General:

 Improved support for SUMIF functions

 Resolved a memory issue with large Stochastic programs

“Exotic” Excel Functions Support:

Assume Linear Option: allows use of any Excel function as long as the resulting optimization model is linear in the Adjustable cells. What’sBest! tests if this is true.

Binary Black Box Option: allows use of any Excel function as long as all the Adjustable cells are binary and the model includes no constraints. Linearity is not required.

Improved detection and reporting of unsupported formulae

Performance Improvements:

Significantly better handling of “infinite” Excel ranges, where user specifies an unnecessarily large range, e.g., an entire column.

Linear and Integer Solver Improvements:

Improved heuristics for general integer programs

Average performance improvement of 2-3% on our standard test set

Nonlinear and Global Solver Improvements:

Faster (order of magnitude) solution of linear fractional programs (ratio objectives)

Improved bound tightening process in preprocessing of nonlinear models

Auxiliary variables generated automatically to improve performance with complicated expressions

Support for additional useful but “problematic” functions: Power utility function (x^g-1)/g and the exponential ratio function (exp(g) – 1)/g, are important in some situations modeling consumer behavior. The solver can now robustly avoid the numerical problems that would otherwise occur when g approaches 0.

Linearization Improvements:

More expressions can be automatically linearized, so you can now use a fast linear solver where otherwise a much slower (30x?) nonlinear solver might be required.

Advanced linearization of QP and Conic models

Improved linearization of certain IF expressions.