thanks.[/quote:25byvzkf]

Something that is rather high on the list and we have implemented some foundational work in the calculation engine. Didn’t make it to 4.0… but perhaps a future 4.x update.

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When one exports parts of a Quantrix model in excel format, the resulting spreadsheet is often shared with someone else who may need to manipulate exported data. Whenever I export in excel, I wonder why Quantrix makes the sheets protected, so one has to open the file and unprotect them manually.
Would it be possible to make them unprotected as default, or to allow the user to set the option before exporting?

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Hi. I am doing a tour de force auditing models developed by my students in the financial planning lab class. I have found that a lot of time is consumed with recurrence formulas along nested dimensions, e.g.
In year[FIRST]:month[FIRST], revenue = some input value
revenue = revenue:month[PREV] * growth rate
In month[FIRST], revenue = revenue:year[PREV]:month[LAST] * growth rate
Time is consumed because:
– you have to write at least three formulas
– this is a frequent cause of errors.

It would be great to have nested recursion, i.e. being able to write something like
revenue = revenue:[year:month][PREV] * growth rate
I have tried several tricks with select() and nested counters (#year:month) or even scripting, but didn’t found anything satisfactory.
I remember that this feature has already been requested by users.
Any update?
Thanks.

braddo Posted new comment September 25, 2020

This functionality is realized through timelines feature.

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Hello,

I would like to add some feature to cell/field properties to exclude it from Recurrence Formulas when it’s collapsed.

Thanks & Regards
Ludmila

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[quote="Joshua":1cbwzepq]Dear Quantrix staff,

just some quick & dirty thoughts about new features:

1. Either an own quantrix database to store the planning data not in a file, but in a database or the possibility to directly access SAP BI cubes (SAP BI is nowadays spread over the majority of all SAP customers using SAP ERP, now known as SAP ECC)
2. Possibility to store the Quantrix planning results into a database, preferrably a multidimensional database such as SAP BI. SAP BI offers so called transactional cubes which you can access via well defined API´s. Alternatively the transactional ODS objects could be used to push the Quantrix planning model data into SAP BI. With such a possibility it would be possible to use the powerful OLAP functionality of SAP BI to present and analyse the planning data of a quantrix model and to combine this planning data with other data in SAP BI. True analysis would be possible… A dream…
3. Dynamic simulation functionality which can be found in tools like Consideo, Powersim, Vensim… and so on. The planning functionality in Quantrix is very nice, but still a bit static in its way…
4. A web based interface to enable distributed planners to enter planning data and to submit it to the headquarter database… Therefore also request number 1 (own quantrix database or alternatively the possibility to push the data back to SAP BI transactional cubes or ODS objects)
[/quote:1cbwzepq]

Hi Joshua – thanks for the post and your excellent suggestions.

On #1 – we should have some upcoming news on this in the new year. Stay tuned.

On #2 – we have an add-on product called DataPush where you can push Quantrix matrices into a database. Contact [email:1cbwzepq]customerservice@quantrix.com[/email:1cbwzepq] for more information.

On #4 – a web based interface is certainly on our road map. Stay tuned for more details.

If you would like to pursue the reseller / training partner opportunities, I recommend emailing [email:1cbwzepq]customerservice@quantrix.com[/email:1cbwzepq] for more information.

-Mike

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Dear Quantrix staff,

just some quick & dirty thoughts about new features:

1. Either an own quantrix database to store the planning data not in a file, but in a database or the possibility to directly access SAP BI cubes (SAP BI is nowadays spread over the majority of all SAP customers using SAP ERP, now known as SAP ECC)
2. Possibility to store the Quantrix planning results into a database, preferrably a multidimensional database such as SAP BI. SAP BI offers so called transactional cubes which you can access via well defined API´s. Alternatively the transactional ODS objects could be used to push the Quantrix planning model data into SAP BI. With such a possibility it would be possible to use the powerful OLAP functionality of SAP BI to present and analyse the planning data of a quantrix model and to combine this planning data with other data in SAP BI. True analysis would be possible… A dream…
3. Dynamic simulation functionality which can be found in tools like Consideo, Powersim, Vensim… and so on. The planning functionality in Quantrix is very nice, but still a bit static in its way…
4. A web based interface to enable distributed planners to enter planning data and to submit it to the headquarter database… Therefore also request number 1 (own quantrix database or alternatively the possibility to push the data back to SAP BI transactional cubes or ODS objects)

I just had a dream… 😉

Best regards and merry christmas from Germany,

Regards,

Joachim

P.S.: Already any german resellers and training partners here in Germany? If not,… well I have been a BI consultant since 10 years now… 😉 Might be an opportunity…

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[quote="Olo":2yewpddq]Ctrl+Enter is not enough. At least, the tabulation should be enabled (as I remember, it was allowed in Improv). Ideally, a “beautifying” option would automatically insert indentation in all formulas. Certainly, level of indentation should respond the level of nested function.[/quote:2yewpddq]

I vote for a Formular Editor as well.

