Issues and Updates

In order to help resolve any outstanding issues with respect to the functioning of the Formulate2 Dairy Ration Optimizer, this page lists reported outstanding issues and the progress of their resolution.

It is our policy to address reported issues and release appropriate updates as soon as possible.

All known, reported issues have been resolved. If you are experiencing difficulties with the proper functioning of Formulate2 not listed below, please contact us by email at cvnasoft@formulate2.com to report the behavior and circumstances so that we may address and resolve the pertinent issues

This maintenance update addresses an anomaly encountered under certain circumstances when working with Export Data Sets and making edits to its records or adding or deleting records directly to the data set WITHOUT merging it with your existing formulation data. This anomaly could result in no Ration Library designation for some or all diets which would cause the Data Sets form to report that diets had been merged when in fact they had not.

Since, when records are added to the Export Data Set directly, there is no Ration Library of origin, Formulate2 will attempt to determine if the other diets in the data set had a single source of origin. If so, diets with an unknown origin with be written to that library at merge time. If the Export Data Set originated from multiple Ration Libraries, diets of unknown origin - diets added directly to the data set - will be given the Ration Library designation Unknown Origin. At merge time, if any diets have that designation a Ration Library named Unknown Origin will be created to receive them. After the merge operation has completed, you can manually export them from the Unknown Origin Library to the appropriate Ration library.

This maintenance update addresses an issue with the Select Calculation Types form which did not format the ppm DMI calculation type correctly. This issue would only be encountered if you were adding items to the Master Nutrient list with a designated calculation type of ppm DMI. The issue has been resolved and the ppm DMI calculation type is now formatted correctly.

This maintenance update implements improvements in the operation and functionality of the Diet Detail form which simplify it use and improve its ability to detail and re-compose composite feeds.

This maintenance update resolves an issue with backing up formulation data. If a back up is attempted in an existing Formulate2 Back Up Folder in which no Formulate2 Data Registry file is found the back up operation will not execute but no explaining message will be displayed. This behavior was inadvertently introduced in the August 31, 2009 maintenance update which revamped much of the back up/restore module.

The behavior does not affect users who already have existing back up folders or are creating new backup data on new drive media such as flash drives or external hard drives. It is only exhibited in new installations of the program where the back up folder is created at install time or in other circumstances where a user might manually create the back up folder on a drive.

Without installing this maintenance update this issue may resolved by using Windows Explorer to delete the folder named "Formulate2 Back Up Folder" from the root directory of the drive on which Formulate2 is installed which is usually the C: drive. This will allow the program to create the folder automatically and will bypass the check for the data registry within the newly created folder.

However, installing this maintenance update will fully resolve the issue and no manual work around will then be required.

In the NRC 2001 publication, the evaluation software and the accompanying software code documentation the passage rate equation for dry forages contains a typographical error. Though the overall effect of the error on MP and MP allowable milk is less than 1%, this maintenance update implements the corrected passage rate equation for dry forages.

The information for making this correction was provided by Dr. Chuck Schwab of the University of New Hampshire. The paper illustrating the error and its correction is available by clicking here.

Important Note:
Please be aware that though the impact of this revision is minor in terms of model prediction it will affect both evaluation and formulation of all diets formulated or evaluated previous to the installation of this maintenance update.

To avoid confusion upon seeing these differences, when working with diets after installing this update keep this fact in mind.

Maintenance Update 5.0.29[20090831] - released August 31, 2009 - New/Enhanced Functionality

This maintenance update addresses an issue related to the backup and restore functions and also implements new and enhanced functionality to the Diet Detail form.

Backup/Restore Issue
The backup/restore issue involved a file selection procedure employed during these operations. The nature of this issue was such that in unusual circumstances an error could be generated that would terminate the given process prematurely or cause the operation to complete successfully with the possibility that some data may be missed.

This issue has been fully resolved. We recommend that following the installation of this maintenance update you make new back ups of your formulation data to insure that the back up data is complete.

New/Enhanced Functionality
The functionality of the Diet Detail form has been enhanced to include creating and retrieving mix composition records. The data for these records is generated when the user selects Capture Selections from the Other Menu of the Select Feeds form.

The Diet Detail form may now be accessed by clicking on the mix you wish to detail or any other token feed entry and selecting the appropriate option from the popup menu.

Users are also now able to show the solution of any diet, detail a mix to its individual components, run an evaluation of the diet with individual ingredients and subsequently restore the diet record to its original solution state. In addition, subsequent optimizations may be run and when returning to the Diet Detail form the new solution will be recognized and the user will be prompted to click on the Capture New button in order to work with the new solution.

Additional information on these changes is available by clicking on the Diet Detail form Help button.

This maintenance update implements changes in the Data Sets form. A new tab has been added to the form to centralize and simplify all functions related to the creation and use of Export Data Sets.

All functions implemented on the Create Data Set and Merge Data Set tabs remain as previously implemented. The new functionality implemented on the Import/Restore tab allows users to perform all needed functions by simply clicking on the appropriate button.

This maintenance update automates the download and processing of Access Keys for users with internet access. Formulate2 will now handle the downloading and processing of subscription Access Keys in the background without user interaction. Once the fee for the subscription period has been paid, your Access Key will be configured and uploaded to the Formulate2 web site. Formulate2 will begriming checking the web server for the Key before your current subscription expires and when it is found it will be downloaded and processed to reset your subscription period. When the Access Key is found and processed you will be notified that your subscription has been renewed.

If you've subscribed to Formulate2 through paypal the entire process, payment of subscription fees, download of the Key files and processing of the Access Keys will all happen automatically - you won't even have to think about it.

This maintenance update fixes an issue with stored text lines. This issue was related to the manner in which stored text lines that appear in report headers are indexed for access by the report generator. The indexing syntax was inadvertently altered in a previous update so that the syntax of data item index entries was altered from the syntax in which they are stored in report definitions. If the stored text lines were re-saved by clicking on the Save button, subsequently the report header information imported from stored text lines did not appear in reports.

The indexing syntax has been restored to its original format. If you have recently saved the stored text lines and are experiencing this behavior, it will be necessary to open the Stored Text Lines form and re-save the stored text after installing this update.

If you have attempted to resolve this issue by working with the report definitions themselves and re-selected the respective stored text line data item in each relevant field of the report header then saved the report definition, those reports where these steps were taken will NOT display the stored text lines in the report header information once you have installed this update and re saved the stored text lines.

If that is the case, it will then be necessary to again re-assign the stored text data items in those report definitions where changes were made.

This maintenance update implements minor adjustments to algorithms that calculate digestible fat and NFC. These revisions are the result of an ongoing review process and have a negligible effect on nutrient supply calculations and will consequently produce no noticeable changes in nutrient supply predictions.

This maintenance update implements changes in the Lys/Met and MP Calculator that allow adjustment of the NRC 2001 model prediction of MP from microbial yield as a percentage of the model prediction both greater and less than 100% of the model prediction. Previously adjustment was limited to values greater than 100%.

Additional revisions include changes in behavior when opening and replicating Ration libraries and when replicating Feed libraries. Now when a ration library is selected or replicated from the Ration Library Index, Formulate2 automatically opens and displays the Producer List. When Feed libraries are replicated users are given the option of automatically opening the replicated library without having to click on the toolbar Open button and select the new library from the Feed library index.

The Formulate2 licensing plan has been converted to an annual subscription basis where a subscription fee is paid each year and all subscribers are provided with full user support including live internet conferencing, telephone and email support, regular maintenance updates and free upgrades to new versions of Formulate2. This maintenance update implements changes necessary to accommodate the new licensing plan.

Please Note: If you originally purchased a Formulate2 General Use License, your installations of Formulate2 will remain under that plan and are not affected by these changes. Though you will see changes in the descriptions of Formulate2 licenses that are applicable to the new subscription plan, the terms of your General Use License remain in force and will be honored.

This maintenance update implements two new reports that will hereafter be included in the Standard Report Set. These reports are variations of the Ration Summary Report. Both reports include two new columns that report both dry matter solution amounts and dry matter solution amounts as percentages of total DMI. In addition, one of the reports also includes a brief recap of diet composition.

Both reports will appear in the Report Index and in the Preferences drop-down lists where users may select them as default reports displayed at the conclusion of specific operations such as a Solve Dynamic optimization of a lactating diet (see below).

Two minor bugs were reported and resolved shortly after the release of the March 19th maintenance update.

Under certain circumstances clicking on the toolbar Open button after restoring data from the data cache causes the program to crash however, the crash has no impact on formulation data. This was due to an occasional illegal value for the library list that was not properly checked before the corresponding property was set.
Attempting to restore data from a CD drive that contains no CD causes the program to crash. Formulation data is not affected by this issue.

These behaviors have been corrected and the current maintenance update installers have been updated to include the fixes.

