Strong Concepts InfoQueue
Strong Concepts Newsletter Volume 11, Number 2 December, 1999

TEAPAC2000 Windows Interface Opens the Next Millennium

All Windows versions of TEAPAC programs are now available with the new TEAPAC2000 Interface (TEAPAC Interface Version 4.00) which offers many new features to enhance the computing experience with TEAPAC programs. The following new features are among those provided by the TEAPAC2000 Interface:

Other useful and unique features carried over from the previous Windows interface for TEAPAC include:

TEAPAC programs which now use this new interface include SIGNAL97, NOSTOP, PREPASSR, PRETRANSYT, PRENETSIM, TURNS and WARRANTS. Licensees with current Windows licenses for these programs (August, 1998 or later) can download the new versions from our web site at www.StrongConcepts.com/Updates.htm free of charge. Discounted upgrades and updates for these new versions are also available for older licenses and DOS versions.

 

HCS-2-HCS Aids HCS-3 Users

Do you have HCS-3TM and want to read Signals data files that you created with HCS-2? If so, you've probably learned that HCS-3 does not read HCS-2 files and that you have a lot of data re-entry to do. Maybe you're not even using the new features that the 1997 Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) offers because of this dilemma.

Now help is here! A new program from Strong Concepts, the developers of TEAPAC and SIGNAL97, is available that converts HCS-2 Signals data files to the new HCS-3 format.

HCS-2-HCS is available from the Strong Concepts web site. Check it out at www.StrongConcepts.com/H2HIntro.htm, download it and try it for free. When you see how it will help you use HCS-3 just mail us a check for $79 with the order form you print and we'll email you a key file that enables the full version.

If you use SIGNAL97 to optimize a 1997 HCM Capacity Analysis and want to Export these optimized results to HCS-3, you know that it currently only Exports to HCS-2. Now you can use HCS-2-HCS to convert these Exported files to the HCS-3 format so you can run the same capacity analysis in HCS-3 (if you need to).

 

Windows Versions of TURNS and WARRANTS Now Available

Windows versions of the popular TEAPAC programs WARRANTS and TURNS which were announced and demonstrated at the Annual ITE Meeting in Las Vegas earlier this year are now available! These were the first TEAPAC programs to sport the new TEAPAC2000 Windows interface (described above). The WARRANTS program performs an MUTCD signal warrant analysis and the TURNS program conducts a turning movement count tabulation and peak hour analysis. Both programs offer the option to import count data from various electronic counters like Jamar and to export peak volume data to other TEAPAC programs like SIGNAL97, SITE, PREPASSR, PRETRANSYT and PRENETSIM. An important additional feature of both programs is that the peak volume data can be either the traditional peak hour or the peak 15-minute data required by the current Highway Capacity Manual.

These versions mark the first time these programs are available for the Windows operating system, featuring the Visual Input Mode and the new TEAPAC2000 Interface (Ver 4.00). WinWARRANTS and WinTURNS now support both the Win32 (Windows 95/98/NT) and Win16 (Windows 3.1x) environments, in addition to continued support for the DOS environment. Upgrades from any prior DOS version to the new Windows versions are available from Strong Concepts for a significantly reduced upgrade fee.

DOS to Windows Upgrade Fees:

$195 WARRANTS Level 1 - Warrant Analysis
$295 WARRANTS Level 2 - adds Peak Hour
$145 TURNS Level 1 - Tabulation & Peak Hour
$295 TURNS Level 2 - adds Warrant Analysis

Visit our web page located at www.StrongConcepts.com to read details about these programs, and to download demos at no charge. The web page also describes all of the TEAPAC programs' functions, and provides the opportunity to download demos of any of these for any of the operating system platforms supported.

Or you can do it the old fashioned way and call us up at (847) 564-0386. We'll be happy to answer all your questions right then and there!

 

New WinTED Compliments TEAPAC DOS Editor

Version 3.61 of TED marks the first time the TED/TEAPAC program is available for the Windows operating system. WinTED now supports both the Win32 (Windows 95/98/NT) and Win16 (Windows 3.1x) environments, in addition to continued support for the DOS environment. WinTED provides a simple full-screen edit window which can be used to view, edit or create data and control files for any TEAPAC program. WinTED can also be used to convert ASCII text files to the TEAPAC format simply by opening and saving the text file.

The extended line-edit features of TED such as global search and/or replace continue to be supported in the DOS version (provided with all Windows licenses). Upgrades of DOS licenses to the new Windows versions are available from Strong Concepts for a significantly reduced upgrade fee.

 

Las Vegas ITE Delegates Win Big!

Four delegates at the ITE Annual Meeting in Las Vegas came up big winners at something other than the tables -- in the free software giveaway at the Strong Concepts exhibit booth. Each delegate won a free, fully-licensed copy of their choice of TEAPAC software. The winners:

Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Tempe, Arizona
TRANS/OP, Shelburne, Vermont
City of Kansas City, Missouri
Mandala Services, Wilmington, NC

Did you receive your own copy of Strong Concepts InfoQueue? If your name is not on the mailing panel, drop us an email, note or phone call and you'll be added to the list for future mailings for free! Also let us know if your address has changed, you've moved on to a new position, or you'd like your name dropped from the list.Not surprisingly, one winner picked the new Windows version of WARRANTS as a simple way to perform the tedious MUTCD signal warrant procedures, as well as determining and exporting peak period volumes to SIGNAL97. Two others picked the SITE program which performs the traditional traffic impact study traffic estimation techniques for a single site, or a multi-use development, or even a multi-site development. With the unparalleled depth and breadth of the TEAPAC package of integrated software, the last winner is still deciding!

