Versions, Features and Roadmap

Modified on Tue, 25 Mar, 2025 at 3:33 PM

Versions

Depending on the version of Elevate used, different features and functions will be available. This manual describes the latest and full version of Elevate. Check the version history to confirm that you are using the latest version.

Updates are announced in our occasional newsletter. When you download Elevate you will be given the option to receive this. If you do not receive information about updates and would like to, please contact us to confirm you have not unsubscribed by mistake. We have a policy of "soft releasing" our updates, i.e. we do not announce new versions immediately. This means that by the time the newsletter announcement is made, in addition to our own testing, others have already used the software, thus confirming its stability.

Features

For a comparison between the full version of Elevate and Elevate Express, please refer to the following table.

Features	Elevate	Elevate Express
Up peak analysis - assumes all people arrive at the ground floor, calculates handling capacity and interval	✓	✓
Enhanced up peak analysis - like up peak, but you specify the target handling capacity	✓	✓
General analysis - people can arrive at any floor - calculate up peak, two way, basement service and more!	✓	✓*
General analysis for double deck elevators - all traffic flows, but with double deck elevators	✓	✓*
Simulation - models the whole process of people being transported by the elevators	✓	✓
Selection of control systems including conventional and destination dispatch	✓
Use Elevate to implement, test and demonstrate your own dispatcher algorithms with simulation	✓
Select Metric or U.S. (imperial) units	✓
Enter floor name and floor level, up to 100 floors served per group	✓	✓
Express zones	✓
Unlimited entrance floors at any level	✓	✓
Single entrance floor at the lowest level in the building		✓
Enter number of elevators, maximum 12 per group	✓	✓
Enter any capacity or select from standard sizes	✓	✓
Enter door times, or allow Elevate to choose automatically based on capacity	✓	✓
Enter any speed or select from standard speeds	✓	✓
Enter any acceleration and jerk rate or allow Elevate to choose based on speed	✓	✓
SELECT and SPECIFY features to help you analyse many different configurations in single run	✓	✓
Report options to automatically reject results that do not meet your criteria	✓
Option for elevators in a group not to serve the same floors, e.g. basement service by only part of the group	✓
Option for elevators to be specified individually, e.g. different sizes and speeds in the same group	✓	✓
Enter passenger loading and unloading times	✓	✓
Enter passenger mass	✓	✓
Enter capacity factor	✓	✓
Enter length of simulation run	✓	✓
Enter stair factor	✓	✓
Enter floor population	✓
Passengers may arrive at any floor	✓	✓
Passengers may arrive at ground (lowest) floor only
Option to mix traffic types, for example passengers, goods, porter with trolley	✓	✓
Option to change intensity of traffic by time of day	✓	✓
Tools to assist fast entry of common traffic flows		✓
Option to provide Elevate with a list of passengers, and define each passenger individually	✓	1 year
Summary of data entered and results calculated - includes your job titles, company name and logo	✓	1 year
Select toolbar button to transfer the data and results to Excel (if installed on your computer)	✓	✓
Support - email (preferred) and telephone support included from date of purchase for:	✓
Maintenance - upgrades issued to the software provided at no additional charge, from date of purchase for:	1 year	✓
Option to renew maintenance and support at end of free period	1 year
When you purchase, we provide a key to unlock the software on our computer (plugs into USB port)	✓
When you have purchased, we provide an unlocking code which unlocks the software on your computer	✓

So where next with Elevate?

Design options

Our goal with Elevate 9 is to make applying guides and standards easy without losing the power and flexibility Elevate has always had. You will see we have already started adding more auto design features in Elevator Data, so for example Elevate can be asked to select a speed in accordance with CIBSE Guide D. In due course you will be able to select your design guidance option in Analysis Data, enter Building Data, and then simply run the software for a design based on the chosen guidance option. Moving out of design into analysis mode will allow you to see the assumptions made and make adjustments if required. Initially we are implementing CIBSE Guide D, followed by ISO 8100-32. Elevate's framework allows for more options, so regional or company-specific guidelines could be considered. For some background on our thinking with these features, please see this paper or watch this video.

Round Trip Time simulation

This new analysis method is based on Monte Carlo Simulation, which provides a simulated round trip time calculation. It's not quite ready for you to use yet, we are still testing. But you can read about it here or watch this video.

Dispatching

You will notice a new "External" dispatcher option in Analysis Data. This is to enable dispatchers applying our new global dispatcher interface. Elevate has had a dispatcher interface dating back to the mid-1990s when lift companies and researchers asked to use Elevate for their own dispatcher design. Although this still works, it was time for an update so that we could apply all we have learnt about dispatching over the last 20+ years to improve this interface. You can read about our thinking here or watch this video. This interface allows us to run a dispatcher on any device (including the PC running Elevate) and to control the elevators in Elevate, or the real world. We are currently working with selected partners; if you develop dispatchers and this interface is of interest to you, please get in touch.

Online

In the longer term, we anticipate providing an online version of Elevate which will be accessible from a browser on any Internet-enabled device. Up to now we have not been satisfied that we can offer the richness of Elevate's interface in an online version, but web user interface technology is now maturing.