If you are experiencing problems with these issues and need to address them now, you may re-download and re-install the current maintenance update to resolve the issues. For information about how to re-install a maintenance update click here.

(If you downloaded and installed Formulate2 or a Formulate2 maintenance update after March 19, 2009 7:30 PM Pacific Standard Time (US) the installer you downloaded includes the fixes for these issues.)

This maintenance update addresses an issue with re-indexing data tables. During the re-indexing process if a zero length table is encountered Formulate2 will report that disk space for the operation was either insufficient or could not be calculated and terminate the process. Termination of the re-indexing process does not affect data tables other than the fact that the current table and the remaining tables are not re-indexed.

This behavior has been corrected and the user will now be notified if a zero length table is encountered or available space is insufficient or could not be calculated and given the option of continuing or aborting the re-indexing process.

This maintenance update modifies the LysMetMPCalculator with the addition of a new input item. You may now specify the desired ratio for MP-Lys to MP-Met by inputting the ratio value into a new field that has been added to the first tab of the Calculator. The value you enter is the value that will be used to calculate the MP-Lys and MP-Met values that are exported to diet records. Any values current residing in the export target fields will be recalculated with the new ratio value as you type.

The default value that will appear in the field is 3.04 and is based on a recent review of the NRC 2001 AA data by Dr. Charles Schwab - University of New Hampshire and others. Since existing installations of Formulate2 do not have the ratio input field, after installing the update, when you first access the calculator, the default value will be automatically inserted into the input field and the export values recalculated. If you wish to use a different value, simply type it into the ratio field. Formulate2 will recalculate the export values and your desired Lys/Met ratio will be "remembered" and inserted the next time you access the calculator.

Because of apparent changes in some Win32 API functions implemented with Windows XP Service Pak 3 and Windows Vista, database re-indexing operations would not execute and instead displayed a message indicating that there was either not enough space available for the operation or the available space could not be calculated. This issue has been resolved.
The Calculate option of the Formulate menu now verifies that at least one feed item has a value in the minimum column before clearing existing solution amounts. The net result is that if you inadvertently click on Calculate and there is no feed with a minimum you will still be able to display the last solution with the View Last menu option.
A minor display issue with the Feed and Nutrient constraints grids that caused the grids to scroll up several rows if the last visible row was clicked has been resolved.

When a ration type is selected on the Ration ID and Financials page of the ration record form Formulate2 automatically binds DMI and the appropriate energy type.
The Status Bar information on the extreme right hand side of the Status Bar regarding MCP (Microbial Crude Protein yield) has been reformatted to display the current value applied to the model predicted MCP yield. Previously this pane of the Status Bar displayed either "MCP Mod:ON" or MCP Mod:OFF". It now displays the current value being used to modify the model predicted MCP yield (i.e. "MCP=100" which indicates MCP yield is at 100% of the model predicted value or "MCP=103" which indicates the MCP yield is being increased to a value of 103% of the model predicted value).
When replicating a feed or ration library the name of the library selected for replication is automatically entered in to the new name field allowing simpler modification of the existing name.

This advisory pertains to computers on which Zone Alarm is installed but disabled. To date this issue has been reported only on systems running Windows Vista but may not be OS specific.

Behavior: After running a maintenance update neither Formulate2 nor the Formulate2 Help system, when accessed from within Formulate2, is able to access the internet. However, if the Help system is started directly from the program files folder the Help system has access to the internet.

Other than the internal message generated by Formulate2 stating that it was unable to retrieve the version information, no messages are displayed stating that Formulate2 is being denied internet access. However, if Zone Alarm is restarted then Formulate2 is started again Zone Alarm with recognize that Formulate2 has changed and will prompt the user to grant or deny internet access. Once access has been granted Formulate2 will be able to access the internet. If Zone Alarm is disabled once again Formulate2 will retain access to the internet.

It appears that though Zone Alarm is "disabled" it is not inactive but continues to monitor its list of programs that are granted internet access but does not exhibit its usual behavior nor display its usual messages when blocking access because it is "disabled".

This maintenance update addresses an issue that pertains to formulating mixed feeds. This issue has to do with Duodenal Digestible AA values appearing in the Nutrient Constraints report and other reports of a mixed feed formulation. There should be no Duodenal AA values present in any report when formulating a mixed feed since the Mixed Feed ration type cannot optimize within the NRC 2001 model because the process of optimizing a mix with constraints for its nutrient composition is accomplished outside the context of a complete diet and is not therefore an animal centered operation.

This issue with AA values and mixed feed formulations occurred only in reports and not when generating values for the feed clipboard. Nutrient values posted to the feed clipboard do not include Duodenal AA. This issue would not be encountered unless you were using the Mixed Feed ration type to optimize a mixed feed outside the context of a complete diet.

This maintenance update addresses the issue reported below under that date of 2008/12/01 as well as several minor issues encountered with a Dell Vostro 1710 notebook computer display. These issues had to do with rendering of images including text strings. Other displays running under the same Windows version and installed service packs including large flat panel displays and other Dell Vostro models running Windows Vista did not exhibit these behaviors. It is possible that these anomalies are confined to a certain manufacturer's displays.

Regardless of the source of the issues Formulate2 code has been revised to accommodate the display anomalies and provide normal display characteristics on this particular Dell Vostro 1710 while also maintaining normal display on other machines not exhibiting these behaviors.

The behavior described below applies only to computers without an installed Windows Default Printer driver.

Formulate2 requires that at least one printer driver is installed and selected as the Windows Default printer. Some program display functions are dependent upon accessing the default printer driver. If no printer driver is installed the program at some point will issue a printer error message and terminate execution. Program initialization code executed at start up time is provided to determine if an installed printer driver exists but was not correctly identifying its absence. This behavior has been corrected and Formulate2 now will issue a message if no printer driver is installed instructing the user to go to the Windows Control Panel and install any printer driver from the Windows Printer Driver Database. Formulate2 will terminate after the message is displayed so that a printer driver may be installed.

The fix for this issue will be included in the December maintenance update. However, the current installers posted to the update server have been revised to include the fix. You may either wait for the next update to be released or re-download and re-install the current maintenance update with the revised code by following the instructions provided by clicking here.

This maintenance update fixes a few minor display bugs inadvertently introduced with the implementation of the Applications Menu functions. These issues were related to incomplete display of the Feed Record form and in correct query results when using the View Highlighted Feed option from the pop-up menu on the Feed Constraints grid.

It also addresses minor display issues encountered on a new Dell Vostro 1710 laptop with the downgrade version of Windows XP service pack 3. An in-house desktop computer with Windows XP service pack 3 and the same screen resolution produced a normal display. Both video and chipset drivers were updated from the respective manufacturers web sites but this had no effect on the abnormal display on the Vostro.

Though the Vostro display issued has yet to be resolved, program code was revised to accommodate the display anomalies and produce normal display on other machines and acceptable performance on the Dell Vostro.

If you are experiencing display or other issues with the functioning of Formulate2, please report them by email to cvnasoft@formulate2.com so that they may be resolved.

This maintenance update addresses the issue reported below under the date of 2008/10/27. All implemented search type parameters selected while composing user created custom queries are now consistent with user selections made from the Search Type drop down list.

This issue pertains only to the manual creation of custom queries. Custom queries are alternative Formulate2 functionality and are not required for day-to-day use of the program.

When composing custom query parameters using the Enter Query Parameters form some search types are not correctly selected and implemented in the query even though they appear correct in the form itself. This becomes apparent when implementing a search in which some results returned are outside of the parameters entered. This is especially apparent when attempting to use the "greater than" parameter which is incorrectly implemented as "equal to or greater than".

This behavior has been corrected and the fix will be implemented with the maintenance update currently scheduled for the first week of November, 2008.

This maintenance update extends the utility of the Applications Menu by implementing the Applications Menu Manger which allows you to determine the content of the Applications menu.This menu is used to start applications other than Formulate2 and permits you to integrate the functionality of other applications into your Formulate2 work environment. The Applications Menu is available when viewing Ration or Feed records, or when accessing Maintenance & Utilities functions as well as when using the Report Formatter or viewing generated reports.

This capability allows you to integrate day-to-day data handling tasks available in other applications into your formulation work environment. For example, adding Windows Explorer to the Applications menu allows you start Windows Explorer directly from the Applications menu while running Formulate2. You then have all the capabilities of Windows Explorer available to create new folders, open files from any application installed on your computer, delete, copy or move files to any folder or perform any other function available in Windows Explorer

If you use Microsoft Office, you may add any installed Office application to the Formulate2 Applications Menu. The Application List drop down box shown in the image above contains a list of Microsoft applications and the names of their executable files. MS WordPad, MS Calculator and MS Windows Explorer are bundled with every installation of the Windows operating system. Other applications such as Access, Outlook, Word, Publisher, Excel and Power Point are common Microsoft Office applications that may also be added to the Applications Menu.

