July 2009
Introduction
Crystal Ball Issues
Crystal Ball Developer Kit Issues
Oracle® Crystal Ball 11.1.1.3.00 is the current version of Crystal Ball. It has been developed to run on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5.
Oracle Crystal Ball 11.1.1.3.00 includes these updates:
The Predictor module for time-series forecasting is completely rewritten with a new wizard interface and many other features. For details, see Oracle Crystal Ball New Features.
Oracle Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management, Fusion Edition 11.1.1.3.00 includes the Enterprise Performance Management Simulator for direct Crystal Ball simulation of queries and forms within Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office, Fusion Edition Release 11.1.1.3.00.
Oracle Crystal Ball 11.1.1.0.00 included these updates:
In addition to these features, Oracle Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management (Crystal Ball EPM) 11.1.1.0.00 also included integration with Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office (Smart View), and through Smart View, the ability to use data from other products that are compatible with Smart View. These features are only available in Crystal Ball EPM with appropriate licensing. They are not available with other editions of Crystal Ball.
Oracle Crystal Ball 11.1.1.1.00 included constraint editor enhancements for OptQuest.
In addition to these enhancements, Crystal Ball EPM 11.1.1.1.00 also included integration with Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance (only available in Crystal Ball EPM with appropriate licensing).
The following are a few known issues you should be aware of as you begin using the current version of Crystal Ball.
Only Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5 can be used
This version of Crystal Ball is not translated
Extreme Speed issues
Normal Speed and multi-threading in Excel 2007
Restored results are not resaved with simulation results
If an assumption's input parameter refers back to the assumption cell, the reference is static
"System clock set back" errors
Issues with preferences and the memory warning dialog
Restored results with capability metrics
Crystal Ball with custom menus and toolbars
Incompatibilities when running models in early versions of Crystal Ball 7.x
Overlay chart probability data can be inaccurate for series with less data
Extract Data information might not be accurate for the last bin
Using Crystal Ball with multiple versions of Excel installed
Distribution change note
Issues concerning Crystal Ball for EPM integration with Smart View and Workspace
Issues concerning Crystal Ball for EPM integration with Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance
Other known issues
Only Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5 can be used
If you have Microsoft .NET Framework 1.x installed as well as .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5, warning messages might appear when you try to start this version of Crystal Ball. You might also find that Crystal Ball does not load at all when you start it. If this happens, choose Start, then [All] Programs, then Oracle Crystal Ball, and then Application Manager. Be sure this setting is checked in the Crystal Ball Application Manager: "Use Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0, 3.0, or 3.5 (Recommended)." Then, click OK and restart Crystal Ball.
Notice that errors can result if you try to check the .NET Framework setting in the Application Manager and do not have the required permissions to make that change.
If you have not yet installed Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5, follow the instructions in the current Oracle Crystal Ball Installation and Licensing Guide, located in the folder where you unzipped the Crystal Ball installation file or in the Docs folder under the folder where Crystal Ball is installed (by default, C:\Program Files\Oracle\Crystal Ball). The main installation document is named CB Install&Licensing.pdf. You can start installing Crystal Ball. If the appropriate version of Microsoft .NET Framework is not found, it will be installed through an automatic download process.
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 or 3.5 is installed as part of Microsoft Windows Vista.
This version of Crystal Ball is not translated
If you install this version of Crystal Ball over a non-English version of Crystal Ball 7.2.x, Crystal Ball will appear in English. You must uninstall this version of Crystal Ball and re-install the earlier translated version to restore the non-English version of Crystal Ball.
If it is available to you, Extreme Speed is switched on by default. While Crystal Ball simulations run 10 to 100 times faster at Extreme Speed, there are a few compatibility issues to consider.
For more information on Extreme Speed, see the appropriate appendix of the current Oracle Crystal Ball User's Guide or search for Extreme Speed in online help. The following Extreme Speed issues are not discussed in the User Manual:
Normal Speed and multi-threading in Excel 2007
Note: The following compatibility issue is not included in the current Oracle Crystal Ball User's Guide.
By default, Crystal Ball uses Microsoft Excel's multi-threading setting when performing simulation calculations in Excel 2007 on multi-core or multi-processor computers. Depending on model size, it is possible that performance can be improved on multi-core or multi-processor computers by manually disabling the use of multi-threading. In general, smaller models run more slowly with multi-threading and larger models run faster. Changing this setting on single-core or single-processor computers has no impact (7405942).
