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Simulation Master is an Excel® add-in for Monte Carlo simulation and much more. Take your spreadsheet models to another level by replacing single point estimates with a more in-depth analysis. See outcome probabilities and the spectrum of potential outcomes in ways that aren’t possible with traditional models.
About SIMTOOLS
Simtools.xlam is an add-in for Microsoft Excel. Simtools adds statistical functions and procedures for doing Monte Carlo simulation and risk analysis in spreadsheets. It also contains a simple auditing tool (previously called Formlist) that adds procedures for displaying the formulas of any selected range. Simtools was developed to facilitate applications of probability and statistics, and to help managers do complex decision analysis. This programs are distributed as freeware for individual use, and may be freely redistributed to students and faculty in an academic institution. All other rights are reserved.
You can learn more on how to use Simtools from the book Probability Models for Economic Decisions, published by MIT Press (2019) [available at Amazon.com].
[Installation] [Simtools features] [Formlist features] [Links] Installing SIMTOOLS
To install Simtools, download the Simtools.xlam file from this site, and save this file in a directory of your choice on your hard drive. (You could choose to save it wherever Excel Add-Ins are stored on your computer, but this is not necessary.) When saving, make sure that the file's name has the correct xlam extension that signifies an Excel add-in.
Then to install Simtools in Excel, use the File:Options:Add-Ins:Manage ExcelAddIns:Go command sequence on a Windows machine, or the the Tools:Add-ins command sequence on a Mac, and select the 'Simtools' option in the 'Add-Ins available' dialogue box or browse to find Simtools.xlam where you saved it. After installation, 'SimTools' should appear as tab on the Ribbon in Excel. If it does not appear, you may need to add the folder where you put simtools.xlam as a trusted location for Excel by File: Options: TrustCenter: TrustCenterSettings: TrustedLocations: AddNewLocation.
For Excel 2007 and later versions: click here for SIMTOOLS.XLAM, which since March 2017 includes Formlist.
[To download a zip file containing the spreadsheets shown in the figures of Myerson and Zambrano's 2019 book, click here.]
Note: If your browser converts xlam files into zip files or you have other problems in downloading, then click here to download a zip filethat contains Simtools.xlam with pdf files documenting its features.
(To get Formlist alone for Excel 2007 and later versions: FORMLIST.XLAM.)
(For older versions of Excel before 2007, you can click here to download the old simtools.xla, and the old formlist.xla. Older versions of simtools.xla and formlist.xla for the older Excel 5 version of MS Office are also available.)
Solving download problems for XLA files: If your browser launches Excel instead of saving the files to disk, you should right-click on the above links and select the 'Save as...' option from the pop-up menu. If your browser changes the .xlam filename extension to .xlsx, you should be able to use these files after renaming them to restore the correct .xlam filename.
If you have problems with add-in functions in an xls workbook that was made on a different computer, you should use Excel's Edit-Links procedure. Features of SIMTOOLS 3.4:
SIMTOOLS.XLAM adds to Excel the following 32 statistical functions, listed in six categories. Optional parameters are shown in italics.
Inverse cumulative-probability functions. These functions, along with Excel's NORMINV or NORM.INV function, can be used for generating random variables when the first parameter (called 'probability' or 'randprob') is generated by a RAND() or CORAND function:
Functions for working with correlations among random variables:
Functions for decision analysis:
Functions for analyzing discrete probability distributions:
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Functions for regression analysis:
Functions for randomly generating discrete distributions:
SIMTOOLS.XLAM also adds three macro procedures to the Excel Tools menu:
Using Simtools functions in VBA macros: If you want to use Simtools functions in a VBA macro program, it is necessary to attach Simtools.xla as a reference in your VBA module, by applying the Tools:References menu command in the Visual Basic Editor and checking Simtools.xla as an available reference.
More technical notes about CORAND: With an n-by-n CorrelArray parameter, CORAND's optional RandSource parameter can be a reference either to a single cell or to n cells in a row. RandSource cells should contain independent uniform random values, as generated by RAND or CORAND. When RandSource is a single cell, this cell's value is returned in CORAND's output array as the last value on the right. When RandSource is a range of n cells in a row, CORAND looks in these cells for all the random inputs that it needs to generate its n correlated outputs, preserving the rightmost value but transforming the others to generate appropriately correlated random outputs. This usage (along with a similar RandSource usage for the DIRICH and SHUFFLE function) can be applied when you want to work with another simulation add-in's random number generator. When RandSource is omitted, CORAND automatically generates its n random values by transforming the results of n implicit calls to Excel-VBA's random number generator. The seed for this VBA random-number generator is randomly reset (with a reference to the computer's clock) whenever the SimulationTable or IterativeProcess macro procedure is run (from version 3.31).
What's new in version 3: In version 3.0 (3/99), the NORMIZE, PRODS, and XTREMINV functions have been added, an optional RiskTolSlope parameter has been added for the CE function, and the former CONDEXP function has been dropped (subsumed now by CEPR). The menu item formerly that was formerly called MarkovProcess has been renamed IterativeProcess, and the former SensitivityTable menu item has been dropped (subsumed now by Torndiag.xls). In version 3.1 (4/99), the percentile numbering in the left column of a Simulation Table has been changed to run from 0 to 1 with step 1/(k-1) (instead of from 0 to (k-1)/k with step 1/k), for compatibility with Excel's PERCENTILE function. LGT and LGTINV have been modified to avoid Excel97 recalculation bugs (v3.11). DISCRINV has been revised to improve speed (v3.13). To handle nonsymmetric correlation arrays generated by Excel's>
Features of the FORMLIST module in Simtools.xlam:
FORMLIST adds one macro procedure to the Excel tools menu:
FORMLIST also adds two Lookup-Reference functions:
![]() Monte Carlo Excel SpreadsheetLinks:Office For Mac Excel Add Ins Monte Carlo Free
You can learn more on how to use Simtools.xlam from the book Probability Models for Economic Decisions, published by MIT Press (2019). More information about this book is also available here.
The Decision Analysis Society offers information about other software products for decision analysis, such as TreePlan. Commercial simulation add-ins comparable to Simtools include @Risk, Crystal Ball, and xlSim.
Monte Carlo Modeling In Excel
Simtools and Formlist are open code software.
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