Format of .PAO files

[mtingley]

I'm trying to speed up the creation of .PAO files where covariates stay the same between files and only the detection histories change. However, it seems that you cannot simply just open up the .PAO files in a text editor (e.g. Excel), change the detection history, and Save As. When I try to run these files in Presence, it gives me an error that reads, e.g.:

"Warning: data appears to have changed! Comparison with previously run models is invalid (csum=62008 61792)"

The problem is the "csum", which is a number that Presence creates in the last line of .PAO file, immediately following the season/occasion labels. This "csum" must change depending on the detection histories, but I can't figure out how to calculate it. If csum in the .PAO file does not match the csum that Presence calculates as it loads in to .PAO file, it gives the above error. Clearly I'm trying to avoid this happening.

Any help?

Thanks -- Morgan

[jhines]

The PAO files are just text files, but the spaces between fields are TAB characters, not spaces. I think notepad will preserve the tabs if you edit a pao file with it. Alternatively, you could create the file in Excel and save as a text file, and it will insert TABs between fields.

The csum is calculated from the detection histories, but the error message is only a warning. It has no effect on the analysis. If the message bothers you, you can have PRESENCE re-calculate the csum by going to the 'view' menu and select 'view data'. Then save it from the input data window. If you really want to calculate it, let me know and I'll send you the algorithm.

Jim

[dhewitt]

Morgan,

Someone more familiar with the internal workings of Presence can probably provide more detail, but you could try editing the file with a text editor that doesn't screw around with the file formatting. Notepad++ has always worked well for me:

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Once you open a file in Excel (or any of the M$ products AFAIK, including Notepad), it adds formatting information to the file. Unless you specifically export your manipulated version as plain text it may be unreadable by other programs. Again, it will depend on what Presence is looking for in the file. I've found that M$ Notepad will even add encoding information to plain text files and make them unusable for their original purpose.

[dhewitt]

Apparently Jim posted while I was writing my response. I would still recommend Notepad++, but you have many options it seems.

[mtingley]

Thanks for the help. The tab-delimited issue was not the problem (saving it through Excel as tab-delimited works fine for me), it was the concern over the csum mismatch error. But, as long as it's not doing anything crazy, I'll ignore it.

Thanks again

[darryl]

Actually, when you create your new file you don't need any of the information in the original file following the final survey-specific covariate. PRESENCE will add all that information in when you create the project; at least it use to. , So you could just delete all that extra stuff at the end of the file (including csum).

Personally, I've never had a problem with notepad for manipulating pao files.

Cheers
Darryl