To disable multi-threading in Excel 2007 before running Crystal Ball models, consult the Excel documentation.
Restored results are not resaved with simulation results
If restored results are used with results from the current simulation – in an overlay chart, for example – the restored results are not resaved with Analyze > Save Results. When the saved results are later restored, only the results from the current simulation are restored.
Likewise, if preferences – for example, chart preferences – are set for the restored results, those preference settings are not saved either.
If an assumption's input parameter refers back to the assumption cell, the reference is static
If a cell reference refers to an assumption cell, the cell reference is replaced by the base value (value at the start of the simulation) for the duration of the simulation. This makes the cell reference static.
"System clock set back" errors
If a computer's system clock is set back at some point to a date earlier than the current date, Crystal Ball's licensing system recognizes this. When you try to start Crystal Ball with a time-limited license under these conditions, startup fails and a "system clock set back" message appears. Set the clock to the current time and try again. If your Crystal Ball license has not expired and the problem still occurs, contact technical support.
Issues with preferences and the memory warning dialog
If you run an Extreme Speed simulation multiple times on a large or complex model, you might find that you receive the "Sufficient memory may not be available..." warning dialog. This dialog lets you disable the Store Assumption Values run preference and change the number of trials to run. Notice that these changes in the warning dialog reset those preferences in the Run Preferences dialog on the Trials and Options tabs. They are then applied to other models unless you reset them after the large model has run.
Restored results with capability metrics
The following rules apply when you calculate capability metrics, store the results in a .cbr file, and then restore the results:
Crystal Ball with custom menus and toolbar
If you create custom menus and toolbars for Excel in folders Excel loads at startup, the Crystal Ball menus and toolbars are removed. You can still use the Crystal Ball Developer Kit to run Crystal Ball but the standard user interface cannot be restored and used unless the custom files are specially set up to allow this.
Incompatibilities when running models in early versions of Crystal Ball 7.x
Certain Crystal Ball distribution types are not compatible with pre-7.1 versions of Crystal Ball 7.x or 11.x. For example, if you create a model in Crystal Ball 7.2 or later that includes linked custom distributions, #NUM! appears in the assumption cells when you run a simulation in Crystal Ball 7.0 at Normal Speed with the following custom distribution types: continuous range, discrete range, sloping continuous range, and sloping discrete range.
Overlay chart probability data can be inaccurate for series with less data
Overlay chart data are attached to the frequency axis of the chart, not the probability axis. For this reason, probability data can be inaccurate for all series except the one with the most data.
Extract Data information might not be accurate for the last bin
If you choose the Chart Bins statistic in the Extract Data dialog, information for the last (rightmost) bin might not be accurate. Crystal Ball determines bin location by evaluating whether data is equal to or greater than the minimum and less than the maximum for each bin. If data is equal to the maximum for the highest bin, it is not counted.
Using Crystal Ball with multiple versions of Microsoft Excel installed
Crystal Ball always runs against the default version of Microsoft Excel, which is typically the most recently installed version. To run Crystal Ball with another version of Excel, choose Start, then [All] Programs, then Oracle Crystal Ball, and then Application Manager. Then, choose the correct version of Excel in the dropdown list and click OK.
In Crystal Ball 7.3.x, fitting routines were changed for some distributions (gamma, lognormal, Weibull and Student's t) to calculate better distribution parameters for a range of data points within a reasonable time. These changes might affect the fitting results for your data. The new routines have been tested and give results that are close to the previous results and compare favorably with other commercial applications.
The fitting routine for the Student's t distribution has been changed to improve performance with simulations greater than 3000 trials. If the number of data points is more than 3000, the new algorithm randomly samples 3000 points from the original set and runs the fitting routine on that. For simulations with more than 3000 trials, accuracy can drop slightly because the full dataset is not used in fitting.
Issues concerning Crystal Ball for EPM integration with Smart View and Workspace
Starting with Oracle Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management (Crystal Ball EPM) version 11.1.1.0.00, Crystal Ball EPM has areas of integration with Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office (Smart View). Also, a listing of Crystal Ball for EPM files in the Enterprise Performance Management central repository can be viewed within Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Workspace (Workspace). Note that Crystal Ball currently cannot be installed from within Workspace, although some documentation suggests that it can.
Crystal Ball EPM version 11.1.1.3.00 is compatible with the following Enterprise Performance Management System products: Strategic Finance 11.1.1.1.00 or later, Smart View 11.1.1.0.00 or later, and Workspace 11.1.1.0.00 or later.