Congratulations to all these winners, and good luck to everyone in next year's drawing. We expect to continue this popular annual event next August at the next ITE Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. See you there!

 

Get the Latest at the Earliest and Win Free Software

Over the years, the Strong Concepts' name has become synonymous with quality service for quality products. As we start the new millennium, we are embarking on an extension of that quality by exploiting the Internet's ability to provide information and products to the advantage of our clients and customers. For example, recently many of the articles in this printed issue of InfoQueue were delivered weeks and even months earlier to people who had requested email notification of such developments. And our newest software, the HCS-2-HCS utility program to convert HCS-2 Signals files to the new HCS-3 file format, is being delivered exclusively via Internet downloads and email licensing. Necessarily, the printed word and physical delivery services take longer than the immediacy of the Internet. We envision a continued leveraging of the Internet to provide our clients with the tools they need as early as possible.

If you would like to join the hundreds of other TEAPAC users in this free service, visit our web page at www.StrongConcepts.com/JoinUp.htm to register your email address with us (as well as your snail mail address) and we'll add a bonus for your effort. Each month of the new year until June, 2000 we will select an email address at random from those who have signed up, and offer the addressee a free license for the TEAPAC program of their choosing. To emphasize our commitment to Internet support, we'll deliver the license promptly via email. Click on us now and start getting the latest at the earliest.

 

Upcoming Courses Feature TEAPAC

"Timing Traffic Signals Using TEAPAC, PASSER, TRANSYT and CORSIM" is a popular course which has a focus on specific solutions to signal timing and simulation problems from isolated intersections and arterials to diamond interchanges and grid systems. Hands-on work problems using the software mentioned provide the user with real experience applying these solutions with the only software system that integrates all of these programs into a single system of software. The TEAPAC programs used include the latest versions of SIGNAL97, NOSTOP, PREPASSR, PRETRANSYT and PRENETSIM, in addition to PASSER-II, TRANSYT-7F and TRAF-NETSIM/CORSIM.

The next offerings of this very popular three- and four-day course will be at the following locations:

Las Vegas, Nevada January 25-27
University of Wisconsin
(800) 462-0876

Orlando, Florida March 13-15
Orlando, Florida (Advanced) March 16-17
University of Central Florida
(407) 207-4920

Evanston, Illinois May 1-4
Northwestern Traffic Institute
(800) 323-4011

The three-day course will be followed in Orlando March 16-17 by the two-day course "Advanced TEAPAC Application Techniques" which provides hands-on exercises for the unique and un-paralleled multi-file, multi-scenario analyses, batch analyses and comprehensive multi-program integration using TEAPAC and the above programs. Special courses are also being arranged directly with Arizona DOT and Rhode Island DOT in February.

Call Strong Concepts at (847) 564-0386 for more course information and check our web page for course outlines as well as future offerings. These classes tend to fill up quickly, so call now to reserve your space. Dennis Strong, author of TEAPAC, is the primary instructor for all of these courses.

 

HCM Presentation at TRB Annual Meeting

Dennis Strong, President of Strong Concepts and author of the TEAPAC software, will make a presentation about current and future versions of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) at the Annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) Meeting in Washington, D.C. in early January. The presentation in session #108 on Monday, January 10th will cover the new features of the Signalized Intersection chapter of the current HCM, as well several new features which will be included in the next release of the HCM.

As Chairman of the Signalized Intersection subcommittee of the TRB HCM Highway Capacity Committee, Mr. Strong is and has been directly involved with all these past and pending changes. Mr. Strong also authored the SIGNAL97/TEAPAC program which optimizes the procedures of the HCM Signals chapter. Originally written in 1974 as the SIGNAL program which was based on the 1965 HCM, SIGNAL97 celebrated its 25th year this year. It is popular worldwide, being licensed for use in all 50 states and on six continents in the world. It is also used by a majority of the Departments of Transportation in the U.S.A. A copy of the paper being presented by Mr. Strong is posted at the Strong Concepts web site in the Publications section. If you can't attend the TRB session, check it out to discover all the new advantages the 1997 HCM offers.

 

Y2K Concerns?

By the time you read this, the dreaded Millennium changeover will have already occurred and TEAPAC users worldwide will have noticed no problems or concerns with their use of TEAPAC programs. Windows versions of TEAPAC programs were all Y2K compliant way back in 1996, and 1998 saw the release of Y2K compliant versions of the DOS TEAPAC programs. If you don't have a Y2K compliant version and want to minimize your problems in the new year, update to the latest versions of the TEAPAC programs today.


Strong Concepts
1249 Shermer Road, Suite 100
Northbrook, Illinois U.S.A. 60062-4540
(847) 564-0386


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this page last updated March 11, 2004