You may add other applications to the Applications menu that are not part of Microsoft Office using the simple method described in Applications Menu Manager Help topic available by clicking the Applications Menu Manager Help button.

We're very excited about this extended capability to integrate useful applications into the Formulate2 work environment - and we use it extensively.

This maintenance update implements new functionality. With the addition of the new Menu shown below to Feed and Ration record forms and the Maintenance Utilities form you now have the capability to start MS WordPad, MS Calculator and Windows Explorer directly from Formulate2 menus without using the Task Bar Start button and navigating to the applications in the Start Menu.

These three very useful applications, WordPad, Calculator and Windows Explorer are Microsoft programs bundled with Windows and are available to anyone running the Windows operating system. The first time you select any of these new menu options Formulate2 will perform a quick scan to identify and record the location of the application. Thereafter, the applications will start immediately.

If you're using Formulate2's printing capabilities to print digital copies of diets to PDF files and storing them in Client folders on your Hard Drive, you may now start WordPad directly from Formulate2 to create, review, edit or print formulation or feeding notes in the client's diet folders. Make notes to yourself or your clients about anything you wish and review them before revising diets in the future - all without leaving Formulate2.

If you wish to use the MS Calculator to do some quick calculations - just click on the Applications menu and select MS Calculator and the calculator will appear in your workspace.

If you need to create new folders for a client on your Hard Drive or open an Excel spreadsheet and copy and paste information from Formulate2 into the spreadsheet, simply click on the Applications menu then click on Windows Explorer and perform the needed operations or double click on the spreadsheet to open it.

This capability is something we look forward to using and we think you will also find that it will simplify your work load and save time. We're also looking at expanding this capability in future updates.

NOTE: Due to the fact that several images must be updated, the Help System has not been revised for this update. The next maintenance update will include the appropriate revisions to the Help system documentation.

A relatively minor issue related to Windows Vista has been resolved by a recent Vista update. Previously with Vista, when attempting to back up formulation data directly to a CD drive, Formulate2 would crash even though the appropriate error handling code was in place. Though this was annoying it had no effect on data integrity and the behavior occurred only when running Formulate2 on Vista. However, since recent updates to Windows Vista the problem has disappeared - thank you Microsoft.

This maintenance update implements a new tab and new functionality for the Lys Met and MP Calculator. The new tab titled "Evaluate Lys/Met Supplies" permits the evaluation of known MP-Lys and MP-Met supplies with respect to milk and milk true protein production predicted by the equations. For images and information about this new calculator tab click here.

This maintenance update revises the "AutoFill Lactating Inputs" function found in the Other menu so that breed average values for lactating animals are stated in the appropriate units of measure when the this menu option is executed. The user selection for measurement system determines the current units of measurement..

This maintenance update addresses the issue reported on 2008/06/05 and also adds new functionality to the program. With this update, when ration libraries are cloned any load sheet parameter files associated with the cloned library are also cloned.

Individual diets for a given producer may be preserved for archived reference simply by cloning the current ration library with a new name that describes its time frame reference such as Jones Dairy Diets 2008 April cloned as Jones Dairy Diets 2008 May. This method allows you to work with previous diet formulations in the new library while they remain undisturbed in the ration library from which the new library was cloned.

If you have been cloning ration libraries for clients each time diets are revised it has been necessary to manually re-create any previously saved load sheet parameters for each newly cloned ration library. After installing this update it will no longer be necessary to do so. Any existing, saved load sheet parameters associated with the cloned ration library will be cloned also.

When printing the Duodenal EAA Supply Summary report the text that appears to the right of the AA values under the title "Lysine and Methionine Values" when the report is displayed on the screen is not present in the printed document. This behavior resulted when imported report data was not initialized prior to printing the document. The behavior has been corrected and will be addressed in the next maintenance update.

There is no work-around for this issue. However, the current installers have been updated to include the fix for this issue. You may either wait for the next maintenance update to be released or re-download and re-install the current maintenance update with the revised code by following the instructions provided by clicking here.

This maintenance update addressed the issued reported below on this same date. The update is cumulative as are all maintenance updates and includes all previous revisions to Formulate2 .

When attempting to browse or move through record sets with the Next and Prev buttons a message appears indicating that changes to the currently displayed record must be saved before moving to a different record. However, no changes have been made.

This behavior was only exhibited when users were manually browsing or moving through record sets and had no effect on diet formulation.

When feed or ration records are added to tables or edits to existing records are saved, those numeric items that require conversion between systems (i.e. anything determined as units/unit of dry matter etc.) are stored in tables as values expressed by the current system setting for units of measure. Expression of analysis values of feeds are determined by the user "Analysis Units" selection in feed records and are also stored according to that setting.

This issue affects only numeric values that are stored in tables and formatted with respect to number of digits to the right of the decimal point which is primarily limited to values that express monetary units. The behavior occurs when the user preference for Units of Measure is changed to the system that is different from the one under which data was last stored.

When records are read from tables, Formulate2 determines if the current user preference for units of measure differs from the setting at the time the data was last written to the table and any values requiring conversion between measurement systems are converted prior to display. In order to determine if record data has been edited, the program maintains a "mirrored" image of the current record. Changes are determined by comparing the displayed record with the mirrored record.

The behavior described above occurred when monetary values were rounded by formatting to two decimal places for display in the visual copy of the record and the mirrored value remained unformatted. When a check for edits was made the displayed value and the mirrored value were not equal.

This behavior has been corrected and will be addressed with an immediate maintenance update.

This maintenance update addresses the issue reported on 2008/05/24 and several issues associated with recent changes made to address expanded international compatibility.

The issues related to international compatibility were primarily associated with custom functions developed for string and number conversions and affected areas such as proper feed record toolbar display and the conversion to strings of numeric values above 999.9999 in Feed Summary Reports. All of the currently known issues are resolved with this update. It is recommended that all Formulate2 users install this update as soon as possible. If after installing the update you encounter any remaining unresolved issues, please notify us by email at cvnasoft@fomulate2.com and they will be addressed immediately.

If no breed type is selected in a ration record an attempt to get NRC requirements or to perform an optimization will generate a division by zero error and cause the program to crash. This behavior results from a change in the method used to retrieve code words for user breed type selections which caused the verification routine to incorrectly verify a non selection as valid. As long as a breed type has been selected from the drop down list, no error will occur.

This behavior has been corrected and the fix will be included with the next maintenance update. Also, the maintenance update currently on the update server has been revised to include the fix for this issue. You may either wait for the next maintenance update to be released or re-download and re-install the current maintenance update with the revised code by following the instructions provided by clicking here.

This maintenance update implements expanded compatibility with locales outside the United States (see International Issues below) and includes a number of minor fixes. This is an especially important update if you reside outside the US in an area with locale settings that differ from the English (United States) locale settings. This includes such things decimal and thousands separators etc.

We are please to announce that the next maintenance update of Formulate2 will implement expanded compatibility with locales outside the United States. In the past, it has been necessary in some areas to modify the Regional and Language Options in the Windows Control Panel in order for Formulate2 to function properly. The next maintenance update will eliminate that necessity.

This update specifically addresses the issue reported on this same date and is a cumulative update as well as are all Formulate2 maintenance updates.

This issue affects only replicated Ration Libraries. Replicated Feed Libraries are NOT affected.

When a ration library is replicated the token feed entries on the Feed Constraints tab of the records in the duplicate library are missing and the number of feeds for inclusion on the first tab of the record form is set to nothing. In addition, if the incomplete records are all deleted and an attempt is made to import records from a source ration library, the same data will be missing in the imported records.

This behavior results from the fact that the library replication function was not replicating the index map for the table that stores the token feed entries found on the Feed Constraints tab of ration records. Because the index map was not created for the new library, it was not possible to locate and retrieve the token feed entries even though they had been replicated.

The number of feeds for inclusion was automatically reset to nothing when the database engine was unable to locate the index map. Attempts to import records from a source library resulted in the same behavior because the duplicate library had no index map to update.

This behavior has been corrected and the revised code will be implemented with the next maintenance update.

Until the maintenance update is released the simplest method of working around this issue is to avoid replicating Ration Libraries. If a duplicate Ration Library is required, create an empty library then select the library you wish to replicate as the import source and add records to the new library from the source library as you normally would when importing records.

If you have a duplicate library with missing token feed entries you may also work around this issue by deleting the affected records then using the Formulate2 maintenance utilities to compact all databases. The compaction operation will automatically create an index map when the affected library is compacted. This will enable correct importing of ration records from an import source Ration Library. While this approach will work, it may be simpler to start from scratch with a new empty Ration Library which essentially what you will have after deleting records from the affected library and compacting the databases.

