How Spreadsheet Files are Affected By GoldSim

By default, GoldSim’s interactions with the Excel spreadsheet only affect a copy of the spreadsheet temporarily stored in memory, and do not affect the data permanently stored in your spreadsheet file. That is, following your simulation, the spreadsheet file will be unchanged (even if during the simulation GoldSim has sent data to cells in the spreadsheet).

In some cases, however, you may want to save the changes you make to a spreadsheet (i.e., when GoldSim exports data to the spreadsheet). To do so, select the Save MS-Excel file after simulation item in the Options>> menu (which by default is cleared).

Note: Saving the changes you make to a spreadsheet (from the Options>> menu) is not possible when carrying out a distributed processing simulation (using the Distributed Processing Module). This is because each Slave uses a private copy of the original spreadsheet.

Note: Unless you use offsets that vary with time or realization, if you access the spreadsheet multiple times (at multiple timesteps or for multiple realizations), only the changes made to the spreadsheet the final time you access it will be saved (all the previous modifications will be overwritten each time that you access it).

Note: Saving changes to a spreadsheet file and file locking are mutually exclusive. If the Save MS-Excel file after simulation item is selected in the Options>> menu when you try to lock onto a file, GoldSim will warn you that locking onto the file will automatically disable saving changes to the MS-Excel file. When you lock onto a file, the Save MS-Excel file after simulation item is no longer available in the Options>> menu.

Warning: You should always close any spreadsheets that are referenced by GoldSim prior to running your GoldSim model. In fact, in most cases, GoldSim will warn you if it tries to interact with (in particular, write to) a spreadsheet that is already open.