5.6d Changes
Bug Fixes
Publishing models was creating a model marked as an application so that the package could only be opened in Vensim DSS.
5.6c Changes
Help files are now provided as .chm files for compatibility with Windows Vista. Because of this the help system will no longer work with Windows 95.
Pro/DSS Only: The files created during optimization with sensitivity, multiple start or vector searches are now named the same as the run name followed by _searchtype. For example instead of vector.dat the file will be called runname_vector.dat. Similarly instead of sensitiv.tab the file will be called runname_sensitive.tab (notice the e is now in place). Also if you are creating reports with a payoff the prediction error report files are called runname_1step.err and so on.
Pro/DSS Only: A new function called VECTOR LOOKUP has been added. This function takes a subscripted variable as the specification of the Y values and specifies a range for the X axis. The input variable can be constant or dynamic allowing more flexibility in specifying multidimensional, partially analytical and other specialized functional forms.
The File Publishing dialog now has buttons to save and load publication information. If you are publishing with setting different from the defaults it may be more convenient to save the settings, and then reload them each time instead of making the changes on the dialog. In conjunction with this there is now a Venapp command FILE>PUBLISH that creates a published model or application using a form file.
Exporting datasets now has an option to select the character encoding for the exported files. The default encoding is Unicode UTF8, but you may want to select another. Many versions of Excel will not work with this and it is better to use ANSII Standard (referred to as Windows (ANSI) by Excel). For excel file format output this is the default. Note that if you are only using regular Latin letters (A-Z, a-z) numbers and punctuation these settings do not matter. It is only for international (from this writer’s perspective) characters that it is important. DSS Only the MENU>VDF2TAB, VDF2DAT and VDF2XLS functions have had a character encoding argument added.
Parallel to exporting when you import a dataset that has international characters, you will be queried for the source encoding. This is applicable only to text, not for importing spreadsheets. DSS Only the MENU>DAT2VDF and TAB2VDF have had an encoding argument added.
Pro/DSS Only: The default analysis toolset that is built in has been changed to be the same as the old default2 toolset. If you have not modified your toolset the appearance will be slightly different as more tools will be available.
Bug Fixes
PLE/PLE Plus Only: Selecting type Reality Check was not working in the equation editor.
Delete from model with multiple variables could sometimes cause internal data corruption.
DSS Only: Using ODBC with a VARID during output would cause Vensim to close.
DSS Only: Variables requiring quotes were not recognized in SLIDEVAR and other controls. These variables should have the quotes around them escaped as in
SLIDEVAR,"\"simple.constant\"",15,8,15,7,,0|100|1,"",
Pro/DSS Only: If a vector search was interrupted during optimization the file vector.dat would not be available till Vensim was closed (note that this file has also been renamed now).
DSS Only: The TEST command was not properly evaluating model values in Venapps.
Bar graphs that were made very small had bars that would disappear.
Selecting variables with embedded brackets [] would sometimes fail to quote the names properly.
Saving of a model under Windows 95/98 would fail with a message about unable to create backup.
Copying text from tool output would add extra empty lines when pasting.
Non Latin upper and lower case characters were not being properly recognized. This meant a model could have both the variable åb and Åb. Those two should, and now will be, treated as the same so there may be some correction required if you created variables differing only by capitalization.
Exporting simulation results to Excel format files would results in garbled international characters.
5.6b Changes
Tools and Selected Variables
Options have been added to a number of tools to work not only on the current workbench variable, but also on sets of variables. The Graph tools can be configured to operate on the workbench variable, or on the variables selected in the current view making it easy to quickly graph multiple variables. The Strip Graph, Table, Document, Stats and Sensitivity Graph tools can now all be configured to operate on currently selected variables, all variables in a view or all variables in the model.
When a tool is configured to operate on the selected sketch variables it will operate on the workbench variable if there are no selected variable, or if the text editor is opened on the model. This makes this selection convenient for working with the classical workbench variable, or for working with a selection of variables. For example, if you want to make a graph of several variables simply highlight them and click on the Graph tool. The variables will appear in a single graph. If you then want to single out a variable select it into the workbench, and click on the graph tool again.
For Vensim PLE and PLE Plus the Graph tool, both Table tools and, for PLE Plus, both Sensitivity graph tools have been configured to operate this way.
For the other configurations the default toolsets have been configured to operate this way but any existing toolsets will need to be modified to change their behavior. For the Document tool these options have been added under the multiple equation settings. For the Graph tool there is a checkbox near the bottom to operate on "Selected Vars." For the Strip Graph, Table, Stats and Sensitivity Graph tools the old "Causes, Uses, None" choices at the top have been replaced with a dropdown list containing – None, Causes, Uses, Selected Vars, Current View and All Vars. If you select Current View and open the Text Editor instead of the Sketch Editor the tool will behave as if None were selected. Similarly, with Selected Vars if there is no selection the behavior will be the same as if None were selected.
These changes make it easy to quickly operate on a group of variables, without getting in the way of doing causal tracing.
Templates and Autocenter/Fit to Screen
Every view using a template will open with the upper left hand corner in a fixed position. This will be true independent of your page mark settings. While the zoom percentage from the last time you had the view open will be retained, if zoom is set to "Fit to Screen" the sketch will not be centered. This should make it much easier to get consistent navigation effects using templates. The font used in template objects has also been set up to refer back to the template view, not the current view.
Bug Fixes
International characters were not going into the clipboard properly. This was especially noticeable when pasting to Excel.
Printing of models containing international characters was not working correctly.
Models stored in directories containing international characters were not saving correctly.
Excel file names with international characters were not opening properly for GET XLS … functions.
Increments on sliders in SyntheSim mode were being set to very small numbers when blank.
DSS/DLL only – vensim_get_varnames when asked for gaming variables was missing some where only a subset of subscripts were defined as gaming variables.
Some cells with text created from formula in spreadsheets were being ignored when importing the spreadsheet data.
Named ranges ending in numbers were not properly recognized when using GET XLS… functions.
Changing the range on a slider in SyntheSim was not properly updating the slide position.
New variable names were not showing up properly on the variable list when that was set to be visible.
Macro Variables could not be selected into the workbench form the Variable Selection Tab of the Control Panel.
Macro variables using subscripts different from those on the LHS of the calling equation were not working properly for element by element equation ordering required to resolve symbolic simultaneities.
Stock equations that included nonstandard subscripts were sometimes being updated automatically when a new cause is added or removed in the diagram.
When multiple subscript definitions define the same subscript range the last definition alphabetically that does not have a map will be used to name the family.
Custom bar graphs created using subscript ranges in the names of the variables to be displayed.
Trees showing polarities or link colors were not working when the link was to a valve.
5.6a Changes
Version 5.6a contains a number of bug fixes.
Bug Fixes
File permission problems could cause errors during simulation or when saving a model.
Models would print with variable names squished together.
Translation of models to UTF8 format could cause anomalous shadow variables to appear.
In the Model Reader the up and down arrow keys were not changing hide levels.
In the Model Reader Venapp’s with SyntheSim active were not updating.
Vensim was not running under Windows 98 or ME. Note that Vensim will not run under Windows 95.
Importing data from Excel files would sometimes cause unexpected behavior.
Graphs with legends suppressed did not have sufficient bottom margins or display units when only 1 scale was used.
Venapp Only: READUNCHG and READCIN did not force a new simulation in SyntheSim mode. Loading a model with SyntheSim active would cause an error. Repeatedly simulating without leaving a screen could cause buttons to not respond.
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 the reference guide.
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.
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.
