PlantStudio uses text-based plant files instead of binary files because text files are 

▪        More flexible in dealing with version changes,

▪        More reliable in case of problems (you can edit the files),

▪        Less likely to become corrupted (and easier to fix if they are),

▪        Easier to send over the internet via email, and

▪        Easier to send to us for technical support questions.


We of course prefer that you edit plant files only using PlantStudio, but if for any reason you want to edit a plant file directly, use the suggestions that follow. 

CAUTION: This is an advanced topic, so you shouldn’t be doing this unless you have used PlantStudio enough to understand these ideas well. If you have problems editing a plant file, send us the file you’re having problems with.

These suggestions pertain to the whole file.

▪        Make sure your word processor doesn't add carriage-returns to lines if they are very long. This may cause some parameters to get cut off and not read. Any parameters that cannot be read are automatically set to defaults (and you won’t be told). If you are copying text to paste into PlantStudio from an email reader, be sure to tell it not to wrap long lines.

▪        You can copy whole plants into other files; just make sure you get the whole plant (up to the next plant name). You can also use the plant mover for this.

▪        Lines with a semicolon as the first character in the line are comments written by the program. New comments are lost when you save over the file, so you can't add any permanently.

▪        Be sure not to change any text that says “start” or “end” anything. These are placeholders that must appear exactly as shown in the plant file in order for the plant to be read correctly. There are start and end placeholders for plants, plant notes, and 3D objects.


These suggestions pertain to the first part of each plant, the name and the note.

▪        Don’t change the square brackets around each plant's name (e.g., [daisy]) and don't put any spaces before the first square bracket. The first square bracket must be the first character in the line.

▪        You can add notes to plants (see Editing plant notesEditing_plant_notes) and you can edit these in files as well. Just be careful not to disturb the two lines that start and end the note. To add a note by hand to a plant that doesn’t have one, copy the note section from another plant, then change the body of the note inside the starting and ending lines.

▪        On version compatibility of plant notes: notes were added in version 1.40 of PlantStudio. If you send a plant with a note in it to a person using an earlier version of PlantStudio, they will probably be able to read the plant and ignore the note. The only case in which the file may be garbled is if you have inside a note one of the parameter-defining lines, such as “Plant is dicotyledonous (has two seedling leaves) [kGeneralIsDicot] =true”. If this is true the value in your note may overwrite what should really be in the plant. This is not very likely to happen.


These suggestions pertain to the lines that form the body of the plant information – the parameters. These follow the plant’s name and note.

▪        The first part of each line (the parameter name) is for your information only. PlantStudio doesn't read them, and it writes them out again when you save the file (so if you put in special things here, they won't be saved). Whatever you do, don't delete the whole name, because the program will think that the square bracket after the name is the start of a new plant.

▪        The second part of the line, in square brackets after the name, is very important — it matches up with text in the program to determine what parameter gets the value. Don’t change these texts.

▪        After the equals sign is the value of the parameter. You can (carefully) change these values. If PlantStudio doesn't recognize a parameter when it is reading, or if the value is of the wrong type (real number instead of integer, for example), it will disregard the line without telling you and default the parameter. If you change any particular values, we suggest you look right away at the parameter value on your plant in PlantStudio to check that your new value was read correctly. You cannot change the value to a number outside the allowable bounds for the parameter; it will be bounded when the plant is read in. (To change bounds, see Changing global parameter bounds and defaultsChanging_global_parameter_bounds_and_defaults>main.)

▪        Entries for 3D objects MUST start and end with the words "start 3D object" and "end 3D object" or PlantStudio will choke. Plants must have a full complement of 3D objects, so if you delete one from the file the plant will just generate another default 3D object.

▪        The lines "Base point x" and "Base point y" are the location of each plant in the drawing area relative to the global magnification and scrolling offset. If a plant disappears from the screen and you can't find it again, try setting these numbers to something simple like 100 and 100 and see if it returns to view. Though clicking the Scale to Fit button on the main window should fix this problem just as well.

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