Bug in Distance 7.4 Release 1 and a work-around

[Eric Rexstad]

Bug in Distance 7.4 Release 1

This bug affects you if you are

• starting a new Distance project and
• animals occur in groups (group size is one of your data fields)

Under these conditions, the project setup wizard does not configure things properly. Consequently, the resulting estimates will be incorrect. Thanks to a sharp-eyed user, this problem was detected.  There is a simple work-around for you to implement until we release a version without the bug.

The work around

Create a new project as usual, providing all requested input.  Rather than beginning the data import, go to Survey Properties (under the Surveys tab) and select the Data fields tab. This tab associates the fields in the data with their role. You will see the role of "Cluster size" has been incorrectly associated with the "Perp distance" field.  Correct this by clicking on the "Perp distance" field name and correctly selecting "Cluster size" to associate with the proper role.  See screen capture. You can then proceed with import of your data.

If you have questions, feel free to send questions to the Distance email list.

Eric Rexstad

Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling

University of St Andrews

Registered Charity in Scotland SC013532

[l_h_marshall]

Dear Distance group,

Please note that this bug also affects users creating projects in Distance 7.4 release 1 with double observer data.

I am however happy to announce that we have now resolved this bug and published Distance 7.4 release 2 which can be downloaded from our website at:

http://distancesampling.org/Distance/distance74download.html

Kind regards,

Laura

Dr L Marshall

Distance Development Group