If the Lys/Met and MP Calculator is displayed and the Ration record form behind it is minimized an interaction between the Calculator and the Ration record form is created in which both forms are attempting to execute start up events and neither is able to complete its processes. This is equivalent to an endless loop which can only be terminated by rapidly clicking on the ration record form task bar icon until an internal error is generated. Attempts to terminate the application from the Windows Task Manager have been unsuccessful.

This maintenance update corrects the behavior and implements the Calculator as a modal form to avoid the conflict. In addition, the Restore from back up function will now read from a back up folder on a CD although back ups cannot be written directly to a CD.

Also, the procedure in the Data Sets form that evaluates nutrient list differences has been revised to screen differences more precisely.

This maintenance release implements implements new functionality for the Lys/Met and MP Calculator. It is now possible to manually adjust the NRC model predicted Microbial CP output. Adjustments may be applied during the solution process or post optimization. The details of this new addition have been added to the Lys/Met and MP Calculator web page. Click here for details.

In addition, the issues reported on 2008/03/08 and 2008/03/13 have been resolved and the fixes implemented with this release.

This issue is only encountered when attempting to merge data from an Export Data Set with existing cached data. The procedure that compares nutrient lists would successfully detect differences in the number of nutrients contain in the two lists but would not detect differences in content. This could result in allowing a merge operation that would complete successfully by data could be missing in the merged records. Attempts to supply the missing data by manually entering it then clicking on the Save button would not save the data.

This behavior has been corrected and any differences between the nutrient lists in an export data set and a cached data set are successfully detected and reported.

This issue is related to locating diet records with the Producer List. When an optional search term is created and the "Use this search term" box has been checked the search term will persists even when the box has been unchecked. The result is that the search term continues to be submitted as the search criterion even though it is not selected and may not be visible.

This will cause the same record to be returned even though the user selected a different record for retrieval.

Since this issue occurs only once an alternate search term has been used, you may work around this behavior by not using alternate terms or always using an appropriate alternate search term once an alternate term has been used. Also, since alternate search terms do not persist between sessions, exiting Formulate2 and restarting the program will resolve the issue as long as alternate search terms are not re-selected.

This behavior has been corrected and installers with the revised code have been posted to the update server. This change has not been implemented as a separate maintenance update apart from the March 7, 2008 maintenance release. If you downloaded and installed the [20080307] maintenance update prior to March 8, 2008 the revised code was NOT included. If you downloaded and installed the update on March 8, 2008 what you installed may or may not include the revised code.

If you are experiencing difficulty with this issue and Formulate2 is indicating that the most recent update has been installed, you may re-download and re-install the current maintenance update with the revised code by following the instructions provided by clicking here.

The release of this maintenance update implements the ability to set decimal place accuracy from 3 to 15 places when detailing solution amounts with the Diet Detail form. This expanded capability is very useful when working with AA formulation constraints - particularly when detailing diets employing premixes in order to accurately assess predicted AA supply at the duodenum.

This update introduces important new functionality to Formulate2 that extends the application of the NRC 2001 model. This extension is an implementation of work done at the University of New Hampshire that was presented at the 2004 Florida Nutrition Conference. The equations presented in the paper Amino Acid Balancing in the Context of MP and RUP Requirements (Schwab et. al 2004 ) which "... predict lactation responses from changes in supply of MP-Lys and MP-Met.", have been implemented in Formulate2 as the Lys/Met and MP Calculator. Click here for details.

This maintenance update implements the item below under Added Functionality as well as implementing new updating options for network administrators, and a few cosmetic changes.

With the next maintenance update, a change will be made in the Summary Reports Input form. When an item in the list is clicked on, the data for the selected diet is displayed in the Ration Detail grid. Currently, text that extends beyond the visible area of the grid is truncated and cannot be viewed. This behavior has been changed so that when an item has been selected and it's data is visible in the Ration Detail grid, text that extends beyond the grid may be viewed by clicking on any editable field of the grid then moving the mouse pointer over the desired text. If it has been truncated, the full text will appear in a box positioned below the mouse pointer.

This maintenance update addressed the issue reported 2007/12/28 and a few minor cosmetic issues. As with all Formulate2 updates, it is cumulative in nature and includes all previously released updates.

Clicking on the Record ID column of the Producer List does not produce a correct numerically ascending sort. This issue has been resolved and the fix will be implemented with the next maintenance update in January 2008.

This maintenance update addresses an issue with enabling and disabling of the "Select Import Source" option of the Files menu of both Ration and Feed record forms. When an import/export relationship was active and a record was retrieved using the Diets toolbar button of the Ration record form or the One or Group buttons of the Feed record form toolbar, the "Select Import Source" option of the files menus was disabled when the open library was NOT the source library.

This behavior has been corrected so that the "Select Import Source" option of the Files menus of these two record forms is only disabled when the open library is the source library..

This maintenance update addresses issues related to renewing access subsequent to actions and events that can occur while running Formulate2 under a provisional license during a trial period. The actions and events that produce these issues are rare and occur very infrequently.

General Use Licenses are NOT affected by these issues. If you have purchased a General Use License, processed your Access Key and are running Formulate2 without access restriction, your installation of the program is not subject to these issues.

First, it fixes a dry matter inaccuracy that can occur when using the View Last menu option with a bound PropDMI value that is different from the NRC or User DMI value. This behavior only affects the total DMI value, not other nutrient values and is related to the scaling process when retrieving a solution with the View Last menu option. This behavior has been corrected with this update.

The other issue a Windows/VB 6.0 quirk related to designating AM or PM in file date and time stamps at certain times of day and/or after a time change. This issue only affected provisional trial licenses and causes a denial of access. General Use Licensed installations of Formulate2 are not affected by this behavior. The issue has been resolved with this maintenance update.

As with all other Formulate2 maintenance updates, this update is cumulative and encompasses all previous revisions made via maintenance updates.

This maintenance update implements the changes to the Diet Detail form described below. It is a cumulative update and encompasses all previous maintenance releases. The Formulate2 Help System has been updated to reflect these changes.

The formatting of inclusion amounts placed in the minimum column of the ration record feeds grid will be changed so that three trailing zeroes will be placed after the decimal point when no other values are present. rather than terminating non-decimal values with just the decimal point.

An issue with the Mix Clipboard that under certain circumstances could cause the program to crash has also been has also been resolved.

In addition to the items above, two new buttons have been added to the form. The clicking on the Show Solution button will clear all items from the minimum and maximum columns of the ration record feeds grid and place the saved solution amounts in the minimum column of the grid. If you wish to restore the original values, simply click on the Diet Detail form Close button then click on the ration record toolbar Void button and the feeds grid will be restored to it's original state.

The Clear Mix button will remove all items from the Diet Detail form list and will also clear the items from the mix clipboard.

As of this date the Optimizing with Mixes training video has not been updated to reflect these changes in the Diet Detail form since the basic operation of the form has not changed. However the new functionality implemented with this maintenance update is fully documented in the Formulate2 Help System and may be accessed by clicking on the Diet Detail form Help button.

This maintenance update implements a few changes in the Producer List form. The list now displays the Record ID number as well as the unique field content from which the list was compiled. Also, this list can now be sorted simply by double clicking on the column headers.

In addition to the changes made in the list itself, a "Clear Text" button has been added to the form. Clicking on this button will clear text from the search term text box. A few other minor changes have also been made.

As of this date the Using the Diets Button training video has not been revised. Other than the operation of the Clear Text button, the changes implemented in the Producer List form do not alter its basic functioning.

This is a general maintenance update that revises functionality related to the producer list by adding the capability to create and use custom search terms when retrieving producers diets. It also fixes a few various minor items.

The "Using the Diets Button" training video has been revised to reflect the added functionality offer by the changes implemented in the Producer List form. The new training video may be downloaded by clicking here.

This maintenance update addresses the Calf ADP requirement issue reported on 2007/09/26. However, this update is also cumulative as are all Formulate2 maintenance updates and incorporates all previous update revisions.

Unfortunately, this issue was report the day after releasing the last maintenance update. However, because of its nature, we will issue another maintenance update as soon as this issue is resolved.

The issue pertains only to diets for young calves. The ADP requirement for young calf diets consisting of more than one feed is not calculated correctly. This behavior has been corrected and the fix will be implemented with the next maintenance update.

An updated resource file was inadvertently omitted from the update installer prepared for the maintenance update released September 22, 2007. This release supplies the missing file which provides context for the description field options of feed records.

The behavior and appearance of the Producer List form has changed. The producer list is now compiled and maintained by the program rather than the user and may be compiled from either the Producer Name or Pen/Group Description fields of ration records. The type of search conducted for records may now also be specified. Both of these settings are enable by clicking on the option buttons in the Compile List by and Search this way option groups shown in the image above.

This maintenance update also fixes an issue with properly describing a feed categorized as Plant Protein with an equation class selection of Forage. Feeds with these setting could only be described as Forage or Concentrate but there was no corresponding numeric identifier defined. The available descriptions for these selections should have been Dry and Wet. This issue has been resolved.

