Garden with Insight v1.0 Help: Soil patch basic parameters window

The soil patch basic parameters window appears when you create a new soil patch. It contains some essential basic information about the soil patch.

The soil patch basic parameters window

If you don't want to change the soil patch basic parameters from the defaults, just click OK each time you create a soil patch. The parameters in the dialog are as follows.

Area: The surface area of the patch. A soil patch's area is important to the soil patch model; it affects many properties and processes of the patch. It is important to set the soil patch area if you intend to simulate a real situation such as your back yard.

Since so many things depend on soil patch area, you can change it only when the soil patch is first created. If you create a soil patch and you want to change the area, undo creating the patch or remove the patch and create another soil patch with the correct area. Click on the area unit to change to another unit.

Slope: The slope of the soil patch as a percent. Slope affects water runoff, erosion, and other processes. Slope is calculated as the difference in patch elevation between the highest and lowest points divided by the length of the patch (in the direction of sloping).

Orientation: The compass direction faced by the slope of the soil patch. This affects soil temperature as the sun heats the soil.

Shade level: An approximate measure of how much the soil patch is shaded by neighboring trees or buildings. Shading affects soil temperature and sunlight received by plants in the soil patch.

Viewing angle: The angle at which to draw plants in the soil patch on the garden window. Viewing angle controls how plants in the patch are drawn. Plant symbols appear as a triangle from the side (and any viewing angle up to 45 degrees) and a circle from the top. Plants drawn in 3D are simply drawn at the viewing angle.

Soil patches with viewing angles of top (90 degrees) and side (0 degrees)

Drawing scale: The scale at which to draw plants in the soil patch on the garden window. Note that the drawing scale can be overridden or multiplied by changing the garden scale in the Display options window.

Base soil type: The soil type template from which this soil patch's remaining parameters are to be copied. Like the soil patch area, this choice can only be made when the soil patch is created.

When the soil patch basic parameters window appears during the creation of a soil patch, it has no Cancel button. If you want to cancel creating the soil patch, click OK and then undo the soil patch creation (choose Undo from the Edit menu). After the soil patch is created, you can open the dialog again by using the shovel with the action change soil patch. As noted above, you cannot change the soil patch area or type after the soil patch is created.

See also:
How to change a soil patch's area
How to change a soil patch's soil type
How to change the drawing scale of all plants in a soil patch
How to see a soil patch from a bird's eye view
How to see the garden from a bird's eye view