SOFTWARE TRICKS AND TIPS
Generating efficient designs for comparative experiments using the SAS procedure OPTEX
Commun. Biometry Crop Sci. (2015) 10 (2), 96-114.
ABSTRACT
Good agricultural experiments require efficient experimental designs, so availability of
convenient software for design generation is important. Here, we consider the SAS procedure OPTEX,
which was developed as a general-purpose design generation tool focused mainly on response surface
regression experiments. This procedure can also be used to generate good designs for comparative
experiments as needed in crop science research. This is illustrated here for the most commonly used experimental designs.
Key Words: A-optimality; alpha design; average efficiency factor; blocking; completely randomized design; D-optimality; Latin square design; lattice square design; non-resolvable; partially replicated design; randomized complete block design; resolvable; row-column design.