This maintenance update is cumulative as are all Formulate2 maintenance updates and specifically address the issues described below under the date of 2007/09/15.

When retrieving a feed record from the Feed Constraints grid of a ration record using the View Highlighted Feed option in the pop up menu, if an attempt is made to return to the ration record form using the Exit Feed Library option before the retrieve operation has been fully completed, the program will crash. This behavior will only occur if you attempt to return to the ration record before the search operation retrieving the feed record has completed. This behavior has been corrected.

Attempting to write back ups directly to a CD will cause the program to hang and eventually crash. This behavior has been corrected. The back up operation must be made to a drive other than the CD drive and the data copied to the CD using Windows Explorer.

Both issues have been resolved and fixes will be implemented with the next maintenance update.

In the interim wait until a feed record has been fully retrieved and displayed before attempting to return to the ration record and DO NOT attempt to make back ups directly to a CD drive.

This maintenance update implements fixes for both issues dated 2007/09/04 as well as a fix or an unreported issue related to solution set up procedures.

This last issue was encountered when setting both a minimum and maxi um nutrient constraint with a user type defined as a percentage of something other than DM. Under certain circumstances, this issue could cause some constraints to behave as though they were not being enforced and produce nutrient solutions values beyond the maximum or below the minimum. However, this would most likely be encountered only if user constraint types were created beyond that which is supplied with Formulate2. This issue is corrected with this maintenance update.

When replicating a ration record with a ration type other than 'Lactating" the Animal & production and Environmental Inputs fields are empty in the replicated record even though the same fields contained data in the original record.

This issue has been resolved and the appropriate changes will be implemented with the next maintenance update.

Event though the specified fields of the newly replicated record are empty, all of the data from the original record has been added to the appropriate data tables and is available in the record mirror array. The missing data may be displayed by clicking on the toolbar "Void" button - it is not necessary to manually reenter the data.

This issue pertains to ration records and import/export associations between ration libraries. When an import/export association has been set between two ration libraries and the open library has been set by toggling on the Source/Target button, if a diet record is retrieved and optimizing without first closing the import export association the diet will optimize correctly but when the solution process concludes the ration record form will be cleared and no solution will be displayed. If the record is retrieved again and the optimization run everything will function normally.

This behavior was caused because the value for the last open ration database was not correctly set. This issue has been resolved and the appropriate revision will be implemented with the next maintenance update.

To avoid this behavior, be sure to close any open import/export associations between ration libraries before optimizing a diet. If you forget to do so and the behavior occurs, simple retrieve the diet again and re-optimize.

This update implements changes that address the issue reported below under the date of 2007/08/16. Regardless of the number of copies selected the Formulate2 print engine will now print only one copy of a document to Adobe PDF. As with all other maintenance updates this update is cumulative and incorporates all previous updates.

Attempting to print more than one copy of a document to Adobe PDF will generate an error and cause Formulate2 to crash.

This issue has been resolved and the fix will be implemented with the next maintenance update.

Until the update is released, when printing to Adobe PDF make certain that the number of copies to be printed is set to one. If you forget and the program crashes just restart Formulate2. Your data will not be affected by the crash.

This issue is a division by zero error that occurs very infrequently when creating a new feed record. The issue is being researched but as of this date we have not been able to reproduce the problem. Please report any occurrences of the issue in order to help us gather information and identify the source. We'll keep you posted.

As noted above, this issue was initially reported as being associated with creating a new feed record. Subsequent information indicates that difficulties instead occur later in the flow of using the feed record when performing a Calculate operation. We still have not been able to reproduce the problem and have had no further reports on the issue. We'll continue to investigate and post information here. At this point however, this problem appears to occur very infrequently.

As of the date of this notice the Master Nutrient List shipping with the Formulate2 Dairy Ration Optimizer now contains both constrainable and feed record entries for Starch and Sugar. However, please note that while both Starch and Sugar are provided as constrainable nutrients, if you wish to constrain either apart from NFC it will be necessary to provide nutrient coefficients in feed records for these fractions of NFC. The most accurate source of information on the starch and sugar content of any feed is a current laboratory analysis. This is particularly true of forages.

If you have previously installed Formulate2, these items will not be found in feed and ration records. However, if you wish to work with Starch and Sugar, they may be added to your existing Master Nutrient List and will then be available as constrainable nutrients.

The downloadable training video listed below illustrates how to add nutrients to the Master Nutrient List.

Adding Nutrients - How to add nutrients and customize the Formulate2 nutrient list to include items you want to work with that aren't currently on the list. (voice-over narration 5.28 MB EXE)

This change affects only the Data Sets form and the manner in which diets are chosen for inclusion in an export data set. As previously implemented, clicking on a ration library to select it removed any existing diet selections from the list of selected diets. This meant that the diets in an export data set could only be selected from a single ration library.

This behavior has been changed so that any previously selected diets remain on the selected diets list when a new ration library is selected. This new behavior allows the selection of diets from multiple ration libraries for inclusion in an export data set.

However, since an Export Data Set groups all selected diets into a single ration library it is not possible to include diets with identical ID numbers in the same data set. If you need to do so you will have to clone one of the records with the duplicate ID number under an ID number that will not be duplicated in the data set. It can then be included.

If the data set will be returned to you and you will be updating your data with the work of others, please be aware that it will be the cloned record that will be updated. After updating the cloned record, the record from which it was cloned can be deleted and the cloned record can itself be cloned with the record number of the deleted record. The originally cloned record can then be deleted and your diets for the producer will then have the same number set it started with and the diet that was renumbered for the data set will now be updated and saved under its original ID number.

This new behavior will be introduced with the next maintenance update. However, a revised maintenance update installer has already been posted to the server so if you require this functionality before the maintenance update is actually released, you may re-install the most recent maintenance update by going to Formulate2 Maintenance Utilities, clicking on the Update menu and selecting Update History. Once your update history is displayed simple remove the last entry in the history and save the changes.

Then use the Check for Update menu options to check for updates. Because you've changed the history entries Formulate2 will allow you to re-download the last maintenance update installer. This installer has been revised to implement the new behavior. If you re-download the installer and run it, the new behavior will be implement ahead of the maintenance update.

This maintenance update addresses the issue reported below with this same date that pertains to all installations of Formulate2 running under any license.

It also addresses other issues reported under the date of 2007/07/27. These are issues related to trial installations of Formulate2 and do not pertain to installations of the program running under a General Use License. The changes made with respect to the access issues are precautionary in nature and may or may not have been involved with access denials.

After adding a ration record to a target ration library from a record set returned by the search of a source ration library the next click on the Next toolbar button doesn't display the next record in the record set. This issue does not affect feed records.

This issue has been resolved and will be addressed in the next maintenance update

There is no workaround per se. It will be necessary in the interim to restart the search and use the Next button to locate the next record in the set each time a record is added to the target ration library.

This update addresses the Data Set issue listed below, a few other minor issues and implements new program functionality.

Working with premixes and mixed feeds within the NRC 2001 model is problematic. This phenomenon stems from issues related to the theoretical basis of the model. Those issues and how to successfully work around them with Formulate2 are discussed on the NRC Model Issues Related to Mixes page of this web site.

The maintenance update implements the Diet Detail form, and new options in the Select Feeds and Ration Record forms all shown below.

The new Capture selections menu option of the Select Feeds form allows you to save a copy of the items you select for a premix to memory. Your selections will remain in memory until you replace them with other selections or exit Formulate2.

You may then work with any diet that uses the premix and detail the premix components in the diet record by clicking on the new Detail Diet menu option of the Ration Records form shown below.

Simply enter the Feed ID you've assigned to the premix and click on the Detail All button. We recommend that you detail diets using a record cloned from the diet that was optimized with the premix. This will give you two records of the diet - one for optimization and one in which the premix is detailed by its components as well as all other items included in the solution. The solution amounts will be placed in the minimum column of the Feed Constraints grid and all other entries to the minimum and maximum columns will be deleted. You may then use the Calculate menu option to get an accurate evaluation of the diet as optimized. (Note: the record in which you are detailing the diet must have feed entries for each item in the premix.)

Click on the Help button of the Diet Detail form for specific instructions about how best to employ this added functionality. Once you've used the process you'll find it to be fast, simple and very useful.

Be sure to read the information posted on the NRC Model Issues Related to Mixes page of this web site in order to get a good working understanding of the issues involved and how to employ Formulate2 to successfully and accurately work with mixes within the NRC 2001 theoretical framework.

We have have not had reports from the field regarding this issue. At this point it appears to be confined to our development machine. This machine is running several background utilities and multiple installations of Formulate2 under different licensing arrangements. So this may be an issue that is confined to the development environment alone.

