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PlantStudio Product area Help System Index Introduction Quick Tour Tutorial Wizard Arranging Breeding Nozzles/tubes Animations DXF Parameters How it works Strengths/limits Registering |
Changing global parameter bounds and defaultsPlantStudio reads information about plant parameters from a file called Parameters.tab in the PlantStudio directory. You can change parameter bounds and defaults by carefully editing this file. Bounds are used to limit parameter values in the parameter panels on the main window and when reading plant files. Defaults are used when creating new plants (for parameters not covered by wizard choices). The spreadsheet you use to edit the parameters file must be able to input and output tab-delimited files, and it must handle text strings longer than 256 characters. For example, Microsoft Excel 5.0 does not work -- it truncates cells longer than 256 characters and will cut off some hints. Excel 97 does not have this problem. If you are not sure about your spreadsheet, check its cell size limitations and tab-delimited options. We don't recommend using a word processor. CAUTION: Always make a backup file. PlantStudio doesn't do much error-checking when it reads the parameters file. If PlantStudio chokes when starting up (it might give you a cryptic error or draw your plants strangely), go back to your backup file and try again. Whatever you do, don't save a plant file if it seems to be corrupted, because you will be changing all the values of plant parameters. To change a parameter bound, Open or import the parameters file in a spreadsheet.
Using the name column, find the row for the parameter you want to change.
Find the two columns labeled lowerBound and upperBound. In the row for your parameter, change the values there. Check the fieldType column for that row to see what type of parameter PlantStudio expects.
"Single" means a floating point number, and "Smallint" means an integer number.
DO NOT rearrange the order of the rows or leave any cells blank.
Save or export the parameters file as tab-delimited text.
If you change a parameter bound, then run the program and load a plant file,
then save the plant file, all plant values for that parameter will be
constrained to the new bound. So you might want to make a backup of your favorite plant
files before you change a parameter bound if you think it might truncate some
values.
To change a parameter default,
Open or import the parameters file in a spreadsheet.
Using the name column, find the row for the parameter you want to change.
Find the column labeled defaultValue. In the row for your parameter, change the value there. Check the fieldType column for that row to see what type of parameter PlantStudio expects.
"Single" means a floating point number, and "Smallint" means an integer number.
Save or export the parameters file as tab-delimited text.
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Updated: March 10, 1999. Questions/comments on site to webmaster@kurtz-fernhout.com. Copyright © 1998, 1999 Paul D. Fernhout & Cynthia F. Kurtz. |