Ventana software support forum

I'm in the process of adapting a large model for use in Forio. The model uses a lot of GET XLS CONSTANTS commands to read data from a spreadsheet with multiple tabs. Forio doesn't allow GET XLS CONSTANTS, but it can use GET DIRECT CONSTANTS, so I've replaced all the GET XLS commands with GET DIRECT. What I now find is that in Vensim 5.10e this works fine for spreadsheets with a single tab, but not for the spreadsheet with multiple tabs: I get an error saying it can't find values in one of the tabs. In Vensin 6.3D, however, it works properly with multiple tabs. So it looks like there's a problem with 5.10e. You might say I should just use v6.3D, but 5.10e is still my preferred version, because of long running bug problems in V6. By the way, I also found that GET DIRECT CONSTANTS works with .xlsx files, but not .xlsm; GET XLS CONSTANTS works with both.

What long running bug problems are you referring to? Any bugs in 6.3 would probably also be 5.11e.

What long running bug problems? It took 15 months to get an acceptably working version of the 64 bit software. I first reported bugs in March last year. There were huge problems with its inability to read its own vdf64 files. I had to strip out large chunks of the model's reporting functionality to get it down to a size where it would even run. It's only been possible to compile the model since last month. I've been told 64 bit vensim is only a beta version (the implication being, as I read it, that I was foolish to rely on it, a view I'd now have to agree with).

So, I regard it as too fragile. Anyway, I don't know if Forio will work with 64 bit Vensim models, so I need to use the older version, but there's clearly a bug in the GET DIRECT CONSTANTS function. Like I said, it fails to read from a spreadsheet with many tabs. Ironically version 6.3D manages to read the same spreadsheets correctly.

Thanks
John

I think you'll find that 6.3d x64 solves file problems and works, though there will be an e release soon that addresses an error that only occurs on Linux. Unfortunately x64 conversion of c code is extremely complex, especially across platforms. Otherwise we'd have been done a lot sooner.

OK, but the real subject of the post was that there seems to be a problem with GET DIRECT CONSTANTS in version 5.10.
John

I'm not sure what we can do. Version 5.10 is 5 years old, and the bug you mention is fixed in the latest version (which Forio is using).

There is no way we can issue a patch for 5.10. The only solution is to use 6.3.