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EM 1.4 — Long-Term Support Long-Term Support

Outgoing Long-Term Support release — recommended only for legacy projects already authored against this version. New projects should start from EM 1.5 LTS. Pinned to Blender 4.5 LTS (the final LTS of the 4.x series), supported through end-of-life for in-flight projects, archive deposits and reproducibility of published work.

Compatibility

Released
15 October 2024
Supported until
July 2027
Blender
4.5 LTS (pinned) · tested on 4.5 LTS
yEd
yEd 3.21 or later
Superseded by
EM 1.5

Core language — EM 1.4

formal language

The formal language is the heart of the release. Everything else in the framework — tools, exports, web platforms — exists to author, manage and publish what is described below.

  • TSU (Transformation Stratigraphic Unit) — first embryonic appearance as a node type. The full conservation/restoration vocabulary is consolidated in EM 1.5.
  • Stable stratigraphic vocabulary — US, USV, USD, SF, VSF
  • Mature paradata chain — Document → Extractor → Combiner → Property
  • Activity Node Groups for grouping operations across units
  • Heriverse export pipeline (early form)
Language manual ↗ Palette repo ↗

Prerequisites

The Extended Matrix language is the heart of the project, but to author and publish a project on your computer you also need a few free, third-party tools alongside the EM-specific ones in the next section. Install them once and they apply to every EM project.

Blender
4.5 LTS
3D authoring environment. Free, GPL-3.
Download from blender.org ↗
yEd
yEd 3.21 or later
Free graph editor used to author the EM `.graphml` file.
Download from yworks.com ↗

Tools shipping with this version

If you're new to EM, start with the Core · for everyone cluster — these three items are the foundation every project needs, regardless of role. Then pick up the archaeologist, modeller or developer clusters only when the work calls for them.

Core · for everyone

The foundation every EM project needs, regardless of whether you intend to model in 3D, develop on top of the graph, or simply read the matrix on paper. Start here, then add the role-specific clusters below as the work calls for them.

For archaeologists

Adds the archaeologist-facing tools on top of Core: graph authoring in Blender, stratigraphic database integrations, source dossier management.

For 3D modellers

Reach for these once your matrix is in good shape and you need to attach proxies to a photogrammetric model or run a survey pipeline.

Installation

Step-by-step installation of Extended Matrix 1.4.

  1. Install Blender 4.5 LTS from blender.org/download/lts/4-5/ — do not upgrade Blender mid-project.
  2. Install yEd 3.21 or later from yworks.com (free).
  3. Download the EM palette (.graphml) from the EM 1.4 release on GitHub and import it in yEd: Edit → Manage Palette → Import Section.
  4. Download the source_list.xlsx template alongside the palette and use it to register the bibliographic and archival sources of your project.
  5. Download the EM Tools 1.4 .zip matching your OS from GitHub Releases.
  6. In Blender 4.5: Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Install and select the EM Tools .zip. Tick the checkbox to enable.
  7. (Optional) Install 3DSC (Blender side) from its repository if you handle photogrammetric meshes.
  8. (Optional) Install 3DSC for Metashape if you process raw photographs in Agisoft Metashape.

EM 1.4 LTS — recommended only for legacy projects already authored against this version. New projects should start from EM 1.5 LTS, which is the current preferred line. 1.4 remains fully supported through its end-of-life so that in-flight projects, archive deposits and published reconstructions stay reproducible.

When to use 1.4 LTS

Stay on 1.4 if you are continuing a project that was already authored against 1.4 — an ongoing excavation, a thesis in late drafting, a multi-year EU-funded project mid-flight, or any deposited dataset that must remain reproducible exactly as published. The release is now pinned to Blender 4.5 LTS — the final LTS of the 4.x series, maintained by Blender Foundation through July 2027 — giving the combination a long, stable shelf life for finishing in-flight work.

For everything else — a new excavation, a fresh thesis, a project that hasn’t yet committed its first stratigraphic graph — the right starting point is EM 1.5 LTS.

Citing 1.4 LTS

Canonical 1.4 reference: TBD — pending publication. No flag paper has been published for the 1.4 LTS line yet. Until a dedicated reference appears, cite the 1.0 foundation paper (Demetrescu, 2015) plus the 1.2 Five Steps Method paper (Demetrescu & Ferdani, 2021) as the closest methodological reference. See the How to cite EM page for the full cumulative citation guidance.

What’s in 1.4

  • TSU (Transformation Stratigraphic Unit) introduced.
  • Refinements across the formal language and consolidation toward 1.5.
  • Stable Stratigraphy Manager, Visual Manager, Epochs Manager.
  • Heriverse export pipeline (early form).
  • s3dgraphy is not yet a standalone library in 1.4 — its code lives inside the EM Tools add-on. The library is extracted and published on PyPI starting from 1.5.

Support window

LTS support means: bug-fix releases as long as Blender 4.5 LTS itself is maintained by Blender Foundation (through July 2027). With EM 1.5 LTS now released as the preferred line, plan migrations to 1.5 at the next natural break in your project — at minimum before the 1.4 EOL date listed above.

Blender 4.5 is the final LTS of the 4.x series. Projects that need a longer support runway should migrate to EM 1.5 LTS, which targets the 5.x line and will follow the next Blender Foundation LTS in that series.

Patch history

Patches to the 1.4 line are listed here as they are released. The detailed commit-level changelog lives in the EM Tools changelog.

1.4.x — Blender 4.5 LTS upgrade — 2026-05

  • Blender pin moved to Blender 4.5 LTS, the final LTS of the 4.x series. Support window extended to July 2027, tracking the Blender Foundation 4.5 LTS maintenance horizon. No code-level changes to EM Tools 1.4 are implied beyond compatibility validation on 4.5 LTS.

1.4.0 — 2024-10-15

  • Initial 1.4 release. TSU vocabulary introduced.

Editors: add ### 1.4.1, ### 1.4.2, etc. above this line as patches ship.