Segments/Filters within Standalone Choice Simulator

This section describes how to create segments/filters for use in the Choice Simulator when you as the author of the simulation project are using the Sawtooth Software Choice simulator as a standalone software system (not integrated within Lighthouse Studio).  

Let's assume you are conducting a conjoint study outside of Sawtooth Software's programs and have imported a part-worth utility file in the .HBU format into the standalone Sawtooth Software Choice Simulator package.  Let's further assume you have additional variables you'd like to use as segmentation variables in the choice simulator including CompanySize.

Let's assume you want to create a segmentation/filter variable based on CompanySize (originally asked as a numeric question where the respondents typed an integer) with the following three categories:

First, create a .CSV file containing your segmentation data. The first row must contain labels where the first field must be the sys_RespNum variable. Variable names must not begin with numbers or contain spaces.

Merging Data As Labels

For the labels to appear in the choice simulator for the segmentation variable categories, one way to accomplish this is to use labels for the data rather than integers.  For example, the contents of your .CSV file for the first 5 respondents might look like:

Click File | Project Data and in the Project Data area click the Demographics tab.

Click the Import... button to import demographic data (containing segmentation or weighting variables) into your simulator project from a .CSV file.  

Merging Data As Values

We described merging segmentation variables into the standalone choice simulator above as labels rather than values, however your data could be formatted as values as well.   For example, the contents of your .CSV file for the first 5 respondents might look like:

So that the labels "SmallFirm," "MediumFirm," and "LargeFirm" appear in the choice simulator associated with values 1, 2, and 3 of CompanySize, you can specify those labels by clicking the Variable View drop-down and editing the labels for this and every other  segmentation variable you have merged.

If you want to use a merged variable as a segmentation variable, make sure its Data Type is Categorical. You can change this by clicking the Variable View drop-down, selecting a variable in the list, and clicking the settings icon.