Today we are releasing OpenSolver for Google Sheets 2.2.0, which is a minor update with the following changes:
- We have added support for early stopping in GLPK. If your problem is taking a while to solve and you are satisfied with the quality of the best solution that has been found so far, you can stop the solve and OpenSolver will load this solution into the sheet. To stop a solve early, just click the “Cancel solve and use current best solution” button.
- When solving a “Target Objective” problem, we now try to minimize the deviation from the target rather than making the target a hard constraint. Previously, if the target was hard or impossible to reach, the solver may have taken a long time to finish. Coupled with the early stopping in GLPK, you can now stop the solve early if you see that the solution is close enough to your desired target. We will be adopting this approach in OpenSolver for Excel in the very near future.
If you already use OpenSolver for Google Sheets, the update will roll out automatically. If you are not yet a user, you can add it to Google Sheets using the link below:
As always, we welcome any feedback or ideas.