However because of its nature, we are posting this outline of the issue as a precaution against the possibility that it may be general.

The issue has to do with trial installations only - at this point nothing has been observed that would indicate that installations of Formulate2 running under a General Use License could be affected.

Under circumstances that are as yet unknown, information pertinent to the trial licensing provisions can become corrupted. When this occurs, access to the trial installation will not be permitted. If you have a trial installation of Formulate2 that is denying access within the allotted trial time or access count, please contact us at cvnasoft@fomulate2.com and we will assist you with restoring access to your Formulate2 trial installation.

When creating an export data set the library from which the diets will be selected is designated by double clicking of the desired ration library name. After the individual diets have been selected from the designated ration library, if another ration library name is single clicked on the creation of the data set will fail. This behavior has been corrected and the fix will be implemented with the next maintenance update.

In the interim, be careful not to inadvertently single click on a ration library name after selecting diets for an export data set..

Now, when you resize the windows of the Formulate2 Reports, Report Formatter, Maintenance Utilities, Feed Records and Ration Records forms Formulate2 remembers the window size when you close the program. When you restart Formulate2 these windows will be displayed as they were when you previously closed the program.

Additional updates to the Formulate2 Help file have been made to reflect recent changes in menu options and to update images and topic text.

Also, a new menu option has been added to the Other menu of Ration and Feed record forms. This option opens the Formulate2 Help System and displays the Online Tutorials topic. This topic has a link the the tutorial list page of the Formulate2 web site. Clicking on the link will display the tutorial list page in the Help topic window. From the web page you may select videos that you wish to view.

Flash movies will be displayed in the Help Topic window and self contained executable videos will display in their own window and may be played by clicking on the Open button of the download form. When opened from the download form, self contained videos are downloaded to a temporary folder for viewing and are automatically deleted when the video concludes.

If you wish to save self contained videos for future reference, click on the Save button of the download form and select the folder where you wish to save the video. To view the video when the download is completed, simply click on the Run button of the download form.

This update installs the updated Help File, implements a Help button on the Update History form and addresses a few minor cosmetic issues.

This update implements what is currently considered to be the complete resolution of the issues described below with respect to spy ware software and file locking. Since the implementation of code revisions to address these issues, we have experienced no further problems on our development machines and have received no further reports regarding this issue. Unless further reports are received, this issue is considered resolved.

This update also addresses some minor cosmetic issues and an issue with occasional inaccurate update notices.

Some utility programs running in the background can access various Formulate2 files and deny access to Formulate2 when it is attempting to access its own files. This issue is being addressed in the most critical areas first and the resolution is being implemented in stages in to order reduce the nuisance factor in a timely manner.

Several facets of this issue have already been addressed with previous updates. When we feel it is fully resolved, we'll post a notice here to that effect. Please continue to report incidents related to this issue that reference error code 70 or 75.

The issue described above appears to involve Anti-Spy ware utilities - specifically Spyware Doctor - but could involve other utilities as well. The problem seems to be associated with how theses utilities access, lock and release files. At this point the problem seems to focus on what happens when the utility program is processing a Formulate2 file at the same time Formulate2 attempts to access the file. The utility does release the file but apparently not soon enough to prevent an access error.

In some recent instances this has resulted in one of the Master Feed Stuff Library tables has being trashed necessitating re-installation of the library.

This is a recent issue. Spyware Doctor has run on our development machine for well over a year now without a problem until the last few months.

We recommend that you use the Formulate2 back up capability to back up your formulation data as soon as possible and set User Preferences to automatically back up your data when you close Formulate2.

This issue only affects custom queries created by users when searching Ration or Feed libraries created with a period in the name of the library (i.e. John A. Doe Dairy). If a query is conducted on a nutrient grid the table name will not be parsed correctly and grid data will not be returned correctly if returned at all.

This issue does not affect the normal functioning of Formulate2 and will only be encountered if a custom query is created for an item located in a nutrient grid within a Feed or Ration library created by the user and given a name containing a period.

The issue has been resolved and will be addressed in the next maintenance update. However, a revised installer has already been posted to the server so if you are experiencing difficulties with this issue and it needs to be resolved immediately you can re-install the most recent maintenance update by going to Formulate2 Maintenance Utilities, clicking on the Update menu and selecting Update History. Once your update history is displayed simple remove the last entry in the history and save the changes.

Then use the Check for Update menu options to check for updates. Because you've changed the history entries Formulate2 will allow you to re-download the last maintenance update installer. This installer has been revised to resolve this issue. If you re-download the installer and run it this issue will be resolved.

This maintenance update implements a significant amount of revision to address the issues described at the top of this list with respect to Anti-Spy Ware utilities. While this update is comprehensive unreported issues may still remain. Please report any difficulties you may be experiencing - especially those that reference error codes 70 and 75.

Also, please review the information in the topics Important Notice and Current Advisory above and follow the recommendations there.

This update fixes a few remaining unit conversion issues with Summary Reports and also finalizes procedures for determining Kd values for premixes and mixed feeds when working with the NRC 2001 model. The Kd based changes provide guidance to users working with NRC 2001 but allow calculation of feed clipboard values to continue even if the Kd value cannot be calculated. This arrangement permits users working with NRC 1989 full use of the feed clipboard.

This maintenance update is cumulative as have been all maintenance updates and addresses and resolves the issues listed below as reported on May 12, 2007

After the update, the first time the Summary Reports Input form is loaded Formulate2 will verify that the ration library from which the diets were selected is the currently open library. The first time you access the form the program will not have the necessary information for previous selections. As a result a message will be displayed informing you that if you continue with the operation all existing diets will be deleted from the list and you will be asked to if you wish to continue.

Click on the Yes button and clear the entries from the list. You will then need to re-enter any previous entries if you still wish to work with them. This will only be necessary the first time you access the Summary Report Input form after the update

When the units of measure are changed you must click the refresh button on the Summary Reports form Input and re-enter any manual adjustments before running a summary report in order to correctly convert milk production values.

Also, if in the course of creating the Summary Report you reformulate a diet that is included in the report you must click on the Refresh button of the Summary Reports Input form to update the diet in the Summary Report.

Access to User Preferences has been added to the Other menu of both ration and feed records allowing users to more easily change between English and Metric measurement systems.

Metric conversion issues with Summary Reports have been reported and resolved. Also, inadvertent multiple clicks on the Make Report button caused problems after the report was generated such that it was not possible to exit the displayed report to return to any other program function. This issue has also been resolved.

With Formulate2 set to the Metric system, when a feed record was viewed by selecting its token entry from the feed constraints grid of a ration record using the "View highlighted feed" option of the pop up menu to display the feed, attempting to exit the feed record and return to the ration record caused the "Data Changed" message to appear when no changes had been made. It was then necessary to click on the toolbar Save button before returning to the ration record. This behavior has been corrected.

This update revises how the RDP requirement target is handled during the Solve Dynamic solution process. Previously, it was necessary to bind RDP as an enforced constraint in order to insure that RDP was adequate. It was not necessary to to enter a constraint value but RDP had to be bound. This update changes that behavior so that the RDP requirement is automatically enforced if RDP is not bound as a constraint. There was some confusion with respect to the previous behavior when working with dry cow and growing heifer diets. With these diets, binding MP without also binding RDP frequently produced infeasibilities. With this update, it will no longer be necessary to bind RDP when working with dry cow and growing heifer diets.

This maintenance update addresses the items posted since the last maintenance update on April 14, 2007. All Formulate2 maintenance updates are cumulative and include all previous revisions to the program..

A. When adding a new record, inadvertently double clicking on the toolbar Add button can corrupt the record being added and cause the program to crash. The integrity of the data table can sometimes be restored by performing a Compacting operation even though no space is recoverable. If Compacting fails to correct the problem, re indexing the data tables will restore table integrity but can be a lengthy process.

B. More inclusive checks to verify data will be instituted when creating a premix from the Select Feeds Form in order to insure valid Kd values.

C. A check will be made for an installed printer driver at application start up.

D. NEl 1989 will be added as an acceptable energy type for mixed feed formulations. Users will be able to bind NEl 1989 as the energy type constraint without also binding NEl (3x 2001). The 1989 NEl values are also values calculated at 3x maintenance intake though the 1989 and 2001 3x values differ conceptually. This change is in harmony with the concept of providing a workable legacy bridge between NRC 1989 and NRC 2001. The NEl values from laboratory analyses currently available can be appropriate for use as 1989 values. However, the 3x values from NRC 2001 feed tables are diet specific. Once the composition of a feed differs from its NRC 2001 table analysis the only way to update the NEl value is to recreate the diet in which the feed was originally evaluated and re-assess its NEl content.

This release addresses issues reported since the last maintenance update and implements new functionality with the ability to view and edit the maintenance update history file.

The Kd and DM% issues discussed below are resolved with this maintenance update.

