Setting the Monte Carlo Options

The Monte Carlo tab of the Simulation Settings dialog is used to specify the Monte Carlo options for a simulation. This consists of those parameters which control how probabilistic simulations will be carried out, such as the number of realizations, and how the sampling of Stochastic variables is to be carried out (e.g., whether Latin Hypercube sampling is to be used).

Note: Appendix A of the GoldSim User’s Guide provides an introduction to probabilistic simulation techniques, and introduces the basic terminology required to understand the Monte Carlo options presented in this dialog. The discussion that follows assumes that you are familiar with the concepts discussed in that appendix.

There are two basic types of simulation that you can carry out with GoldSim:

• In a Probabilistic Simulation, one or more input parameters are represented as probability distributions (and/or some processes are represented as being stochastic) and a simulation is carried out by running the model multiple times.

• In a Deterministic Simulation, single values are used for each input parameter, and a simulation is carried out by running the model a single time.

These two types of simulation are discussed in detail in the topics below.