So I am very new to PRESENCE and rather confused already. I am currently running a multi-season model (6 surveys, 2 seasons). I have 10 site covariates and 20 sample covariates. My 20 sample covariate data was categorical, so I have converted all of them to indicator variables. After inputting all the presence/absence data, site covariates, and sample covariates, I have tried to Run Analysis>Multi-Season> Seasonal occupancy and detection, but the program responds saying that presence.exe has stopped working, followed by the error that “Presence encountered an error. Check input (.pao) and/or desing matrix (.dm) files” which leads to me to believe that it was a user error (not surprising). So I started to play around, by removing all of the sample and site covariates and adding them back one at a time, so I can figure out where the problem was, however, I can’t even run a multi-season model on the binomial presence/absence data alone. I am just rather lost and have read every data input and data matrix document I could find, yet I am still unsure what the issue is. I have tried different combinations in the Data Matrix under both the occupancy (constant, full identity, and individ.covariates) and detection tabs (season effect, within-season effects, individ.covariates, constant) and none of them work, I always receive the same error and/or presence stops working.
(For kicks and giggles, I converted my 6 survey, 2 seasons to 12 survey, 1 season and entered one of the sample covariates and it ran smoothly. So not sure what needs to be altered for multi-season)
Any pointers, help, or direction would be greatly appreciated. I want to ask more specific questions, but I am not sure what to ask...