The following defects are currently logged in the Crystal Ball tracking system against the integration of Smart View and Workspace with Crystal Ball for EPM:
Issues concerning Crystal Ball for EPM integration with Strategic Finance
Starting with Oracle Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management (Crystal Ball EPM) version 11.1.1.1.00, Crystal Ball EPM has areas of integration with Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance (Strategic Finance).
The following substantive defects are currently logged in the Crystal Ball tracking system against the integration of Strategic Finance with Crystal Ball for EPM:
The following are other important known issues in Oracle Crystal Ball version 11.1.1.3.00:
Crystal Ball Developer Kit Issues
Always use CB.CheckData before a CB.Get... call
CB.ExtractDataND can now extract multiple data types
Issues with CB.DefineAltParms and CB.GetAssum
Other Crystal Ball Developer Kit issues
Always use CB.CheckData before a CB.Get... call
To ensure that data is properly synchronized, always call CB.CheckData immediately after you insert, delete, move, or otherwise edit cells in a model, particularly before you use one of the CB.Get... functions.
CB.ExtractDataND can now extract multiple data types
You can now use CB.ExtractDataND to extract more than one type of data. To do this, use cbExtDataType followed by the type of data, and then follow that by a boolean Value2 parameter.
For example, the following lines of code extract both statistics and values:
CB.ExtractDataND cbExtDataType, cbDatStatistics, True
CB.ExtractDataND cbExtDataType, cbDatValues, True
CB.ExtractDataND cbExtOK
Issues with CB.DefineAltParms and CB.GetAssum
There are problems in defining and updating assumptions with lognormal distributions with alternate parameter sets created by the CB.DefineAltParms call. For example, if you are defining a lognormal distribution assumption with the log mean and log standard deviation, the low cutoff value or high cutoff value is being assigned to the mean and standard deviation. Workarounds are to avoid cell references; pass in the actual values for the parameters rather than cell references. Also, consider using the DefineAssumND call to define means and standard deviations.
Other Crystal Ball Developer Kit issues
There are additional issues with the Oracle Crystal Ball Developer Kit and OptQuest Developer Kit that you should consider for optimum code performance:
User-reported Defect Fixes
The following user-reported defects were fixed in Crystal Ball 11.1.1.3.00. Defects fixed in Crystal Ball 11.1.1.1.00 and 11.1.1.0.00 are listed below these.
ID |
Summary |
| 7396452 | Parameters in Predictor Developer Kit calls were not defaulting to previous settings as documented |
| 7396488 | Dates in Predictor had an extra :1 or :2 next to them even though there was only one of each of these dates |
| 7397988 | Predictor forecast fits were breaking down when they extended far into the future |
| 7399547, 7400158, 7400185, 7404298 | Unexpected errors occurred when users were creating or working with reports with Excel charts, possibly related to memory usage and read/write issues with the system %TEMP% folder |
| 7399873 | Warnings displayed when pasting normal distribution assumptions for Predictor forecasts with standard deviations less than 1e-15 |
| 7400016 | Unexpected errors occurred when launching Predictor with a protected worksheet active in Microsoft Excel |
| 7400668 | Unselected independent variables were being pasted in Predictor following regression forecasts |
| 7401279 | An unexpected error occurred sometimes when displaying windows during simulations on computers with non-English settings |
| 7402868 | Generated reports and Extract Data worksheets created by Predictor were locked when users had an academic license |
| 7403059 | A CBF_SHOW unexpected error occurred when running Predictor |
| 7405237 | An unexpected error occurred when creating a report on a workbook that was shared or had change tracking enabled |
| 7405315 | When calculating the confidence interval for the double moving average, Predictor left off the numbers for the starting period, essentially considering one less period. Therefore, the standard errors and the confidence intervals were incorrect |
| 7405386 | An unexpected error occurred when using Predictor on a workbook where VBA macros were present but not enabled. The error occurred just before Predictor results were pasted into the output spreadsheet(s) |
| 7405449 | Simple lead calculations in Predictor needed updating to avoid fitting anomalies |
| 7405560 | Spreadsheet rows were cleared when saving large Crystal Ball models using Crystal Ball spreadsheet functions |
