Release 6.0 - A Summary of New Features and Enhancements

As always with the introduction of a new release, this issue of EMME/2 NEWS is dedicated entirely to inform you about the many new features and enhancements you'll find in Release 6.0. It is, of course, not possible to enumerate here all new developments, nor to give very detailed technical descriptions of the implementation - you'll find these in the Release Notes and the new version of the EMME/2 Users Manual, which will both be distributed along with the new release. Thus, here we will concentrate on describing the more important new developments only.

We shall start the presentation of Release 6.0 with a catalogue which briefly lists all the main new features it offers. Items marked with an asterisk (*) are explained in more detail in the following sections of this newsletter:

• EMME/2's notion of time and date has undergone a complete overhaul. Whereas in former releases the system was only aware of the current date, in the new release precise time of day information is available. This is not only used for annotating reports and plots, but serves also for the newly introduced time stamps, a powerful concept for keeping track of the integrity of the operations performed. (*)
• The plea of many EMME/2 users for having more data items to store application specific data has been heard! In Release 6.0, the new concept of extra network attributes, is introduced. Users can now define extra node, link, transit line and transit segment attribute vectors, up to a total of 100 attributes per scenario. (*)
• The equilibrium auto assignment has been enhanced for use in multiclass contexts, i.e. where different classes of travelers have access to different subnetworks. (*)
• Module 2.11, 'Input / modify base network using batch entry', has undergone a complete rewrite. (*)
• The base network modifications carried out in module 2.12 can now be saved in a transcript file. (*)
• The worksheet of the transit line editor module 2.22 has been significantly enhanced and -using the new concept of reference line- can now also be used to perform complex editing operations on lines and itineraries. (*)
• The EMME/2 macro command language has again been substantially enhanced. Text registers and dialog output control are two of the many new features. (*)
• An automatic mechanism for locating macro files in various directories has been implemented using the new environment variable E2MACROS. (*)
• The macro MODIFYDB, which can be used to increase various dimensions of existing data banks, is now part of the official software distribution. (*)
• EMME/2 data banks can now have up to 100 scenarios (compared to the previous maximum of 20).
• The size of the transit vehicle table, which used to be fixed to a maximum of 30 vehicle types, has been rendered variable and the maximum size has been increased to 99 vehicle types.
• The scenario status reports generated by the menu command 'status' have been enhanced to include all pertinent details of the assignments. The same information is also available in a new report of module 1.22.
• Scenario lists are now always sorted according to their numbers. The scenario selection at the beginning of a session now defaults to the previous current scenario.
• The two new keywords ci= and cj= can now be used in node and link selection to distinguish centroids from regular nodes. They assume the value 1 for centroids and 0 for regular nodes.
• In the transit assignment, result matrices can now be aggregated directly into destination or scalar matrices, where the weighted averages are stored. By avoiding the writing and reading of full matrices, this can significantly speed up procedures in which only averages or sums (per destination or global) of the time components are needed.
• The demand functions used in variable demand assignments can now access up to 6 matrix parameters (previously 3), using the keywords mat1 - mat6.
• The user defined node data items i1, i2 and i3, can now be accessed in the matrix calculator, module 3.21.
• When using a predefined window for a plot, this window will be identified on the plot legend.
• A new report page command l (for last) will cause the report to continue without page prompts until the last page of the report is on the screen. This is useful if just checking the summary information at the end of a report.
• Modules 2.22 and 2.23 have been modified to allow for left hand traffic representation by specifying a negative link and segment offsets. Now all graphic modules support left hand traffic.
• Two new module parameters have been added to module 2.41, one for suppressing the output of intermediate results when aggregating, and one for outputting only those elements for which the attribute value was actually changed.
• The number of digits used when reporting or displaying assignment results in module group 6 is now parametrized in all modules in the form of a module parameter.
• The default threshold values in comparison modules 6.13 and 6.23 are now set to (-infinity,+infinity), so that negative differences will appear by default.
• All versions of the EMTOOL graphic interface now accept escape sequences for changing the color look up table (provided this is supported by the host system). This can be used e.g. for reversing the default foreground and background, to adjust to the user's preference for black-on-white or white-on-black displays.
• The X-Windows and SunView versions of EMTOOL have been enhanced to allow for arbitrary size windows and different text font sizes.
• EMTOOLX, the X-Windows version of EMTOOL, is now also available on the VAX/VMS platform running under DEC-Windows.
• The DOS version of EMTOOL can now be used with remote access programs such as KERMIT or TELNET, so that PCs can be used as terminals connected to a remote site running EMME/2.
• The GPR and GPL utilities can now share the same device entry. It is no longer necessary to know in advance if the plot files are to be processed later on by GPR or GPL.
• Support for color printers based on the HPPCL protocol has been added to the GPR utility. New format files are provided for HP Deskjet 500C and HP Paintjet color printers.
• The DOS version of EMME/2 is now compliant with the DPMI, VCPI, and XMS standards. This renders EMME/2 compatible with the various memory manager utilities and drivers (such as HIMEM, EMME386, QEMM) and allows use of EMME/2 in a DOS window running under MS-Windows in 3.X enhanced mode.

Despite of all these substantial developments, upward compatibility with existing data banks is ensured with the new release. When the new release is used for the first time with an existing data bank, the necessary (minor) data bank manipulations are carried out, after the user has confirmed that indeed he wants to bring the data bank up to release level 6. Note that extra attributes can also be added to existing data banks (see section IV-2.42 of the new User Manual).

Release 6.0 will be presented for the first time in public at the Seventh Annual EMME/2 User's Group Meeting, which will be hosted by Greater Vancouver Regional District in Vancouver, Canada, on October 13-17. Shipping of the release is expected to start before the end of October. It will be sent to all sites that are covered by a Software Support Agreement.