We've just released Analytic Solver V2026 Q2, with new versions of Analytic Solver Desktop and Cloud (for Excel users), Solver SDK (for developers), and our cloud platform RASON. This release features our usual speed and usability improvements, including new versions of four plug-in large-scale Solver Engines, greatly enhanced support for nonlinear optimization using the Gurobi Solver, Analytic Solver UI improvements, and a whole range of RASON modeling language enhancements (that apply to both our cloud platform and our new RASON Desktop product).
More Power in Solver Engines
V2026 Q2 includes new versions of the Gurobi Solver (their V13.0.2), XPRESS Solver (their 47.1.1.0), KNITRO Solver (their 16.0.0), and OptQuest Solver (their 10.1.0.1). In this release, a much wider range of "real-world" nonlinear models can be solved using the Gurobi Solver, thanks to our efforts in transformation of Excel formulas and RASON expressions into the nonlinear "primitives" that the Gurobi Solver supports (including SIGNPOWER and LOGISTIC, new in this release). We've found that many nonlinear models include repeated instances of quite large "nonlinear subexpressions". V2026 Q2 introduces new "artificial variables" that capture and re-use these subexpressions, thereby saving significant memory and compute time.
Further Improvements in @RISK Model Conversion
@RISK is a popular Excel add-in for Monte Carlo simulation and risk analysis, introduced nearly 40 years ago by Palisade Corporation, but owned for the last 8 years by private equity firms. In response to customer requests, we built an @RISK model conversion facility into our software back in Analytic Solver V2023 Q2. Since then, increasing numbers of customers have converted (with two mouse clicks) ever-larger and more ambitious @RISK models for use in Analytic Solver Simulation. V2026 Q2 includes a number of further refinements in this conversion facility, in response to requests from some large insurance companies. We love this feedback, so let us know if you'd like something more!
Faster Creation of Solver Reports
For Analytic Solver Cloud (working in Excel for the Web), V2026 Q2 features much faster rendition of Solver reports, like the Answer Report and Feasibility Report. (In Analytic Solver Desktop, reports can be generated inside Excel, but Analytic Solver Cloud must rely on an external Web server to generate reports -- and several Internet issues can slow this down.) For reports on large optimization models, we've seen cases where the reports were produced 50 times faster!
User Interface Enhancements
While our Analytic Solver AI Agent (introduced in September 2023, steadily enhanced since then) can "replace the user interface" in some cases, we've continued to enhance the UI for human use. Our most-used dialog box is the Login dialog, so we've re-implemented this for easier/smoother use. Selected optimization constraints can be marked as "critical" -- reflecting actual resource limits -- to distinguish them from "balance constraints" and some non-negativity constraints; this is also supported in our Constraint Wizard. The Fit dialog -- which displays results of automatic fitting of probability distributions and their parameters to historical data -- now lets you save multiple fitted distributions and parameter sets.
License Manager Enhancements
Our built-in License Manager controls which Analytic Solver features and size limits apply to your use, depending on the license type you've purchased. In V2026 Q2 we’ve worked to make this more informative, so you know exactly when licenses are acquired and released, and when you might have reached a size limit. This is leading to new, more flexible license types coming in the future -- besides our already-available monthly licenses.
RASON Language Enhancements
RASON® -- RESTful Analytic Solver® Object Notation -- is our high-level modeling language for optimization, simulation, data science / machine learning, business rules, and more. RASON is becoming more relevant for Excel users, especially when you're considering a move out of Excel -- whether to Power BI or Microsoft Fabric, another desktop or cloud-based tool, or a custom application. Think of RASON as the "master shortcut" that enables you to move your analytic model out of Excel and into another tool, without having to rewrite the model. Analytic Solver Comprehensive includes a powerful tool to automatically translate your Excel optimization or simulation model, with all its Excel formulas and functions, into the RASON language (see the Deploy Model icon on the Ribbon). This translation process is further enhanced in V2026 Q2.
Many new Excel built-in functions -- recently added by Microsoft -- are supported both in Analytic Solver optimization and simulation models, and in the RASON modeling language. And Excel Tables -- created using Insert Table on the Ribbon, or with Excel's TABLE() function -- can now be automatically translated to RASON (RASON models can now include a new ExcelTables: {} section). And we realized that some users want to move simple "calculation models" (with no optimization or simulation features), or extra calculations in Excel that aren't essential to an underlying Analytic Solver model, out of Excel and into another tool, without having to rewrite all the calculations. In V2026 Q2 you can do that, with the aid of a new PsiExport() function.
The RASON modeling language also has multiple enhancements in V2026 Q2: New inline custom functions, a new range operator .:., two-sided constraint creation, GROUPBY in data sources, multiple thread handling, Six Sigma optional parameters, and loops driven by external formulas. If you haven't previously looked at RASON, now could be a very opportune time!