Kd values are not being calculated for premixes and mixed feeds formulated with the "Mixed feed" ration type. This issue has been resolved and will be addressed with the next maintenance update.

There is no interim work around for this item. However, once the next maintenance update has been installed it will be possible to use Formulate2 to calculate these values for the affected feed items.

The DM% of feed entries imported into ration records is incorrect. However, using the View Highlighted Feed option of the ration record Feeds Constraints grid pop up menu to display the feed then returning to the ration record sets the DM% to the correct value. The incorrect value resulted from an improperly formed search value which did not retrieve the feed DM% correctly. This issue is recent and has been resolved and will be addressed with the next maintenance update

Until the next maintenance update is released you do the following to work around this issue. The DM% noted in the feed constraints grid of ration records is anecdotal in nature and is not used by any process. Though it may be distracting, there is no practical impact from this behavior. Either ignore the DM% value or use the method described above to place the correct DM% values in the grid.

This is the first maintenance update of version 5.0.29. It addresses recently reported issues dealing with numeric data comparisons when checking records for edits, improves file access procedures with regard to setting file attributes at access time and also addresses a minor glitch that caused a data changed message to appear when rapidly moving through a record set though no changes had been made. It is also possible now to delete a record that has been changed without saving or voiding edits if the record number has not been changed.

The file attributes issue addressed had to do with applications other than Formulate2 setting read only attributes on Formulate2 files. It was believed that this was being done by utility applications that in some instances failed to reset file attributes to their original value when the utilities processes were completed.

This version update will migrate your formulation data to a new folder. Because your formulation data is involved in the update and because unforeseeable circumstances can occur, we strongly recommended that you back up your data before installing the update.

With this update Formulate2 is now ready for Windows Vista 32 bit Versions. In addition, Formulate2 may now be run under a standard user account on Windows XP by setting permissions on the following two folders to allow any user read/write access; Formulate2 Working Data and Formulate2 Back Up Folder.

This update also addresses all issues posted between the Maintenance Update released February 10, 2007 and this release date. In addition, it addresses a recently reported issue not listed on this page. Some of the required program initialization data was stored in a file with that was identified by some system clean up utilities as "system clutter" and deleted when the utility attempted to free hard drive space. The result was that Formulate2 could not initialize properly at start up and consequently would deny access to users. That issue is also resolved with this update.

The Kd values as calculated for composite feed items and total rations are incorrect. This issue has been resolved and will be addressed in a version update to be released in March 2007. This update will also address the changes needed to make Formulate2 ready for Windows Vista and add additional functionality in the following areas. The index listing displayed by clicking the ration record toolbar Feeds button will now display headers for each column and the contents of the listing can be sorted by clicking on the column headers. This same functionality is also implemented with the listing displayed by clicking on the feed record toolbar One button.

This release addresses the issues reported February 3, 2007 and February 9, 2007. Both of these items are fully resolved with this maintenance update. The list of available nutrients for User Types is now compiled from the constrainable list and base calculation types for feeds are only available as functions of DM. Base calculation types for items appearing on both the feeds and constrainable lists are limited to types for feeds for either list. If you wish to state a constrainable base calculation type on another basis it will be necessary to make two entries for the item - one for feeds only and another for the constrainable list only.

All nutrient constraint targets are now properly stated under all circumstances.

Under certain circumstances some nutrient optimization targets could be misstated allowing values to solve outside constraint targets. This behavior only occurs the during the first optimization run executed after starting the program. Thereafter all targets are correct.

This issue has been resolved and will be addressed with the next maintenance update.

When creating User Types to override base nutrient coefficient calculation types the list of available nutrients displayed in the Available Nutrients drop down box is being compiled from items assigned to feed records. To avoid confusion about User Types based on nutrients other than DM this behavior will be changed with the next maintenance update. The list of available nutrients will now be compiled from nutrient items assigned to the constrainable list. This approach is also consistent with the fact that subject nutrients must be constrained with at least a minimum value.

In the interim please be aware that the subject nutrient of User Types you create must be also be assigned to the constrainable list.

This update addresses an issue related to setting up new nutrients with constraint coefficients defined as a percentage or ppm of a subject nutrient other than DMI or MP.

If for instance, you added Starch as a new nutrient and set its constraint type in ration records as a %NFC; depending upon the circumstances the constraint would either not be enforced or set up unresolvable infeasibilities.

User types were also subject to this issue if the user type attempted to set a maximum constraint with a subject nutrient other than DMI or MP.

This update adds an auto-fill option to the Other menu of the Ration Record form. The AutoFill option will automatically place breed-appropriate values in input fields on the Animal & Production and Environmental tabs of the ration record. The AutoFill values are general and must be revised to accurately reflect the animals being modeled in order to generate valid requirement values. The AutoFill function is supported for lactating diets only.

This option provides quick breed specific starting values for new diets that can be quickly and easily revised to insure accurate requirement generation.

This maintenance update revises functionality associated with importing feeds from a Source library to its Target library. The revision disables certain menu options when a library is opened as a Source library. Disabling these options permits you to edit a feed record before adding it to the target library.

This same functionality is also implemented with respect to ration libraries and ration records however, some limitations apply. Ration records cannot be edited in any way that implements a delete or save operation. For example, if a ration library has been opened as a Source library, feed items cannot be deleted from the ration record feeds grid and other than accessing the Troubleshoot option, items in the Formulate menu are disabled.

This update implements a few mainly cosmetic changes and also addresses an issue with stored text lines. The Stored text lines option of the Report Formatter Fields menu displays a form that allows you to enter up to ten lines of text which are stored in a file and available as a data source for setting up report definitions. The first three lines have been used to enter the company information that appears in the header section of reports in the Standard Report Set.

PC maintenance utilities such as System Mechanic and others that seek to optimize overall system efficiency frequently employ functions that attempt to recover hard drive space occupied by certain types of files. Files that fall in the target category are deleted and the disk space they occupied thereby freed for consolidation. If such a disk optimization routine is run the file that stores the text lines can be deleted in the process. When this occurs, Formulate2 reports will still generate but will not have the company header information in the report and in the generation process will display messages to the effect that information for these items could not be found.

Once you've installed this update, select Report Formatter from the ration record Other menu, then select Stored text lines from the Fields menu of the Report Formatter. When the Stored Text form appears, click on the Save button. This action will save your stored text lines in another format that is ignored by disk optimization processes.

This resolves this issue with respect to stored text lines. However, other files with the .tmp extension used by reports are also affected. This should present no problem unless you are attempting to edit or create a report and attempt to preview the report. The preview operation will attempt to load data from data source files that have been deleted.

Data sources are refreshed each time an optimization is run or the Calculate or View Last menu options are executed. To restore the data sources used by ration reports simply display any ration record and select one of the options from the Formulate menu discussed above. The result of doing so will be the display of a report. Once the report is displayed, the data sources have been refreshed and you can then get a preview of any ration based report from the Report Formatter.

When the last maintenance update was released the changes in the internet access process had not been sufficiently tested and so it was omitted from the update. Since other items had a bearing on the basic functioning of the program we went ahead with the release without the update revisions. We've now had sufficient time and opportunity to validate the changes in the process and are releasing another maintenance update to implement them.

You will notice that at start up different visual elements are utilized to inform you of the progress of checking the update server.

You will also find a new menu in Maintenance for manually checking for updates anytime you wish to.

This update resolves the issue reported November 30, 2006 and addresses other issues as follows.

The company information in the heading of the Ration Nutrient Constraints report did not display correctly. One aspect of this issue had to do with the fact that two different import fields were attempting to merge text into the same column. The other part of the issue had to do with unequal spacing on either side of a column span. Both of these items have been resolved with this update

Two new tag line commands for use with the report formatter have been implemented. The PADRIGHT and PADLEFT commands allow the addition of space characters to either side of a text string. The syntax is [PADRIGHT=7] which will add seven space characters to the right side of a text string. These commands can be used to help center text in reports when the columns spanned by the text are do not allow equal spacing within the report page on both sides of the column span.

The PADRIGHT command was used as part of the resolution of the display issue with the Ration Nutrient Constraints report where the column widths necessary to correctly display the primary report data are such that the columns available to display the report header information offsets the first two lines of the stored company information to the right. The third line however has equal spacing on both sides of the column span and correctly centers its information within the report page.

With this update, the Ration Nutrient Constraints Report definition has been revised to implement PAD commands to correctly center the company information.

When working with the Report Formatter attempting to generate a preview of a report with no defined fields causes the program to crash. This issue has been resolved and will be addressed with the next maintenance update.

