Denis Lavigne 7/15/2013

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Hi,

Since LEAP is Excel-based, I am wondering if one can use LEAP alongside a simulation software such as Crystal Ball.

Thanks!

Denis

Charlie Heaps 7/16/2013
 

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Hi Denis,

In fact, LEAP is not Excel-based. It is a stand-alone Windows-based software tool. It happens to be written in a programming language called Delphi (http://edn.embarcadero.com/delphi), although for the end-user this is irrelevant because it is all compiled into an executable file that is installed on your PC.

Now the good news! In spite of the above, you CAN use LEAP with tools like Crystal Ball. This is possible because LEAP has an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows it to communicate with any other program that uses the Windows Common Object Model (COM). Look in the help file for documentation of the API.

I also happen to have been playing around recently with connecting LEAP to Crystal Ball, and I am planning on writing a blog post shortly that will explain how. It turns out to be very straightforward - only involving writing a few short lines of VBA code in Excel (As I am sure you know, Crystal Ball is an Excel add-in).

The current main limiting factor in using LEAP with Crystal ball is the speed of LEAP's calculations. When doing Monte Carlo analysis for example, you potentially might need to recalculate LEAP hundreds or even thousands of times. So at the moment this would be rather slow. I am working on a new version of LEAP though, where I am trying to focus on reducing the calculation time. I am hoping that I can make calculations much quicker to support this type of analysis.

Stay tuned!

Best,

Charlie

Denis Lavigne 7/18/2013
 

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Hello Charlie,

I fully understand your answer.

I will be teaching a new energy modeling course at graduate level and recalculation time is not of major importance to me right now since all I want to do is to show to the students what one can do with such tools.

I guess we'll have plenty to discuss along the way (since it is a brand new course and everthing has to be created). Please keep me posted on the blog post that you intend to do about this soft-link between LEAP and Crystal Ball. Although I understand that the whole thing is probably quite straightforward, your experience will help a lot on smoothing the learning curve.

Thanks again.

Denis

Muhammad S 7/29/2013
 

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Dear Denis

I am also some course/material for learning energy modeling. can please send me your lecture slides/notes if possible. ms_shahid@hotmail.com