Archived News 2006
Vensim Version 5.6 Released
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5.6 Changes
Unicode
Version 5.6 of Vensim now uses Unicode for all character encoding with files stored in UTF-8 format. This will only have an impact for models that use characters not in the standard Latin (English) alphabet. For working with new models it will allow you to alternative character sets, including far eastern character sets, much more easily. If you have existing models that use alternative character sets these will need to be converted. For models stored in .mdl format you will be asked when you open them if you want to convert the character set. If you answer yes you will be allowed to select the appropriate character set to convert from. More details on character sets are contained in the section on Reforming and Cleaning in Chapter 3 of the reference manual.
Venapp and DLL Changes (DSS Only)
The Vensim Model Reader will now open published Venapps and can also be used to open applications developed using the Vensim DLL. Vensim Application Runtime is no longer required to make use of these. Also, because the Vensim Model Reader is free software the Vensim Minimal DLL has been discontinued. The process for providing people with applications using the Vensim DLL has been changed substantially, and should make it much easier for the people you send the application to. Chapter 13 of the Vensim DSS reference supplement discusses the new processes in detail and should be referred to.
Show/Hide (Vensim PLE Plus Only)
Show and Hide are now available in Vensim PLE Plus.
Small Changes
COMLINE entries in custom tables with Tabs in them now scroll.
Using the up and down arrows to show/hide elements no longer brings up a dialog when all elements are shown/hidden. Instead a message appears on the bottom of the window for a second.
Bug Fixes
Many index entries in the help files were not opening the correct help entries.
DLL Only: The Workbench variable returned by vensim_get_info was not being giving enclosing quote marks when these were required.
(Pro/DSS only) Unsubscripted constant equations with a constant list terminated in a semi colon were not being detected as errors.
The Stats tool would use the incorrect subset of time when some Time Bases were chosen.
Datasets (.vdf files) that were the result of runs with floating point errors at initial time would not move properly between Macintosh/Intel computers.
Exporting Table tool output with a small number of columns would sometimes result in incorrectly formatted results with values from different rows appearing in a single row.
Using Reality Check, during the grace period Constraints using > or < (instead of <= or >=) would be reported as violated.
Excessively small Slider increments in SyntheSim (less then 1e-6of the range) would result in incorrect values for the constant as the slider was dragged.
Initial cause arrows could be arbitrarily reshaped when switching a model between hiding and showing these.
Sketches with embedded bitmaps/metafiles would cause problems with pasting and Undo.
When optimizing the endpoint.tab file might show different values from the reported results (also the .out file).
Find/Find Again was not working on models using Templates when the variable being searched for was on another view.
DSS Only GAME>READGVARS|tilltime was stopping early when the optional tilltime was used.
When importing .xls files containing negative numbers these would sometimes be read incorrectly as large positive numbers.
Models in directories where the total length of the path was sufficiently long could cause instability especially with GET XLS… function calls.
Publishing a package that included a file locked by another application would package a 0 length file.
The work in progress Window could stay open after canceling a simulation which opened an Excel file.
Excel was not being closed on exit when that option was set.
In payoff definitions, optimization control and sensitivity control files adding subscripts to a model variable that was not subscripted the added subscripts would be ignored with no error message provided.
New Vensim Workshop dates have been released, for November 2006.
Vensim Version 5.5d Released
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5.5d Changes
DLL Only: The minimal DLL now create a more complete error history in vensim.err. The multi context DLL now creates multiple error files named vensim_ctxt0001.err and so on for the different contexts instead of sending all messages to a single error file (context 0 still uses vensim.err).
In the variable selection dialog a new type "Orphan" has been added. Select this to get a list of variables that do not appear on any Sketch. This is useful for building up diagrams when some model variables have not been included in a diagram.
DSS Only; added in the Venapp command SIMULATE>RUNCOMMENT.
You can now select String Variables into the Workbench and use the Table tool to see their values in different simulations. You can also change String variables from the Constant changes dialog or by clicking on them in simulation setup mode.
Not PLE or PLUS. The keyword :AS-RUN has been added for Custom Bar Graphs that allow you to more completely specify line groupings. See Chapter 15 of the Reference Manual for more details.
Custom Graphs have had a :LINE-STYLE keyword added. The choices are DOT, DASH, DASHDOT and DASHDOTDOT. You can also just fill in line width as -1, -2, -3 or -4 to get the same effect.
If you export data with subscript in their own columns in Data List Format the subscripts are ordered by family, not using the order they appear in the model. The first row of the file lists the families that are used, this list is alphabetical. This format should make it easier to import values into a database. Exporting to other formats is not changed except that the number of columns exported to a tab delimited format will no longer exceed the number required to list subscripts when a save list is used.
Changing views to one that has a Workbench tool showing will no longer change the Workbench variable.
Drag selecting in sketches now includes hidden variables so the entire are will be moved together.
Bug Fixes
When importing Excel files strings created using a formula were not showing up.
Dates in spreadsheets were being ignored for GET XLS DATA.
Format strings in custom reports and titles were not being recognized.
DSS Double Precision only: Compiling of models was not working properly.
DSS Only: SIMULATE>READCIN was reading changes in addition to changes files specified in the changes list and not relative to the base model parameters.
DLL Only: The minimal DLL was not reading in model settings (changes and data files) when opening a model package.
DSS Only: Calibration Payoffs using comparison to data from an ODBC query were not being recognized.
Sometimes attempting to display custom tables with no datasets loaded would cause Vensim to hang.
Exporting custom tables with formatted values would export to Excel as the wrong values.
Adding a variable by dragging the Var sketch tool to a position could result in a word with a black background color.
Navigation buttons placed over tool output windows were not working.
The Stats tool was not scrolling its output.
Line spacing in the Stats and Table tools could be distorted when other tools were open.
The Stats tool would sometimes use more data points than the global time axis setting would indicate.
Undo was not working with sketch elements were moved or sized by selecting them and using the arrow keys.
(Not PLE/Plus) The function DELAY_CONVEYOR was not returning the correct results when the delay time was changed. NOTE using resume on a dataset created in earlier versions of Vensim for models using DELAY CONVEYOR may return spurious results.
Pasting into a view with an active template could result in an error message when the model was saved.
New £ and Euro prices have been released for all Vensim products due to recent changes in the exchange rates between the £ and the $ and Euro.