Data node

Create data node

To create a Data node:

Hover the mouse pointer above the blank node placeholder. “+ New node” title will appear.
Click on this title. Pop-up menu with node details will appear.
Type in the node name. The counter at the right end of the line shows how many symbols out of allowed 128 symbols are already used.
Select the node type by clicking on the hard drive pictogram (purple color).
Click anywhere outside of the node.

AIMES does not allow any two nodes to have the same names. If your project contains several hundreds of nodes please be creative giving nodes their names. As well as Project and Sheet names are limited to 128 symbols Node name could also be no longer than 128 symbols.

Set data node content

To set up Data node either:

double click on it
or right-click on it and choose “Details” from the pop-up menu.

The content of the data node is apparently a table.

Set data settings

First step in setting data node content is to Set data type. Setting units, decimal places, rounding and thousands divisions could be done later. But Data type should be set before you fill the table with data. To open Data settings menu click on the gear icon at the right end of the Path and short node menu. It is labeled (1) on the screenshot below.

Set data type

AIMES makes a difference between the two types of data: List (table, matrix) and Item (vector). To set Data type click on the gear icon (1), than on Data type in the summoned pop-up menu (2) and finally on the radio button against List or Item (3).

List is a table with several rows each having its row title.

Item is a table with only one row which does not have a row title.

The need for two types of data comes from different operation mechanics.

Scenario 1.
When AIMES operates (summarizes, multiplies..) two Lists the operation is performed between rows having the same title in the first and the second Lists. Example.

The first List contains oil Production volume for Well 1, Well 2 and Well 3.

The second List contains oil Prices for the oil produced at Well 1, Well 2 and Well 3.

If we multiply these two lists then the resulting table Total money will contain rows Well 1, Well 2 and Well 3. In the row Well 1 will be the product of multiplication of row Well 1 from the Production volume table by the row Well 1 from the Prices table. In the row Well 2 will be the product of multiplication of row Well 2 from the Production volume table by the row Well 2 from the Prices table. The same applies for further rows.

Scenario 2.
When AIMES operates with List and Item the operation is performed with the only row from the Item and each row from the List. Let's consider that in the example above all three wells produce oil which sells for the same price. Than we can make the table Price an Item (vector). This table will contain only one row with oil price. We do not need the title for that row as the Node title Price will already identify the row. Now if we multiply the List Production volume by the Item Price the resulting table Total money will contain rows Well 1, Well 2 and Well 3. In the row Well 1 will be the product of multiplication of row Well 1 from the Production volume table by the only row from the Price table. In the row Well 2 will be the product of multiplication of row Well 2 from the Production volume table by the only row from the Price table. The same applies for further rows.

Set units

To set Units click on the gear icon (1), than on the Units in the summoned pop-up menu (2). Here switch between tree tabs to find the desired unit. Currencies, quantities and other units are available. Percents (%) are located at other tab.
To have table without assigned units turn on the radio button against Not selected option.

Set number (decimal) settings and rounding

To set Number settings click on the gear icon (1), than on the Units in the summoned pop-up menu (2). Than click on + and - signs in the Number settings submenu to adjust the number of decimal digits you want to see in the data node.

At the same menu there is a Number rounding option. It is useful when you deal with undividable units: workers, shipments, etc. Options to round numbers up, middle and down are available. Examples are shown below the options.
Please note that AIMES will perform calculations on the original numbers without rounding and only the shown results will be rounded.

Separate thousands

The lowes visible option in the Data settings is Separate thousands. It divides every three digits with a space (e.g. 30000 vs 30 000) for quicker understanding big numbers.

Navigate and fill the table

As AIMES is aimed ;) at working with the data changing over time or sequential steps column headers are always time marks (end of month, quartal, year) or consecutive steps numbers (1, 2, 3..).
The “Time period” which was chosen at the stage of sheet creation will be shown as column headers having a blue background.
Row headers are categories names. For example for table of expenses it could be: Salaries, Taxes, Equipment.. Data in the table are always numbers.