| 7405877 | If Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office, Fusion Edition (Smart View) was connected to an OBIEE data source, and then Predictor was run on the data in the datasource grid, the predicted values overwrote data on the active sheet |
| 7405955, 7405956, 7405957 | Non-target forecasts were frozen during simulations with the Bootstrap, Decision Table, and 2D Simulation tools, which could have caused the target forecast results to be wrong, if the target forecast was dependent on the non-target forecasts |
| 7407856 | Unexpected errors occurred intermittently with password protected worksheets |
| 7413936 | Crystal Ball stopped calculating and froze when a very large probability value was entered into the Probability field in a custom distribution |
| 7423181 | Severe Extreme Speed performance degradation occurred because 'Unsupported vector operation" warnings were displayed for Excel functions accepting large Excel range arguments |
| 7481216 | AutoExtract percentile selection was not working properly when Crystal Ball was running on Windows Vista with Office 2007 |
| 7489848 | In Extreme Speed, the Excel ROUNDUP function was returning continuous instead of discrete values |
| 7569262 | OptQuest validation was not checking for all invalid workbook or sheet name cases and was failing when a "}" character was not detected |
| 7604728 | A user experienced an unexpected load failure that probably resulted from limited account permissions |
| 7629183 | Crystal Ball stopped functioning and froze when a user was viewing an assumption (through the Define Assumption dialog) defined as a betaPERT distribution with a 10%, Likeliest, and 90% alternate parameter set in which the parameters varied by just 1e-10 |
| 7650763 | There was an unexpected error when extracting data after several successful extractions during the updating of the Excel statusbar message |
| 7656106 | An unexpected error with the following message occurred when creating an assumption with a linked custom distribution consisting of a range with all zeroes: "Total probability must be > 0" |
| 7669216 | An "Excel.Names.Add Protected Memory" unexpected error occurred when saving, closing, and resaving a workbook in Excel 2007 format |
| 7701654 | A "Constraint.ObjectiveEditor.SetValues" unexpected error from null OptQuest statistic value occurred |
| 8216500 | A "ShowThreadFormHandler" unexpected error from null form or window occurred |
| 8226733 | An "EliminateDuplicateNameInfo " unexpected error occurred when closing a workbook with Crystal Ball data |
| 8231509 | An unexpected error occurred when using VBA to select over 80 assumptions for a sensitivity chart |
| 8292154 | #NUM was written to Crystal Ball assumption cells during a simulation |
| 8335156 | An unexpected error occurred when the user was single-stepping through assumption cells and changing some of the assumption values to test formulas |
| 8351602 | A ”Key cannot be null” unexpected error occurred when loading cross-sheet correlations from deleted sheets |
| 8465558 | A Crystal Ball AutoExtract process did not populate cells on a worksheet with $ in the name |
| 8484895 | The Microsoft Excel TABLE function returned inaccurate results in Extreme Speed with a certain customer model |
| 8535845 | An "input string not in a correct format" unexpected error occurred with the Data Analysis tool |
| 8661914 | When specifying an efficient frontier where the requirement is a percentage, the efficient frontier bounds did not convert percentages properly |
The following user-reported defects were fixed in Crystal Ball 11.1.1.1.00. Important user-requested enhancements are also mentioned. Defects fixed in Crystal Ball 11.1.1.0.00 are listed below these.
ID |
Summary |
7397429 |
Assumptions were not renamed when they were pasted into a cell with a label to the left |
7402351 |
It was not possible to define an assumption and run a Crystal Ball simulation with Turkish regional settings |
7405046 |
Crystal Ball Developer Kit calls that supported sequential sampling with stochastic information packets (SIPs) were not available and properly documented |
7405320 |
It was not possible to create a report in the REPORT worksheet of the
current workbook when running on Excel 2007 |
7405374 |
An invalid group name unexpected error occurred when running one of the Crystal Ball example models in single-step mode |
7405435 |
Users requested a simpler way of entering OptQuest constraints |
The following user-reported defects were fixed in Crystal Ball 11.1.1.0.00. Note that any defects involving the previous licensing system have been fixed by moving to a new system and are not listed here. Many unlisted user-requested enhancements were also added to this version of Crystal Ball.
