Home → Troubleshooting → @RISK for Excel: Other Issues → Footprint Button Grayed Out
Applies to: @RISK 5.x–7.x
After my simulation ran, I opened the Data window, intending to use the Iteration Step feature to place iteration data in my workbook. But the shoeprint icon at the bottom of the window was grayed out, even though the data were displayed.
This can arise from several causes:
If you've changed the workbook since running the simulation, Iteration Step mode is unavailable, and you'll see an error in the Data Window's title bar. Run a new simulation.
If Collect Distribution Samples (on the Sampling tab of Simulation Settings) has any value other than All, the simulation does not collect all the data needed to run Iteration Step mode, and you will see an error message in the window's title bar. Change Collect Distribution Samples to All and run a simulation. (This will increase the amount of memory used, so you may also want to reduce the number of iterations temporarily.)
If any cell in your worksheet contains two identical distributions, Iteration Step mode is unavailable. That happens only with two identical distiributions in one cell—same parameters, same RiskShift functions (or both distributions without RiskShift), same RiskTruncate functions (or both distributions without RiskTruncate), same RiskName functions (or both distributions without RiskName). If you have a cell with identical distributions in it, you can move all but one of them to different cells and use cell references in the original formula. For example, suppose a cell contains a formula like
=IF(something, RiskNormal(100,15), 2.1*RiskNormal(100,15))
Move one Risknormal function to another cell, say AH47, and change the original formula to
=IF(something, RiskNormal(100,15), 2.1*AH47)
Of course, you could simplify the function in a different way, without using another cell:
=IF(something, 1, 2.1) * RiskNormal(100,15)
(Having more than one distribution function in a cell is not an error as such. If your model is naturally designed that way, and you don't need Iteration Step mode, there's no reason to change or break up your formulas.)
Additional keywords: Shoeprint Mode, Footprint Mode
Last edited: 2019-02-20