Dominik

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Ctrl+Enter is not enough. At least, the tabulation should be enabled (as I remember, it was allowed in Improv). Ideally, a “beautifying” option would automatically insert indentation in all formulas. Certainly, level of indentation should respond the level of nested function.

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I have a model with quite long and complicated references.
Imagine this reference “(assump::CoF+lookup(uruchomienie;monthly_res::’1′:’m-c’ .. ’72’:’m-c’;monthly_res::average planned spread:’1′ .. average planned spread:’72’))/12” repeted six times within single formula. It makes it completely unreadable. And readability should be the key feature of quantrix.
My proposition is to enable substituting of long references by its name/description. The above reference would be substituted by simple “interest_rate”. The substitution should be displayed either in bold or italic.
Certainly, such feature will require some smart way to insert/edit/manage the substitution and to turn it on and off when needed.

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I would like to see a tabbed user interface in future releases. I am a Mac user :)

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Hi Everyone – We are entering the homestretch for 3.0 and I am looking for some beta testers for the new software. We have many new things in 3.0, some of which include:

– Presentation view – ability to include multiple views, matrices and annotations on one ‘presentation canvas’.
– New Tabbed User Interface
– New User Roles / Permission Manager
– DataLink can now import into Groups and Item Descriptors
– Numerous Charting Enhancements
– Full Screen mode
– Easier category tile linking
– New startup ‘launch panel’
– and many bug fixes and other enhancements…

There will be a new 3.0 beta release available soon. If you have some time to evaluate the new software and offer feedback, please email [email:22f5w6ok]support@quantrix.com[/email:22f5w6ok] to get on the list!

Thanks…

-Mike

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[quote="J Scott":n6tgkco9]One thing I just noticed about DataLinks:

When you have two items with the same name, in different groups, e.g.:

Group = New Stores
Item = Store Count

Group = Existing Stores
Item = Store Count

In this situation, the DataLink lists the second item (“store count”) as “Store Count 1”. I was using DataLinks to connect to matrices together, however in this case you can’t do it because Quantrix renames the second item rather than fully qualifying it with the group name.

BTW, the reason I would do a DataLink between two matrices is because I want to present the database value, but still alow the user to override it. The only way to do this is to use DataLinks. Unfortunately, the way Quantrix deals with the same name problem prevents me from using DataLinks to achieve my desired functionality.[/quote:n6tgkco9]

I think 3.0 will help here. 3.0 will include new functionality to allow users to specify groups in Data sources.

-Mike

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One thing I just noticed about DataLinks:

When you have two items with the same name, in different groups, e.g.:

Group = New Stores
Item = Store Count

Group = Existing Stores
Item = Store Count

In this situation, the DataLink lists the second item (“store count”) as “Store Count 1”. I was using DataLinks to connect to matrices together, however in this case you can’t do it because Quantrix renames the second item rather than fully qualifying it with the group name.

BTW, the reason I would do a DataLink between two matrices is because I want to present the database value, but still alow the user to override it. The only way to do this is to use DataLinks. Unfortunately, the way Quantrix deals with the same name problem prevents me from using DataLinks to achieve my desired functionality.

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J Scott – Thanks for all the great feedback. Please know your feedback is logged in our database for future release consideration.

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I’m finding that in certain cases the category structure of Quantrix gets in the way of presenting data.

For instance, say I have a matrix where I am assigning products to a delivery schedule. The products are in one category, the delivery schedule is in another. However, I also want to present the product description, vendor, and item number.

I can use item descriptors to do this, but each one must be filled out by hand. Also, the descriptors are the same for each item when crossed with another category; I want them to be different (see attached model for why this is so, I’ve written matrix notes to explain).

What would solve this is if the item descriptor could be assigned a formula just like an item. Then I could present the data in any way I wished. This would make Quantrix much better for presenting data without compromising the category / item model.

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A formatting feature that would be handy in Quantrix is text orientation. Sometimes it would be nice to orient text so that words run from top to bottom. This could be used in groups (to save on whitespace) and also for in-cell charts using the REPT() function. See the attached picture of an Excel file for examples of a Quantrix matrix with text orientation. In Excel this setting is accessed through the Format Cells > Aligment menu.

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Ah, perfect. I hadn’t noticed that. Thanks!

This option is missing on 2D matrix imports, but I guess that makes sense since the model doesn’t contain real items with which to compare the two data sets.

