Release 4.0 - Packed with New Features and Enhancements

Release 4.0 of the EMME/2 transportation planning software is now in the final stage of the beta tests and the official distribution will start in June. This issue of EMME/2 NEWS is dedicated entirely to introducing the many enhancements and new features that have been added in this new release. Of course, we cannot cover all details here, so we concentrate on the main points only.

Let us first give a short summary of the main functional additions and enhancements introduced in Release 4.0:

• write-protection flag for matrices (*)
• matrix specification by name (*)
• new concept of scalars in expressions, macros and network calculator (*)
• macro debug mode using switch 15
• macro register %d% for substituting the current date
• arithmetic and bitwise operations (*, /, %, |, &) on macro registers
• graphic command "a" to recall annotations directly
• circles and splines in annotations (*)
• international and special symbols in internal character generator (*)
• new report command "c" to continue a report without page prompts
• new menu command "q" or "quit" to terminate the session
• short texts explaining the switches in menu
• link length can now be up to 999.99
• two-way links and other enhancements in network editor module 2.12 (*)
• color indices in module 2.23
• matrix batch entry using incremental mode in module 3.11(*)
• report of several matrices by zones in module 3.14 (*)
• new report in matrix calculator module 3.21 (*)
• computation of traversal matrices in auto assignment (*)
• variable demand auto assignment (*)
• transit trip component matrices for a subset of modes (*)
• new modules 5.34 and 5.35 for analyzing individual transit trips (*)
• in-line report for turning movements in module 6.11 (*)
• turning movements on network plots in module 6.12 (see EMME/2 NEWS 6/88)
• support for 24 pin printers in GPR utility program
• support for Calcomp plotters in GPL utility program
• new multi-format tablet driver E2TABDRV for PC based systems

The items marked with an asterisk (*) are explained in more detail elsewhere in this newsletter.

Besides the functional enhancements of the code itself, some maximum dimensions were also substantially increased with Release 4.0:

• The maximum number of transit lines has been increased by 33% and is now equal to the maximum number of zones.
• The maximum size of the turn table has been increased by a factor of 2 or 4 depending on the particular system. For most systems, the maximum size of the turn table is now the same as the maximum number of links.
• The maximum number of matrices can now be specified individually for each matrix type.
• The maximum size of a demarcation set has been quadrupled.

The User's Manual has also been enhanced and completed, including the addition of the "missing" chapter VI. The manual has been completely reprinted and the new edition will be distributed along with the new release.

Switching from Release 3.0 to Release 4.0 is quite simple. You can continue to use the same data bases, the necessary transformation of the matrix directory format will be performed automatically when you use a data base for the first time with Release 4.0. You only have to make sure that you invoke the session in the normal manner, i.e. you should not bypass the banner to enter directly into a module. When the start-up module detects a data base which is still on the release level 3.0 (i.e. still contains an old-style matrix directory), the user is prompted and has to confirm that indeed he wants to proceed with the transformation. Once a data base has been updated this way, it should no longer be used with the old release. See the release notes for details.