Quite often you may find yourself parameterising components the same way over and over again in your simulations. The user interface allows you to easily reuse these components in many simulations via your own toolboxes. You can create your personal toolbox and then drag components or even entire simulations to it. Next time you want to create a simulation or a part of a simulation, you can then goto your toolbox and reuse entities that you've used before.
Toolboxes can also allow you to save and reuse soils that you have created, although these should be kept in a seperate toolbox to your simulations.
You can also add toolboxes that other people have created, allowing you to quickly and easily collaborate with colleagues.
To create a new empty toolbox, either for simulations or for soils, click the Manage button on the toolbar at the bottom of the window.
Click the Create a new empty toolbox link.
The window will let you specify the location and filename for the new empty toolbox. It is recommended that you keep your toolboxes in a folder not under the APSIM installation directory. Perhaps you could create a folder called c:/apsim_toolboxes for storing these types of files. The filename that you use will become the toolbox name that is displayed on the bottom toolbar, so choose something that is appropriate and preferably short. Save with an .XML extension for a toolbox for simulations, or with .soils extension for a soils toolbox (nb. for soils toolbox change "Save as type:" drop down list to "All Files (*.*)" )
In the "APSIM Toolbox Management" window you will now see your new toolbox added to the list of toolboxes. Just click OK
Your toolbox will then be displayed on the bottom toolbar. You can then drag components or entire simulations to it or soils you have created. Toolboxes are saved automatically when they are closed or when the user interface is shut down.
Any toolboxes that you create can be shared with others by simply giving them a copy of the .xml or .soils file for the relavent toolbox. Once you have obtained a copy of the other persons .xml or .soils file it is a very simple process to add it to APSIM.
It is the exact same procedure as above for "Creating your own toolbox" except that in the In the "APSIM Toolbox Management" window you choose the Add an existing toolbox to ApsimUI link instead of Create a new empty toolbox and you browse to the location on your hard drive where you have saved the .xml or .soils file that you wish to add.