Maintaining Good Model dicipline and File management is important to success in eXpress Modeling. Because of many years of modeling support to analysts the following suggestions are given:
Top model recognition - In a hierarchical model set Always use an Indicator for the top model. Failure to do this have caused changes to be into lower levels that should have been put in the top model and hierarchically saved down. Also suggest using "0000top_" in front of the top model name so it will cause it to appear at the top of the list in the Windows explorer helping other analysts to find the top model.
Use Hierarchical Save after a model set is copiedin "Microsoft windows" - When copying an entire model set In Windows be sure to do a "hierarchical save" of the new model set to insure that the models are saved in the proper order and have the proper saved time associated with each model. Not doing this will result in error messages when a diagnostic is run. Using Hierarchical save as (See Hiearchical Save As Setup Window ) is the preferable way to copy a model set so that the saving is in the proper order.
Keep all the models for the model set in "one folder". Failure to do this will eventually result in lost time do to linking problems and potential hybrid models that do not contain the proper linking. eXpressalways tries to find the linked file in the folder that the top model is stored in. If they are all in the same folder the correct link will be found.
Save Frequently "With the correct eXpress Version". If a model is opened modeled in a previous eXpress versionthen eXpress will save it in the latest version. This may not be what is wanted. If this happens, resave the model using "Hierachical Save As" and check that the eXpress version is what is needed. This may be necessary if the models are to be sent to other analysts that may not have the lastest version of eXpress.
Keep a second model set if you are having configuration problems (Suggest weekly manual backup of entire model set using a remote or off line backup location so the backup cannot accidently be accessed and changed causing hybrid models (Changes to both sets not realizing the work is being done on the wrong model set have happened by poor file management) Hybrid models [Two originally Identical models each now with different changes], can be merged using export to Excel of each, combining the Spreadsheets and re-importing. This can be done but requires very careful management and is only recommended in extreme cases.
Recommend Opening the model from the eXpress file menu using the windows storage location to find the model or go to the storage location in Microsoft Windows and open the file by double clicking on it.
Each Time eXpress saves a file it makes a backup file of the previous save. It is a good idea to periodically move that back up file into a separate location so that backing up to correct a hybrid or mis-modelled situation result in less work to recover.
READ ONLY FILES - To recover a Backup file change the file extention to .exd. If an existing .exd file with the same name is open in eXpress the file will be opened as "READ ONLY" Following saves will not overwrite the original file and you can lose changes. ALWAYS check the file name at the top of the model to make sure it is not READ ONLY
If you are trying something new in a model to see if you like it, save the model first with a new name first, then resave with the original name so you can backup if required.
