Tutorial Lesson: Changing plant parameters

In this lesson you will learn how to change a few plant parameters using the Parameters panel on the main window.

Open the file from the previous lesson

If you haven’t already done the previous tutorial lessonH79BHQ>main, open the file called Tutorial Lesson – Editing and Viewing Plants.pla in your PlantStudio directory. If you already did the previous lesson, open the file you made now if it is not already open. In either case you should see three Black-eyed Susans in the drawing area.

Look at one plant

We could change parameters in all three plants at once just by selecting them all, but let’s use this opportunity to learn something else about PlantStudio.

1. Select only the original Black-eyed Susan plant (not one of the copies).

[If you have all three plants selected, you’ll need to deselect all the plants first by clicking outside of them all. Remember that you can select plants either in the drawing area or in the list of plants.]

2. Now go up to the toolbar above your plants and click on the Show only focused plant button. The other plants will disappear.

3. Click on the Drawing area on side button. The main window will move around so your plant is on the left side and the plant list and focus panel are on the right side. This is a good way to work on parameters, so you can see the results in a larger scale.

4. Drag up the splitter line between the plant list and the focus panel so the focus panel is taller.

5. Click on Scale to Fit to make the plant bigger.

Look at the parameters

Now let’s get to those parameters.

1. Click on the Parameters tab. In the parameters panel are two major parts: the sections drop-down list and the parameters. The 400 or so parameters that make up a plant are divided into the sections you see here.

2. The General parameters parameter section2DM7_UT is probably selected now. Choose a few other sections from the drop-down list to see what happens.

3. The small panels under the drop-down list of sections are called parameter panels1YGTBP4. You can open them by clicking on the arrows on their left sides. Try opening and closing a few parameter panels now.

4. Also notice that if you hold the mouse still over the parameter panels they produce a hint about their parameter.

[If you don’t see parameter hints, check the Hints > Show Parameter Hints option in the Options menu.]

Get help on parameters and parameter panels

1. You can get help on each parameter section by right-clicking on a parameter in that section and choosing Go to Help for This Parameter Section from the popup menu that appears. You can do that now if you like, but watch out – if you are looking at the help system now, you may need to click the Back button in the help system window TWICE to get back to this tutorial help page.

2. You can get help on using each type of parameter panel by right-clicking on a parameter panel and choosing Go to Help for This Type of Parameter Panel from the popup menu that appears. The same watch out applies here too. You can do that now if you like.

Change some parameters

1. When you are finished looking around, choose the Primary inflorescences section from the drop-down parameter sections list.

2. We can make a few small changes here that make our plant look better. See the dark panel labeled Architecture? That’s called a header panelUsing_header_parameter_panels>second. Click on the right arrow to open all the parameter panels down to the next header panel.

3. Now you can see some parameters under the Architecture header. In the Number of flowers on main branch panel, click on the blue slider and drag it all the way to the right, so it says 30. Your plant will redraw to show more flowers. Remember that when you drag a slider, it only affects the plant after you let up on the mouse button.

4. Actually, we are making a composite flower here, and the simulation isn’t really correct. A composite (head) inflorescence has flowers both on the inside and around the edge. The inside flowers are called disc flowers and the outside flowers are called ray flowers. But we only simulate the ray flowers since the disc flowers are very small. Just so you know that.

5. Now let’s fix the Green-eyed Susan. Look down a few more parameter panels to the one labeled Pedicel color. A pedicel is the little stem that connects a flower to its inflorescence. In our simplified model of a head inflorescence, the middle part is the pedicels. Move the red slider to the right until the pedicel color is a warm dark brown. That looks more like a Black-eyed Susan.

6. One more change. The flower looks too spread out, so let’s tighten it up a bit. Click the down-arrow to close the Architecture panels, then scroll down to the next header panel, labeled Size, and click on the right arrow to open it up. Find the parameter in that group called Pedicel (flower stalk) length. Click on the slider to select it, then use your left arrow key to decrease the pedicel length a little. Look at your flower to see the effect. Keep moving the slider around using the arrow keys until the center of the flower looks the right size.

Replace the copied plants with new copies

Now you have changed your original plant, but the copies are out of synch. We can fix that.

1. First we will return to looking at all the plants. Click the Drawing area on top button.

2. Then click the Show all plants button. There are your two copies from before, but they are probably very small.

3. Drag down the splitter line and click Scale to Fit so the plants are full-sized.

4. Let’s replace those copies with better ones. Select the two copies and press the Delete key. You can either delete them both at once or separately.

[If you can’t select them, make sure you are in Select/drag mode.]

5. Now we’ll make some up-to-date copies, but let’s use the clipboard this time. Select your one remaining original plant, choose Copy from the Edit menu, then choose Paste. You’ll see another plant. Drag it to stand next to your original plant. Paste again so you have three plants in total.

Save your file

Now save your plant file to use in the next lesson. Choose Save as from the File menu, choose a directory, and type in My tutorial – Changing parameters.pla.

Move on to Arranging plants.O6KVH>main

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