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Hi Vaughn,
It is very unlikely to be causing a problem . . . skip to halfway down to ignore the explanation and stop it popping up!
External models were initially designed to give Monarch users the ability to store complex functions without having to recreate them each time they were used. If these functions were placed in the default "UserDefinedFunctions" model (UDF) and distributed to colleagues, they would be available to everybody. There are also some pre-built functions stored in the UDF.
For example, In version 11 of Monarch, there is a User Defined function called Pi(). If you have a numeric field with the Radius of a circle, you could create a calculated field of [Radius] * 2 * Pi() to get the circumference.
Pi() is a function stored in the UDF that equates to 3.14159265, so without the user defined model, you would have to use [Radius] * 2 * 3.14159265.
By default, when you use a function from the UDF, it is copied into the active model. Therefore, it doesn't matter if the UDF model becomes unavailable in the future. However, if you had a new Monarch session without access to the UDF, you would not have access to the Pi() function.
Please be aware that it is possible to change this behaviour in the V11 model so that a link was created to the UDF instead of the function getting copied. If that was done, any calculated fields that used an external function will only work when the UDF can be located.
To fix it . . . .
Assuming the defaults were not changed, and you therefore don't need the UDF, you can just ignore the message.
If you prefer to stop the message, you would need to fix the reference to the external model.
Most convenient would probably be to locate the original UserDefinedModle.xmod and place it where Version 15 is expecting to see it. You only need to do this once.
NB Something that worked for me, but please use caution, was to create a 'dummy' 0 byte text file called 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Monarch\Models\UserDefinedFunctions.xmod'. I did not test beyond opening the V11 model, but it was able to load without giving the warning.
Alternatively, you could delete the reference to the UDF xmod version, but you'll have to do this for all your xmod files.
Both options are available in Table Design->Functions->Manage External Functions.
Regards,Steve.