Composite Input Calculations

Composite input calculations act as a hybrid between Custom and Weighted Sum/Average calculations. They allow you to combine multiple terms — which can themselves be existing calculations — into a single numerator/denominator structure.

Composite calculations are useful when you need to build a calculation that divides one group of values by another, and the individual components of each group are already defined as separate calculations.

What Is a Composite Input Calculation?

A Composite calculation takes a set of numerator terms and denominator terms, each of which can be an existing calculation or a process parameter, and combines them into a single ratio. Terms within the numerator and denominator are summed together, and the overall result is the numerator sum divided by the denominator sum.

Because terms can reference already-existing Weighted Sum or Weighted Average calculations, Composite calculations make it easy to build higher-order formulas without re-entering all the underlying logic.

Example use cases

• Stoichiometric ratio (e.g., NCO:OH index) — Divide moles NCO (a Weighted Sum calculation) by moles OH (another Weighted Sum calculation), multiplied by 100
• Cost per unit property — Divide formulation cost by total solids to get cost per unit of solids content
• Yield efficiency — Combine multiple output-related calculations in the numerator and divide by a total input quantity
• Process-adjusted property — Incorporate a process parameter as a coefficient to scale a calculation

How to Configure a Composite Input Calculation

Composite input calculations can be created from the Calculations listing page or directly in the Recipe view of a formulation. Both methods open the same creation modal.

In the modal:

1. Enter a name and units (recommended) for your calculation
2. Set Calculation Format to Composite.

Building Numerator and Denominator Terms

For each term in the numerator and denominator:

1. Specify the term type — either a Calculation (an existing input calculation) or a Parameter (a process parameter value).
2. Add a coefficient — Optionally apply a constant coefficient or a process parameter as a multiplier for the term. This scales the term’s contribution without requiring a separate calculation.
3. Invert the term (1/x) — Select the 1/x button next to any term to use the reciprocal of that term’s value. This is useful for building ratio-based expressions.
4. Pull entity from — For terms or coefficients that are process parameters, specify whether to pull the value from the entire experiment, the same workflow step, or specific workflow steps.
5. Fallback value when missing — Define a default value to use if the referenced parameter or calculation has no value.

Terms within the numerator are summed; terms within the denominator are summed. The final result is numerator sum / denominator sum.

Multiplier Section

Like Weighted Sum calculations, Composite calculations also support a Multiplier (Total) section. This allows you to define scaling factors applied to the overall result (constants, ingredients, process parameters, ingredient calculations, process calculations).

Example: NCO:OH Index

A common use case is calculating an NCO:OH index (a stoichiometric ratio important in polyurethane formulation):

1. Ensure you already have a Moles NCO Weighted Sum calculation and a Moles OH Weighted Sum calculation configured.
2. Create a Composite calculation named “NCO:OH Index”.
3. Add Moles NCO as the single numerator term.
4. Add Moles OH as the single denominator term.
5. Add a constant coefficient of 100 to the numerator term (or use a Multiplier of 100).
6. Save.

The result will display the NCO:OH index — (Moles NCO / Moles OH) × 100 — on the recipe view for any experiment that uses this calculation.

Calculation Settings

Common

• Display in Experiment-Level Calculation Section — Shows the value at the bottom of the full recipe
• Display in Certain Workflow-Level Calculation Sections — Shows the value only at selected workflow steps
• Restrict Experiment-Level Calculation to Sum Over Certain Workflow-Level Calculations — Limits the experiment-level total to selected workflow steps

Values

• Restrict Experiment-Level Calculation to Sum Over Certain Workflow-Level Calculations — Limits the experiment-level total to selected workflow steps
• Include Workflow-Level Calculations for Non-Final Steps in Experiment-Level Calculation — Controls whether non-final step values roll up into the experiment-level calculation

Display

• Exclude from Calculation Selection — Hides the calculation from view (useful for intermediary calculations)
• Display in Experiment-Level Calculation Section — Shows the value at the bottom of the full recipe
• Display Locked Value in Enter Page — If enabled, all cells for this calculation are locked on the Enter Recipe page (behaving like they are in Solve mode), preventing manual edits.
• Calculate Per Ingredient — When enabled, the calculation is computed separately for each ingredient (rather than only as a single rolled-up recipe-level value).
• Display in All Workflow-Level Calculation Sections — Shows the calculation at the end of every workflow step.
• Display in Certain Workflow-Level Calculation Sections — Shows the calculation only at the end of selected workflow steps.

Availability

• Add to New Projects — Automatically includes this calculation in new projects in the material family
• Available in Plotting/Filtering — Makes the calculation value available as a filter or plot axis
• Recipe Workflow Step Available in Plotting/Filtering — Makes the calculation’s workflow-step-level values available to use as filters or plot axes (so you can analyze how the value changes by workflow step, not only at the overall experiment level).

• Notes — Free-text shown on hover over the calculation in the recipe view
• Tags — Group calculations together. Tags let you toggle visibility of related calculations as a set.