Software Release Notes 5.6

We are pleased to introduce the ANDATA Spring Release 5.6, which brings major updates to three of our core tools — Brainer, Stipulator, and Expectator — along with several supporting libraries. This release continues our commitment to modernizing the platform, enhancing performance, and improving usability across the board.

In line with MATLAB^®’s initiative to phase out Java-based legacy frameworks, we have now fully rebuilt the Expectator main graphical interface using App Designer — MATLAB’s current framework for creating native, maintainable, and future-proof applications. This modernization effort follows the path we started with Configurator, UniversalList and SelectLists in previous releases and marks a significant step toward a fully legacy-free environment.

To further strengthen model development capabilities, Brainer now supports optional hyperparameter optimization, a functionality to automatically tune training settings and maximize model performance.

Additionally, we have thoroughly redesigned the conflict analysis routines in both Brainer and Stipulator. Long a signature feature of ANDATA software, conflict analysis is now easier to configure, significantly faster to compute, and offers deeper insights through enhanced visualizations. More about it in a previous blog post.

Please consult How to Install ANDATA Software in our Frequently Asked Questions for detailed instructions on quickly and easily downloading this software release.

The following highlights summarize the most important updates in our release 5.6:

• Stipulator

  • Datatips shown in Analysis > Plot attributes > Scatter now display case names instead of just coordinates.
  • Fixed an error occurring when changing the value in Specify plot preferences > (Multi dimensional channels) > Configure settings > maximum number of entries.
  • Fixed a bug that, under certain conditions, could cause a mix-up in case names after using Export > To Stipulator….
  • Removed the All files option from the Export > Signals file format choices to prevent signals from being exported in unpredictable formats.
  • Fixed an issue where the attribute selectors list in the side panel was not correctly updated after executing the commands stipulator('setcaseselectors'), stipulator('addcaseselector') or stipulator('removecaseselector').
  • Conflict analysis calculation functions have been thoroughly redesigned, resulting in significant performance improvements, easier configuration and enhanced visualization. For details, see the “Conflict analysis” section in the “Data analysis” chapter of the Stipulator User Guide.

• Brainer

  • Model training now supports hyperparameter optimization. For more information, consult the “Hyperparameter Optimization” chapter in the Brainer User Guide.
  • Fixed a bug triggered when using perturbation modes “Random scaling per feature”, “Random scaling per sample”, “Random offset per feature” and “Random offset per sample” in the “Robustness properties” tab during post processing.
  • Conflict analysis calculation functions have been thoroughly redesigned, resulting in significant performance improvements, easier configuration and enhanced visualization. For details, see the “Conflict analysis” chapter in the Brainer User Guide.

• Expectator

  • The main graphical user interface has been fully redesigned using MATLAB’s modern App Designer framework.
  • Expectation domains (i.e., the datasets on which an expectation should be checked) can now be defined using attribute selectors —as known from Stipulator— in addition to the previously supported text-based data types.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the tool to crash if more than one customized toolbar was defined.
  • Solved a problem that prevented defining and calibrating an expectation of class ScalarWithinInterval when only processed attributes were available and no raw attributes.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the current selection of expectations to be lost after reordering or sorting.
  • Fixed a bug that could result in the loss of the current data selection after reordering or sorting datasets.
  • As part of the GUI redesign, post-processing settings have been moved to a dedicated “Postprocessing” tab in the main interface, replacing their previous location under File > Properties.
  • The “Data information” dialog has been completely redesigned using App Designer. This dialog is accessible by double-clicking a dataset in the list.

• General

  • The UniversalList UI component has been extended with enhanced capabilites for greater usability and intuitiveness. This UI component is widely used across our tools.
  • A new embeddable UI component, StatusTable, has been implemented and integrated into several tools. It displays information, warning, and error messages with accompanying icons.
  • Fixed a bug where perturbations linked to a specific signal processing step were not correctly updated when the processing steps changed. This could lead to erratic behaviour due to perturbations being applied to the wrong step.
  • The ssscale filter function now supports time series channels.
  • Improved robustness in ssreadisoattributes when source ISO/MME files do not adhere to expected formatting conventions.