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[quote="J Scott":38eghfdn]I’m using a datalink to populate the items in a category based on an external table. When the external table changes, the datalink imports the new data, adding new items and updating any items that match from the prior import. However, items that are no longer in the external data are still preserved. I would like the option of deleting these items.

So the datalink would ideally have these options with a Yes/No toggle for each:

Add new items?
Update existing items?
Delete obselete items?[/quote:38eghfdn]
Greetings,

Thank you for the input.

You can have Q delete obsolete items in the last pane of the datalink editor. At the bottom of the pane there is a checkbox for deleting items not present in the update.

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I’d like the ability to have multiple data links in a single matrix. I could use this to bring in the category items from two different external tables, for instance.

Also, I think a datalink manager form would be very useful. A simple form listing all the data links in the model, with the ability to update / delete links individually or in groups. This would allow updates to be more flexible and would give the user a dashboard for managing all the links in one place, rather than opening every matrix to edit each link.

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I’m using a datalink to populate the items in a category based on an external table. When the external table changes, the datalink imports the new data, adding new items and updating any items that match from the prior import. However, items that are no longer in the external data are still preserved. I would like the option of deleting these items.

So the datalink would ideally have these options with a Yes/No toggle for each:

Add new items?
Update existing items?
Delete obselete items?

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Quantrix has done an admirable job at replicating most Excel keyboard shortcuts; however there are a few missing which would make a difference for those of us who are extreme keyboard-only users:

[b:wfnk3f7i]ALT-Down Arrow [/b:wfnk3f7i]to open a drop-down (e.g. contrained input cells); you’d need a different key combination because this is already used for another task in Quantrix.

[b:wfnk3f7i]Complete shortcut letters on menus[/b:wfnk3f7i] – some menu items are missing the underlined letter that allows them to be accessed without using the arrow keys; e.g., under the File menu, Import and Export have no shortcut letter.

[b:wfnk3f7i]CTRL-Space, SHIFT-Space[/b:wfnk3f7i] for selecting an entire item row or column. Hitting these repeatedly would select up the grouping hierarchy.

Add a [b:wfnk3f7i]Windows[/b:wfnk3f7i] menu for cycling through the open models (currently they seem to be treated as separate instances of the application, which perhaps is a compatibility thing for non-Windows versions?) If this were implemented, then you could use the familiar CTRL-TAB to cycle through the models (like Excel worksheets).

Add keyboard shortcuts for [b:wfnk3f7i] accessing the Model Browser[/b:wfnk3f7i] and [b:wfnk3f7i]moving to the formula pane[/b:wfnk3f7i].

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Another request: optimize the datalink import process. Right now if I run a datalink on a SQL query that returns 20,000 rows into a 2D Quantrix matrix, it takes a couple of minutes. The same query run as an Excel querytable takes under 10 seconds. It would be nice to see some speed improvements here to make the datalinks more practical for larger reference tables.

Right now I am getting around the speed limitation by being very careful about the data I import using datalink. Often I can consolidate or silo the datalink to avoid bringing in unnecessary data.

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The ability to create groups during the DataLink import. For instance, if I had a table like this:

[b:1txhdgr1]Division – Department[/b:1txhdgr1]
Apparel – Tees
Apparel – Sweaters
Apparel – Jackets
Apparel – Pants
Hardgoods – Cloth
Hardgoods – Wood
Hardgoods – Metal

You’d be able to map the Division to a group and the Department to an Item, creating a hierarchical relationship.

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Thanks for the post and feedback. You can also select the desired columns, right click and choose ‘column width’ from the menu.

-Mike

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OK… that was fast… by selecting the desired columns & widening one (no shift key depressed) it works. This seems to be undocumented… or at-least, I didn’t find anything in my search of the online help.

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Hi I have a WIDE matrix and would like to resize many of the columns. it would be nice if I could select all the columns desired, and resize one thus affecting all that were selected…

&/or

an inspector, where I can choose the width of the selected columns.

cheers

r

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Hello,

I want to let everyone in this thread know that we have released Quantrix version 2.2 which incorporates more of your feedback into the application. This is a free upgrade for all Quantrix 2.x customers. Please see this forum thread for release information and installation instructions.

[url:1i4fz67i]http://www.quantrix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273[/url:1i4fz67i]

Please keep the feedback coming!

