Caliper Corporation was founded in 1983 as a developer of mapping software and is headquartered in
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...
.
Caliper develops
geographic information system
A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and Geographic information system software, software that store, manage, Spatial analysis, analyze, edit, output, and Cartographic design, visualize Geographic data ...
s (GIS) and
transportation
Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...
software. Caliper is also a consulting and R&D provider offering professional services in quantitative
management consulting
Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...
, transportation, and decision support systems development.
Caliper is the developer of the ''TransCAD'' transportation planning software,
TransModeler traffic simulation software, and
Maptitude GIS packages.
TransCAD
''TransCAD'' is software for transportation planning. In addition to the standard point, line, area, and image layers in a GIS map, TransCAD supports route system layers and has tools for creating, manipulating and displaying routes. TransCAD uses a network data structure to support
routing
Routing is the process of selecting a path for traffic in a Network theory, network or between or across multiple networks. Broadly, routing is performed in many types of networks, including circuit-switched networks, such as the public switched ...
and
network optimization models. TransCAD includes trip generation, distribution, mode choice, and traffic assignment models that support
transportation planning and
travel demand forecasting. TransCAD has a set of dynamic segmentation and
linear referencing tools for managing
highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...
,
rail,
pipeline
A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...
, and other
networks.
Product history
TransCAD was first released as a
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
-based transportation GIS package in 1985. TransCAD 3.0, the first
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
version, was released on May 28, 1996. TransCAD 4.8 was replaced by TransCAD 5.0 on January 2, 2008, and later TransCAD 6.0 and TransCAD 7.0. The most current version is TransCAD 8.0.
Web-based version
''TransCAD for the Web'' is a web-based version of TransCAD that uses application source code that can be edited using Javascript, HTML, and ASP.NET. Application templates (Mapplications) are used to create a web application or service. The default templates include
Ajax applications and mashups that use
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
via the Google Map API. TransCAD for the Web was the first web-based GIS for Transportation (GIS-T), and remains the only transportation GIS with web development capabilities.
TransCAD for the Web Overview
/ref>
Maptitude for Redistricting
Maptitude for Redistricting is a related, but separate product, to Maptitude. By 2001, Caliper's new redistricting mapping technology was being used by over fifty percent of the United States's legislatures to draft new electoral district boundaries following the 1999 census.
References
External links
Official Mapping Software Website
{{Authority control
GIS software companies
GIS software
Software companies based in Massachusetts
Traffic simulation
Software companies of the United States
Companies based in Massachusetts
1983 establishments in Massachusetts