RE: UrbanSim 3 vs. 4

Hi Jen,

I think you have summarised the problem very well. Opus and UrbanSim 4 provide a great set of new features and will offer ongoing support. However the biggest issue with UrbanSim 4 is that it simply will not work out of the box like UrbanSim 3.

I have had two developers working on UrbanSim 4 for several weeks now and they are yet to get the test database and all of the models in working order. When I first looked at UrbanSim in Feb 2006 I was able to have a running simulation that I could then experiment with in a single day.

My developers have stated there are a lot of hard coded references to the University server causing a lot of things to break. There are also numerous differences in what the documentation states versus the source code. The team is stepping through correcting a lot of code instead of working on models and scenarios. We are planning to share our changes via our SVN server once we have a working model running.

The Java version is your best option in my honest opinion. It provides a working system in just a few hours. UrbanSim 4 will not.

PS. I don't mean to come down hard on UrbanSim 4 as it is such a huge step forward from version 3, it simply isn't ready for widespread use like UrbanSim 3 is.

Aaran Stent
National Economics
aaran.stent_at_nieir.com.au <mailto:aaran.stent_at_nieir.com.au>
416 Queens Parade
Clifton Hill VIC 3068
Ph: 0419 227 262

-----Original Message-----
From: users-bounces_at_urbansim.org [mailto:users-bounces_at_urbansim.org]On
Behalf Of Jennifer C. Duthie
Sent: Saturday, 28 October 2006 1:44 AM
To: users_at_urbansim.org
Subject: UrbanSim 3 vs. 4

Hi,

I'm working on a research project for TxDOT looking at what type of land
use model is best for each type of region (defined by size, resources,
need, ...) depending on a variety of factors. I had been trying to get
UrbanSim 4 running for awhile and was having some of the same problems
as Zachary, so I just this week switched to UrbanSim 3.
Although there are many advantages to UrbanSim 4 (as listed
http://www.urbansim.org/news/index.shtml#opus), we're worried that there
are still some bugs in the code and the documentation has not yet been
ironed out. Also, it is very helpful to have the Eugene test database
running for the earlier version. As we're looking for general
conclusions about types of models, we feel this should suffice. My only
concern is that the Java version is no longer being maintained, so if we
do have a problem it may be more difficult to get it resolved.

I just wanted to see if anyone on this list had any convincing arguments
as to why we shouldn't use the Java version for our research...

Thanks!
Jen Duthie
PhD Candidate
Transportation Engineering
University of Texas, Austin
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Received on Sun Oct 29 2006 - 16:31:23 PST