Biotas is a Graphic Design application which gives you the chance to represent through visual means data corresponding to phenomena that use to change across space and/or time. In this sense, we could talk about “maps” that allow you to quickly identify - for example - how a herd has grown from one week to another, or how it has gradually moved to a more spacious place.
By default, the program presents its so-called "quick tips" every time you get the main window open, which are short messages that might result very helpful for the program's operation. However, you can disable this feature at any time. The main interface is simple and looks very much like a typical graphic editor. It presents a large toolbar on the top side that includes all the graphical tools you may need for your design, which saves you a lot of time; an additional panel where you can manage your Legends, Data and Logs, and another big area called "the canvas", where you properly develop your design. An important detail to know is that this program uses databases to store your spatial and temporal data, which will be later used to generate your base map, which you can then improve through the addition of other elements, such as texts or figures.
There are a couple of strange issues about this program, however. First, it shows you the License agreement - which is typically shown during the installation process - every time you run it. Nevertheless, you can configure it to not show it again. Besides that, when you first execute it, you must choose between two evaluation methods that might result pretty confusing for some newer users. The first one proposes you to register the program - this, of course, requires an Internet connection - which allows you to test it for 20 times with the entire program's functionality active. The second one does not require any registration, but will introduce several considerable limitations. For instance, it will limit data to 20 records, reports will be generated with only a subset of your data, and the program will shut down after about 20 minutes of use. If you choose this second option, you will have to repeat that process every time you run the program.
Biotas is a very good design tool which provides you with all the elements you will need to create and complement your maps. However, its license agreement and evaluation policies might result hard to understand and may turn out to be annoying after a certain number of uses.
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