Linking a Lookup Table to an External Data Source

In addition to allowing you to specify the data for a Lookup Table manually (by typing or pasting in the data, or manually importing the data from a text file), GoldSim also allows you to link the data directly to an external data source A source of data external to your GoldSim model that can be automatically imported into GoldSim elements. External data sources are either spreadsheets, text files, databases or DLLs..

GoldSim provides four options for doing this:

• You can link the table to a spreadsheet file;
• You can link the table to a text file;
• You can link the table to a database; and
• You can link the table to an external program (a DLL) which outputs the table directly to the Lookup Table element A type of input element that allows you to define your input in terms of a lookup table (i.e., a response surface)..

You link a Lookup Table to an external source by selecting a data source type from the Data Source field at the bottom of the Lookup Table dialog:

By default, this is set to “None”. To link the Lookup Table to a Data Source, you select a different option from this list box (MS-Excel, Extended GoldSim Database, External DLL or ASCII Text File).

When you do so, a new tab is added to the dialog that allows you to define the properties of the Data Source link.

The four options for linking to an external Data Source are described in detail in the topics below.