-Mike

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One thing I had to do in my CFO days was prepare projections on the basis of multiple different rule sets or approaches – GAAP, federal tax, state tax, cash, lender and regulator are some that I have used. This is because these different constituencies count things differently. For example, GAAP allows a fairly broad choice for depreciation schedules, but the IRS is somewhat more narrow minded. It was pretty painful, manual work that most or all CFO’s have to do. I did it on a spreadsheet with four columns. The thing that makes it even more exciting is that sometimes decisions about how to handle things in one category (such as GAAP) can affect the way things come out in other categories (such as tax and cash.) I think you could win users who would have religious zealotry about Quantrix if you helped people out with this problem. The help might take the form of a detailed application note and example file, or perhaps there is are some features you could add to make this a lot easier for people.

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When (hopefully not just “if”) the time dimension features are being designed, please consider natively supporting some of the industry-specific ways that time is counted.

For example, in the bond business, the dominant calendar approach, called “30/360” assumes 30 day months and 360 day years. There are other approaches that are used, such as “Actual/360”. Here’s a link to a pretty good Wikipedia article on this topic: [url:2rh408kv]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30/360[/url:2rh408kv].

In the world of accounting, I have heard of (but don’t know much about) the use of a 13th month by accounting departments. Also, it would be worth finding out all the ways that companies count their fiscal year and quarter calendars. For example, some companies don’t use the usual calendar manner of determining quarters. Instead, they use a certain group of weeks for each quarter, and this can be somewhat different from calendar quarters.

Accomodating these various calendars would save your users lots of headaches, reduce calls to support and make Quantrix Modeler just even more likely to create religious zealots in a couple of very large industries who will spread your story far and wide.

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I find very useful these operators, especially together with the select function. I have a model with a lots of nested item groups and with items with the same name (i.e. “total”): in this context i can’t use the @ operator in a select function since it matches only the first item of the category whose name is “total”. So i would appreciate another operator which gives the “full name” of an item.
Thanks,
Davide

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Gentlemen,

Here is what I would like to have:

1°) I would like to have LinkBack ([url:21p6a2ld]http://www.linkbackproject.org/applications[/url:21p6a2ld]) dynamic link for Quantrix! Create ([url:21p6a2ld]http://www.stone.com)[/url:21p6a2ld], for example, has added in a few hours this technology as a server and as a client!
It’s the same sort of dynamic linking that you have in the Windows version “Dynamic linking – Linked documents are automatically updated to reflect changes to the linked Quantrix model. As you change the model in Quantrix, the data is automatically updated in your linked document. No more re-exporting and re-formatting your presentation for last minute changes.” It could be used in the same manner. (dynamic link with: ChartSmith, Grapher, Stone’Create, Pages, Keynote, to have “automated” presentations and rapport)
It’s the same use that you had with dynamic linking with Quantrix for NeXTStep and other Apps.
You could add in Quantrix the LinkBack framework easily with the SDK and the Source and there is also a macdevcenter.com’ tutorial which have links at that URL address: [url:21p6a2ld]http://www.linkbackproject.org/[/url:21p6a2ld]

2°) A Cocoa version of Quantrix. (to have more speed, less memory consuming)

3°) a free runtime to show to others who don’t have Quantrix the spreadsheet with the limited possibility to change the data or move the dimensions but not permit any change in the formulas.
More, it could be a good point to evangelize other people who never use and know multidimensional spreadsheets and help you to sell more.

4°) QuantrixShare like NoteShare 1.0 for OS X could be = Social Computing Anytime, Anywhere!
Have a look to [url:21p6a2ld]http://www.aquaminds.com/nsProduct.jsp[/url:21p6a2ld]

collaboration tool for users who need to share Quantrix spreadsheet with one or more users from the same room, same building or even from a remote location via the Internet or a network gateway.
Presenting, viewing and editing a QuantrixShare spreadsheet without limitations.

5°) Notebook like Mathematica’ one or Aquaminds’ one.
Ideal to present a spreadsheet with tools for outlining, text annotations and voice annotations.

6°) Choice to use Grapher.app instead of your charts

7°) a mix of Library and Forum at Quantrix Web site with users templates and examples and discussions about them.

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I am extensively using Quantrix for producing examples to be included in a book I am editing.
I have not resorted to pasting quantrix elements as OLE objects, since I must submit the files to a publisher.
I have noticed that you can copy and paste tables either in raw text format or in bitmap format.
You can copy and paste graphs in bitmap format (if you select paste as image metafile, the image is kept in bitmap format, or so I guess).
Two additions would be welcome:
– the ability to paste tables as html (you can do that pasting from quantrix to excel) in order to keep them editable in word;
– the ability to paste tables as images (windows metafiles), in order to decrease file size and get finer scaling;
– the ability to paste graphs as well as windows metafiles, for the same reasons.
Bye.

Post scriptum (September 14): What I said above refers to Word 97. I have seen that with later versions of Word you can paste tables in editable format.