Page 1 of 1

Graphical interface for generating Apollo input files

Posted: 03 Jun 2021, 17:56
by stephanehess
Hi all

a few Apollo users have raised the issue of how to more easily generate model scripts for Apollo. While we do not want to move towards a black box model like some other software that shall be not be named, we are keen to make Apollo more user friendly, and would welcome views/suggestions on the the below proposal.

1. We will develop a graphical interface that will generate Apollo script files that can then be run in Apollo in the same way as manually coded models. So there will not be a new version of Apollo that differs from the standard version, but the tool will generate the input files for users.

2. At least in the first instance, the tool will only work for single component models, so not hybrid choice, for example.

3. The first version of the interface will be for MNL, Mixed Logit and Latent Class.

4. Users would be able to select which attributes are used in what utility functions, what transforms (e.g. non-linear) are applied to them, which parameters are random and what distributions are used (including multivariate) and whether any interactions between attributes are used, or with covariates.

In due time, we will post updates about this, including looking for beta testers, but would welcome comments/suggestions at this stage.

Stephane & David