Choosing the Number of Iterations

When you run a simulation, you must choose the number of times your model is recalculated to produce the simulation data. The more iterations you use, the more accurate your results will be. However, the time required to run the simulation increases as well.

If you only want to use the simulation to calculate an expected value (Mean in the Simulation Summary Table) only a few hundred iterations will be required to get very accurate results. The Posterior STD statistic tells you how much uncertainty exists in the Mean value.

If you want to produce PDF or CDF graphs that are smooth, several thousand iterations might be required. Experiment with different iteration counts until you get the accuracy you require.