Tables in the data node may contain a maximum of 400 rows and 400 columns as for now. In the future the number of columns will be unlimited.

Row and column names are limited to 128 symbols.

To fill a single cell with data double click on it and type the desired numbers. To delete data from single cell double click on it and use Del or Backspace keys.

If you want to populate several cells with the same data you may select those cells and then type the desired numbers. These numbers will appear in all selected cells.
To delete data from several cells select those cells and press Del or Backspace keys. Data will be deleted from all selected cells.

To select several cells you may use a mouse or keyboard.

While using mouse: Select a rectangular area containing several cells by moving your mouse pointer and holding down left mouse button. Selected cells will get a gray background. After selecting all desired cells release left mouse button Type desired numbers and they will appear in all selected cells

While using keyboard: Select one cell using mouse Press and hold Shift key and use arrow keys to expand selected area in any direction. Selected cells will get a gray background. Release Shift key Type desired numbers and they will appear in all selected cells

Versions of data node

The same Data node may have several versions of data. Each version has the same table in terms of table structure: same number of rows with the same row titles and the same number of columns with the same column titles. But the data in tables may be different for different versions.
Consider the example table with oil prices over time. Row titles are oil brands: Dubai, WTI.
Column titles are quarters. “High prices” version will contain higher prices per barrel for the coming year and the “Low prices” version will contain lower predicted prices. Later when you will be testing scenarios there will be no need to substitute tables, re-link them or rename. You will only need to mark which version to use in the scenario: “High prices” or “Low prices”. Version name is located on a tab above the table.

Version used for calculation check

On a version tab below the version name you may notice a sign Use for calculation check. That means that exactly this version will be used when you will calculate the Formula node or Python node which are connected to the current Data node as outputs.

Here is a bit more detailed explanation.
Formula node receives data from Data node. Data node may have several versions of data. When you enter the formula in Formula node you need to check if this formula calculation will work out fine without errors. To perform this calculation check click on the Run button (small triangle at right part of the Path menu). At the moment of calculation check Formula node needs to know which version of data to use. Formula node will use the last opened version of data. This version is marked by sigh Use for calculation check on the version tab.
When you are editing a Formula node and need to change the version of data used for calculation check:

look at the left to Input and output connections menu
in the Input connections section find the data node where you need to change the data version
double click on this data node name and it will open on the main screen
look at the versions tab and see which version is marked Used for calculation check
if you need a different version to be used for calculation check click on its tab. This tab will now be marked Used for calculation check
to get back to calculation node either click Back button of your browser or double click on Calculation node name at the output connections panel on the left.

IMPORTANT NOTE
Which version of data will be used for calculation check and for scenario testing are two different things.

Used for calculation check version is only used for calculation check. This mark is not taken into account while scenario testing.
While testing scenario those versions of data will be used which you will mark by turning on radio buttons at Select data versions for scenario panel at scenarios tab. Used for calculation check mark is not taken into account.

Create new version

To create a new version of a table click on the “+” sign above the left upper corner of a table, to the left of the current version name. The pop-up menu will give two options:

New blank version
Copy existing version with data Choose the second option if you don’t need to fill all the data anew but just need to modify some data.
After your click on any of the options above a new version will be created and a tab with its name will appear above the table and to the left of the already existing tab.
To give a name to a newly created version hover the mouse pointer over the version tab. At the right end of a tab a pictogram of the editing pen will appear. Click on pictogram and a pop-up dialog will appear with the option to give this version a new name. The name could be up to 128 characters long. Click anywhere outside a dialog window and the version will be renamed.

Rename version

To rename a version, hover the mouse pointer over the version tab. At the right end of a tab a pictogram of the editing pen will appear. Click on pictogram and a pop-up dialog will appear with the option to give this version a new name. The name could be up to 128 characters long. Click anywhere outside a dialog window and the version will be renamed.

Delete version

To delete a version, hover the mouse pointer over the version tab. At the right end of a tab a pictogram of the editing pen will appear. Click on pictogram and a pop-up dialog will appear with the option Delete version. After the prompt for confirmation, the version will be deleted.