Factor Form

(Treeview) -> Factors -> Inclusions/Candidates -> Factor name
Defines parameters for your factors. Learn more about Factors.
 
For the option:
Do the following:
Name
Enter a name to identify a factor. The factor name appears in the treeview.
Abbreviation
Modify the abbreviation that Adams Insight creates for your factor name. Adams Insight creates a shorter version of factor names to conserve space. Abbreviated names appear in column headings of the Design Space and Work Space tables, and in the list of terms in the results tables. By using short strings as the abbreviation, it will make it easier to understand the terms of the equations which are generated later and review the relative importance of the respective factors.
Nominal Value
Enter the nominal value of the factor, which is also known as the center point. The model inputs vary relative to this value when Delta Type is defined as Relative or Relative Percent.
Settings Tab
Settings
Specify the numerical values that the Delta Type references. You must separate multiple values with commas, such as: -5, 5.
If doing a Design of Experiment (DOE), enter a balanced manufacturing variation. This value is used to compute the response or functional variation when you publish results to an SYLK or HTML file.
If doing a Variation experiment, enter either three times the standard deviation for a normal distribution, or half the width for a uniform distribution (see Variation Distribution next).
Note: If you set all the Tolerance values to zero (for all factors), no tolerance Contribution matrix will be written to the .html file.
Type
Enter the type of modifications allowed for a factor value.
Continuous - Allows a factor value to be modified within a range you define in Settings. A continuous factor must have all real numeric values.
Discrete - Specifies that a factor value be modified to an exact value you define in Settings.
Delta Type
Define how factor values can be modified during a Trial.
Absolute - Defines a factor using the values in Settings.
Relative - Defines a factor value by adding the values in Settings + Nominal Value.
Relative Percent - Defines a factor using the values in Nominal Value + ((Settings/100) * Nominal Value)
Ease of Adjustment
Specify an Easy, Moderate, or Hard sorting option in the Design Sheet and Work Space to minimize the number of times the most difficult (hard) factor needs to be modified. See more information on Sorting.
Variation Tab
Distribution
Specify the type of Variation Distribution to perform.
None - Do not perform a Variation Distribution. This is applicable if you're running a DOE and you want to review the variation in the .htm or .slk published reports based on the Tolerance specified in the Settings tab.
Normal - Specifies a Gaussian distribution. Enter the standard deviation in the Standard Deviation text box. The mean is assumed to be the Factor Nominal Value.
Lognormal - Specifies a Lognormal distribution. Enter the standard deviation and shape parameter in the Standard Deviation and Shape text boxes, respectively. The mean is assumed to be the Factor Nominal Value.
Weibull - Specifies a Weibull distribution. Enter the standard deviation and shape parameter in the Standard Deviation and Shape text boxes, respectively. The mean is assumed to be the Factor Nominal Value.
Uniform - Specifies a uniform distribution. Enter the maximum and minimum values for this distribution in the Cutoff Limits text boxes. These are values plus and minus the tolerance relative to the Nominal Value.
Discrete - Specifies a discrete distribution. Enter an even number of parameters in the Parameters text box.
User - Select to specify your own distribution type using a user-written custom method in Python. Use the Parameters text box to enter your custom values. You can also specify values in the Cutoff Limits text boxes. For more information on creating your own distribution, see the example in <installDir>/ainsight/examples/ain_fac_var_*.py.
Note: For Normal, Lognormal, Weibull, and Discrete Distributions, you can use Cutoff Limits to introduce a clipping effect on the generated distribution. The Min/Max values are -/+ relative to the nominal, that is, Min = -1, Max = 1 would limit values to within 1 of the nominal.
Standard Deviation
Enter the standard deviation for a Normal, Lognormal, or Weibull distribution.
Shape
Enter the shape parameter for a Lognormal or Weibull distribution.
Cutoff Limits
Enter the minimum and maximum values for a Uniform distribution. You can also use these text boxes to specify values for your user-defined distribution.
Parameters
Enter an even number of parameters for a discrete distribution. Enter them in X, P pairs, where X is the value and P is the probability of that value. Because Adams Insight sorts and normalizes the values, they don't have to be in order of increasing X, and the Ps don't have to add up to 1.
You can also use this text box to specify values for your user-defined distribution.
Distribution Profile
Displays an graphical representation of the selected distribution.
Variation Details
Select to display the details of the distribution, including upper/lower limits and mean value.
Tie Tab
Tie Type
Enter one of the following:
Scale
Offset
After choosing the tie type, select Apply to make it effective. Learn more about Tie Factors.
Tied Factors table
Depending on the value entered in Tie Type, specify the Scale or Offset for each factor. See Examples.
After making a change to this table, select Apply to make it effective.
Description Tab
Description
Add a description to a factor. The description appears in your results when you export them to a SYLK or HTML page.
URL (Universal Resource Locator)
Add a URL (Web address) to link to a factor. If you publish your experiment results to an HTML page, you can use this option to link the factor to that page. A fully qualified URL (identifying protocol, server and specification) is recommended. For example http://simcompanion.mscsoftware.com. An easy way to get this string is simply cut a valid URL from your browser location window.
Variable
When using Adams Insight in stand-alone mode, this text box is optional. When using Adams Insight in conjunction with an Adams modeling application, this field contains the name of a Design Variable, point name, or UDE parameter that gets modified.
Units
Add units to describe your factors. Units are annotations only; they do not affect factor values.