ID |
Summary |
7396863 |
Scenario Analysis results were wrong when calculation error occurred during simulations with Stop On Calculation Error turned off |
7397989 |
"Problem generating new solution" error could occur in OptQuest before the end of an optimization |
7398353 |
File installation issues occurred when upgrading |
7399501 |
The Batch Fit tool was not accepting the correlation coefficient limit (Define correlations above) in the local regional settings format |
7399604 |
OptQuest failed when running certain models in Excel 2000 |
7399664 |
Calculation differences occurred between Normal Speed and Extreme Speed when running a simulation on a specific model with extremely small values |
7399675 |
Cell selections were failing because they were attempting to select cells on hidden worksheets |
7400212 |
ExcelWorkbook.get_mExcelWorkbook unexpected error occurred when running the Decision Table tool |
7400257 |
Control array run-time error occurred when launching OptQuest |
7400347 |
'CBWorkbookPriority' warning occurred when copying two or more grouped sheets to another workbook when both workbooks contained Crystal Ball data |
7400768 |
User had difficulty starting Crystal Ball from an external C# application using the Developer Kit |
7400858 |
Nested OFFSET function returned invalid values in Extreme Speed |
7401020 |
An Excel_Worksheet.get_Range unexpected error occurred when trying to run Crystal Ball |
7401113 |
Crystal Ball's selection change processing was cancelling F8 area-selection in Excel |
7401195 |
In Excel 2007, Extreme Speed and Normal Speed achieved different results with certain Microsoft Excel functions |
7401291 |
VSS.VException unexpected error occurred when defining assumptions in XLSX or XLSB workbooks in Excel 2007 with an apostrophe (') in the name |
7401356 |
Unexpected results differences when comparing Weibull and Gamma distribution fitting with the previous version |
7401483 |
The Crystal Ball Reference Manual had incorrect information about the Weibull distribution's relationship to the Rayleigh distribution |
7401621 |
The Excel TABLE function showed rounding/interpolation differences in Extreme Speed relative to Normal Speed |
7401637 |
Significant differences in results occurred when running a large Oil and Gas model in Extreme Speed and Normal Speed |
7401996 |
BaseScatterPanel.get_TotalPoints unexpected error occurred when creating scatter charts |
7402095 |
ValuesOutput.BuildGlobalFilterList unexpected error occurred in Crystal Ball |
7402096 |
SimManager.SimViewer.GetOcbVars unexpected error occurred when extracting data |
7402295 |
"Failed to load resources" error when defining Crystal Ball data |
7402535 |
OptQuest was not launching in a specific user environment |
7402765 |
A very large model appeared to "hang" in the initialization phase of an OptQuest optimization |
7403042 |
Assumptions that use text-formatted cells as the target for input parameter cell references were not handled properly in Extreme Speed simulations |
7403243 |
OptQuest failed when a bar graph window was open |
7403289 |
Decision Table Options should not have limited the number of trials to 10,000 |
7403781 |
An unexpected error occurred when displaying overlay, trend, or forecast charts for the selected forecasts in the results workbook for the Decision Table tool |
7404002 |
In OptQuest, the sum of the decision variables didn't always equal the bound |
7404238 |
OptQuest logging issues occurred when there were multi-byte characters in the %TEMP% path |
7404342 |
UnsafeNativeMethods unexpected error involving Crystal Ball window display |
7404884 |
"Unable to complete an OLE action" error occurred at the end of a simulation in Extreme Speed with a specific model |
7405148 |
"Index was out of range" unexpected error occurred when attempting to define an assumption in Excel 2007 |
7405696 |
Statistics returned incorrect values when the ratio of the mean to the standard deviation was extremely large |
7405796 |
Excel.Range.set_HorizontalAlignment unexpected error when performing an AutoExtract at the end of a simulation |
7405987 |
Collections.ArrayList.RemoveAt unexpected error occurred when using the Single Step command |
7406107 |
CBForms.PrefControls.ApplyPrefsForm.InitApplyLevel unexpected error occurred when attempting to activate comments in the Cell Preferences dialog |
7406242 |
VSS.VEmbeddedInfo+Worksheet.DeleteBlockIfNeeded unexpected error occurred when running Predictor |
7406350 |
Distribution fitting failed when a range formula was entered into the input field for the data range |
7406403 |
DelayedMessageProcessor.DispatchItem.Equals unexpected error occurred when working with assumption correlations |
7406527 |
If you fit a distribution to the NPV forecast and showed the distributions, the NPV displayed no parameters |
7406950 |
Crystal Ball spreadsheet functions were taking on the value of 0 at the end of a simulation or after reset |
7407485 |
The CB.Get*FN Excel functions were not calculated in Excel 2007 during a simulation when they were not on the active sheet |
7407517 |
Data loss was occurring when Crystal Ball Developer Kit calls were used in the same spreadsheet as Crystal Ball distribution functions |
7407834 |
Values returned by user-defined functions like CB.Triangular were not handled properly in Excel 2007 on dual-core computers |