Excel spreadsheet question using solver...HELP!?!?!

Expenditures in $Millions
Project Year1 Year2 Year 3 Return in $Millions
A 5 1 8 2
B 4 7 9 36
C 3 8 4 28
D 3 9 2 20
E 7 4 1 18
F 3 2 3 12
G 6 8 9 40


The Ceo has decided we have 25million per year to invest. Which combination of the projects should we invest in so the return is maximized? Set up a worksheet &use solver to get the solution Set up sheet so there's a cell for each project that contains either a 1 (we invest) or a 0 (we do not invest) Solver should find the conbination of 1's & 0's that maximize the sum of the returns subject to the constraints

Are you Sure solver is the way to go?

Solver assumes it is looking at a smoothly varying function,

Your problem looks very lumpy with sudden on/off jumps,

Mark.

Zealot had a similar problem,
where he had to run through a large set of possible answers and had to choose the best according to a set of criteria.

I suggested that he use the sledgehammer approach,
i.e. set up a large spreadsheet containing every possible solution,
then select the one you want.

For your problem, with 8 projects, thats 255 possible scenarios!

That is just about reasonable with the sledgehammer approach, but it doubles with each extra project, so it would quickly become impractical.

Does anyone out there know of a nice clean way to do this?

Mark.

PS I cracked your nut with my sledgehammer and the answer is BEFG.

unfortunatly Solver is the way i have to go. This is for a spreadsheet class. I have straight A's in the class but have put way too many hours into this last assignment and im looking for anyone to help me out on this one. This is one of three problems im having with solver. Everything up untill this was cake and now im getting a little more then frustrated