This update resolves issues regarding absorbability coefficients of minerals in feed records. These values are not stored in tables but are implicit in the relationship between the total and absorbed values for minerals. When the cursor moves to an absorbed mineral value field, a small form is displayed on top of the feed record nutrient grid. The value of the coefficient originally entered to obtain the absorbed values is calculated from the values stored in the feed record nutrient table. These values were being taken from the feed record nutrient grid which caused the coefficient to be recalculated when the total value of a mineral was changed instead of recalculating the absorbed value. The values used now are the table values stored in the nutrient values image array so that changing the total value does not affect the value of the coefficient but recalculates the absorbed value.

Coefficient values may still be edited manually but will not be used if the absorbed field is exited then reentered without clicking on the toolbar Save button first. Saving the edits places the new value in the nutrient value image array.

This is the first maintenance update for version 5.0.28. If you downloaded and installed version 5.0.28 before this maintenance update was released, you will be prompted at start up time to download an update. This update will prepare your installation of Formulate2 to distinguish between version updates and maintenance updates. After installing the update, your version number will remain 5.0.28.

Restarting Formulate2 after this update you will again be prompted to download an update. Clicking on the OK button of the update message will take you to the Help system maintenance update topic. This second update is the maintenance update. Download and install the maintenance update.

When you've downloaded and installed both updates your installation of Formulate2 will be ready to recognize future maintenance updates. Maintenance updates will not increment the Formulate2 version number but will provide fixes and other needed program patches.

If you downloaded and installed version 5.0.28 after the maintenance update release date you will only be prompted regarding the maintenance update which you should download and install.

With this update we're introducing new user interface elements to streamline and simplify the processes of setting up rations and finding them later when its time for revisions. The previous methods are still in place the new elements have been added.

We've also included an Help file based exercise to familiarize new users with ration setup methods. Structured in a Read and Do format, the exercise actually walks users through the set process and concludes with the optimization of the new ration.

Several cosmetic changes have also been made as well as revisions addressing issues with the creation of data sets. Rations selected for inclusion in a data set but not residing in the open ration database were not being located. This issue has been resolved.

This update addresses issues with reading ration records in which token feed entries have been deleted. The issue does not affect data table integrity but does affect how token feed entries in ration records are retrieved. The internal procedures handling this task were not clearing a null record index flag properly so that the token feed entry immediately following a deleted token entry was not being read. There was also an array dimensioning issue associated with this anomaly - both are corrected with this update.

This release implements a "Troubleshoot" option in the Formulate menu of the ration record form and features a new help topic; "Troubleshooting Formulations". The menu option accesses the Help topic which provides structured guidelines for troubleshooting infeasibilities and other solution anomalies. This type of feature was requested by Formulate2 users and has been implemented in a manner that provides a usable checklist for troubleshooting while retaining maximum flexibility with respect to user inputs in order to address unusual scenarios. This feature is in addition to the Solution Log which records all infeasibilities encountered during a solution attempt.

This update implements a few minor changes in the functioning of the Data Sets form. The options now offered when executing a Confirm Update operation are Yes, No and Cancel. Implementation of these options allows you to exit the update process at any point and insures that all collateral data associated with any updated ration record is also updated regardless of where in the process you decide to cancel the operation.

This update implements new functionality as well as addressing an issue with the use of decimal values as feed record ID numbers.

Decimal value issue - This issue was discovered in-house and relates to the use of decimal values as feed record ID numbers. There is no problem with the feed records themselves. However, when a feed with a decimal ID number is exported as a token feed entry to a ration record, problems can arise when searching for feed records by way of the token feed entry in ration records. This issue can affect ration record Save operations and formulation attempts and cause unexpected and apparently random results. Under some circumstances operations using feed record ID numbers in the ration record feeds grid to locate feed records were incorrectly making feed record keys and thus were unable to locate token feed entry records that did in fact exist. This issue has been addressed and corrected. After installing this updated decimal values as feed record ID numbers in token feed entries will function correctly.

While this issue is confusing and irksome the integrity of affected data can be restored by installing update 5.0.24 and working with the affected ration records. If you have experienced difficulties resulting from this issue, please contact us at cvnasoft@formulate2.com and we will assist you with resolving data integrity issues.

New Functionality - This update also implements new capabilities that allow you to share your work load with others by creating an Export Data Set of selected diets that can be transmitted physically via a "Jump" or "Flash" type USB drive or by email with a ZIP archive file to a colleague who can work with the data set, revise diets then return the revised data set to you. When you receive the returned, updated data set you can merge the revised data with your existing data set and update your records with the work performed by your colleague.

This update is cumulative and includes all previous updates as well as addressing all issues noted below as scheduled for update version 5.0.23

Special note: The program "hang" issue reported August 4, 2006 was apparently related to a similar issue with the generation of load sheets. Although load sheets issue was reported it had not yet been confirmed as an application issue and was being approached as a possible O/S issue. However, update 5.0.23 resolved the load sheet generation issue as well. Both issues dealt with the report generator and a specific report formatting command which under rare circumstances would create a non-exit able loop. The logic of this loop structure was revised to assure that exit conditions would be met under all circumstances.

After installation of Spy Sweeper anit-spware and subsequent hard drive clean up, Formulate2's Stored Text Lines.tmp file was missing. Attempts to generate Summary Reports or any other report failed. Once the contents of the missing file were restored, normal report generation following ration solutions was restored but attempting to generate a Summary Reports for dry cow diets caused the program to "hang".

A review of code and processes resulted in code changes addressing possible causes of the hang. We were not able to reproduce the problem on our test platform but were able to resolve the problem on the system of the user reporting the issue.

This update is cumulative and includes all previous updates as well as addressing all issues noted below as scheduled for update version 5.0.22

When using the Supplement Worksheet the inclusion rate value for the supplemental package must be entered on an estimated DM basis in order calculate nutrient densities correctly.

The label of the inclusion rate field has been revised to stipulate that the value must be a DM value and Help file documentation has been revised to specifically state that fact. (July 1, 2006)

This item is resolved and will be included in the next program update 5.0.22. Until the revision is released, simply convert the inclusion rate to a dry matter figure.

When imported a mixed feed item from the Feed Clipboard nutrient items stated as units/DMI are not converted correctly between English and Metric systems. (July 1, 2006)

This report was in error. All items imported to a feed record from the feed clipboard are imported in metric units and values stated as units/DMI are correct as metric values. Regardless of how the analysis units may be set in the feed record when the clipboard data is imported, the values imported are metric values and the feed record analysis units are automatically set to metric. This behavior is by design. When manually entering values such as vitamin IU/DMI or KIU/DMI you must be certain that the values you enter are correct for the selected analysis units. If the values you are entering are English and the feed record analysis units is set to Metric, you must either convert the values to Metric units before entering them or set the analysis units to English. After the values are entered you can then reselect Metric units and the values will be properly converted.

When deleting a User nutrient from the Master Nutrient List when viewing either the Feeds or Constrainable items list a runtime error is generated and the program crashes. This behavior does not occur when viewing the complete list - only when the list is filtered for either of its subsets. (June 30, 2006)

This issue has been resolved and will be included in the next program update 5.0.22.

"When I try to redesign the formats and/or change the names of the feedstuff F2 does not accept Turkish characters."

At the present time this issue appears to be related to the characteristics of the Microsoft Label Control which is used in Formulate2 to hold the contents of some table record fields. This behavior appears to be inherent in the control as designed by Microsoft Corporation.

While the most likely source of this issue is the Microsoft Label control that determination has not been definitely confirmed and the issue is still being researched.

The following technical article relates to the use of the Unicode character set and intrinsic Visual Basic controls http://support.microsoft.com/kb/193540/en-us . It seems that Microsoft didn't design labels and text boxes etc. to correctly display Unicode characters even though the programming language uses the Unicode character set internally.

The alternative set of controls the article mentions is available within the programming environment however the DLL they need in order to operate cannot legally be redistributed with Visual Basic applications because it is part of the Microsoft Office Suite. The required DLL must already reside on the target machine. As the article states, even though these controls are available they have not been tested for use with Visual Basic.

In addition, to quote the article, “Because this behavior requires UNICODE language package support, it (is) currently supported only in Windows NT.”

Apparently, both the Text box and the Label control convert Unicode text to ANSI text for display though the text is stored correctly in their respective text and caption properties. From test results it appears that the Flexgrid control doesn't have those limitations and handles the Unicode character set correctly.

The ANSI character set apparently does not support all of the Turkish characters. Why Microsoft would design the intrinsic controls with these limitations and at the same time carefully design the programming language to support the Unicode character set internally is a question we can't answer. The bottom line seems to be that all words are stored with the correct characters in the tables and all control properties that store text read from the tables store the text characters correctly but in Labels and Text boxes etc. they don’t and won’t display correctly.

However, because all printing is done from MSHFlexgrids all characters will display in reports correctly and will print correctly as long as the printer and the installed fonts also support the character set.

At this point there is nothing that can be done about the display issue - the behavior is by Microsoft's design. However we will make certain that the issue is resolved in future Formulate2 version upgrades.