openModeller Desktop version 1.0.6 Released

It is our great pleasure to announce the immediate availability of openModeller Desktop Version 1.0.6 openModelleris a generic framework for carrying out fundamental niche modelling experiments - typically used to predict species distribution given a set of environmental raster layers. The openModeller Desktop application builds on the openModeller library by providing a user friendly graphical user interface for carrying out niche modelling experiments.

This release introduces several new features including:

• Improved mapping capabilities - you can now specify occurrence symbol size and colour, and overlay a context layer (such as country boundaries) on your output map.
• Experiments run in their own thread.- this makes for a more responsive user interface and you can look at completed models whilst the experiment is still running.
• Web Service modelling improvements - improvement have been made to allow better job progress reporting when running as a web sevice.
• Absence modelling is now supported - previous versions of openModellerDesktop did not handle absence data properly so absence modelling was not available.
• GBIF Rest Data Fetcher (work sponsored by GBIF with our thanks!) - it is now possible to retrieve occurrence data using the new GIF Rest query service. The data fetcher has also had various cosmetic and useability improvements, and now functions as a wizard.
• New algorithms - openModeller Desktop now ships with two new algorithms (Support Vector Machines and Bioclim Score).
• Thresholding tool - you can now compute 'hotspot' models showing the predicted species count per cell by aggregating many model outputs into a single raster file. The threshold tool can also be used for 'concensus' modelling where many algorithms are used for a single species and all the resulting probability distribution maps are combined to provide a map indicating where most algorithms are in agreement that a species will ocurr at a given cell.

The release also includes numerous improvements, bug fixes and stability improvements. openModeller Desktop is available in source form, and as binary executables for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu 7.10 GNU/Linux. All versions can be obtained from our download page. As an open source project, we provide support for using openModeller via our mailing lists and bug tracker:

• For general enquiries subscribe to our users mailing list.
• For developer related enquiries subscribe to our separate developers list.
• If you think you have found a bug, please report it using our bug tracker. When reporting bugs, please include some contact information in case we need help with replicating your issue.

Known Issues

The threshold tool can crash with large datasets, this will be addressed in next release.

Released version 0.4.2 of the library

A new version of the openModeller library is available. This release (0.4.2) contains some bugfixes and two new features:

• ROC curve was included in the model statistics (AUC is now automatically calculated by om_console, which generates pseudo-absence points if no real absence points are provided).
• Metric Chebyshev can be selected as a parameter in the Environmental Distance algorithm.

For developers, the Log object is now a singleton instead of a global variable.

openModeller Desktop version 1.0.5 Released

It is our great pleasure to announce the immediate availability of openModeller Desktop Version 1.0.5 openModelleris a generic framework for carrying out fundamental niche modelling experiments - typically used to predict species distribution given a set of environmental raster layers. The openModeller Desktop application builds on the openModeller library by providing a user friendly graphical user interface for carrying out niche modelling experiments. This release introduces several new features including improved reporting, automated retrieval of locality data from online databases such as GBIF, Mac OS X build, and many other enhancements. The release also includes numerous bug fixes and stability improvements. openModeller Desktop is available in source form, and as binary executables for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and as a GNU/Linux distribution independent application bundle. All versions can be obtained from our download page. As an open source project, we provide support for using openModeller via our mailing lists and bug tracker:

• For general enquiries subscribe to our users mailing list.
• For developer related enquiries subscribe to our separate developers list.
• If you think you have found a bug, please report it using our bug tracker. When reporting bugs, please include some contact information in case we need help with replicating your issue.

Report view for a completed experience (Mac OS X version)

Released version 0.4.1 of the library

A new version of the openModeller library is available. This release (0.4.1) includes some changes and new features:

• New algorithm EnvironmentalDistance supporting three different metrics: Euclidean, Mahalanobis and Gower. When used with Gower and maximum distance of 1, this algorithm should be equivalent to DOMAIN.
• It is now possible to specify absence points in the localities file, which has a new format: four mandatory columns (id, label, longitude and latitude) and one optional column (abundance). Absences are indicated with abundance equal to zero. All values must now be separated by TABs, so labels (usually scientific names) can contain spaces. The new column "id" is used to identify the individual records.
• For developers, there's initial support to cmake (should compile on GNU/Linux and Mac OS X).

Source code migration from CVS to Subversion

Today we have finally migrated the openModeller source code from CVS to Subversion. This change affects developers only. Subversion will allow improved management of the openModeller source code. The instructions under the resources page have been updated with subversion specific details.

Please let us know if you have any problems accessing the source code via Subversion.

openModeller Desktop version 1.0.4 Released

We are very pleased to announce the immediate availability of openModeler Desktop version 1.0.4. This release contains a critical bug fix for the layerset manager in the 1.0.3 release and includes no new features. We encourage you to upgrade to this version at the first possible opportunity!

Currently the openModeller Desktop application is available as a Microsoft Windows setup file or in source form. Future releases will include binaries for GNU / Linux and Mac OS X.

We invite you to join our mailing lists, IRC channel and other community resources if you need help using the openModeller Desktop application, or would like to discuss issues relating to openModeller.

openModeller Desktop version 1.0.3 Released

We are very pleased to announce the immediate availability of openModeler Desktop version 1.0.3. This release contains several bug fixes and adds some two new features:

• The extracted environmental variables for the occurrence sites used in a given model can be exported as a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file.
• The occurrence sites are displayed as an overlay on top of the probability surface in the model map display.

We encourage you to upgrade from version 1.0.2 if you installed it since this version also fixes some issues that caused the application to crash when changing the modelling plugin.

Currently the openModeller Desktop application is available as a Microsoft Windows setup file or in source form. Future releases will include binaries for GNU / Linux and Mac OS X.

We invite you to join our mailing lists, IRC channel and other community resources if you need help using the openModeller Desktop application, or would like to discuss issues relating to openModeller.