APSIM 6.1 release notes
15th August 2008
Models .ini files
All model .ini files are now XML files. XML is an extensible text format that can be viewed
and edited using any text editor. The names of the constants haven't changed.
PLANT
- The generic PLANT model in APSIM has had more clean up work done to it. This is an ongoing process
and shouldn't affect users.
- Many of PLANT's classes can now be explicitly instantiated from the XML file. This provides optioning
functionality that is a core part of PLANT's generic functionality.
- A new phenology model for Sweet Sorghum was introducted
- The root class has been redesigned and extended to allow multiple, distributed root systems
- A generic Phenology class has been created, capable of simulating the development of all crops
- A single Arbitrator base class, with 2 derived classes, replaces the many arbitrators in the
previous version of APSIM. This work is ongoing.
- New classes for canopy phytomer and SPASS photosynthesis have been added by Neil Huth
STOCK & PASTURE
The APSIM samples that used the CSIRO Plant Industry Models STOCK and PASTURE have been simplified
and made easier to use
APSWIM
A cleanup of SWIM model source code has done, removing redundant code and unused functionality.
Manager
The manager model now outputs less decimal places when reporting local variables to the summary file.
Barley
The barley potential grain filling rates have been dropped for all cultivars to improve the
predicted / observed validation line.
Oats
A modified oats model was provided by Allan Peake.
Oryza
Apsim/Oryza now uses NH4 in its calculation of total available N for daily growth.
Specification of the establishment method, sowing rate etc, is now
a manager 'sow' line argument like the other APSIM crops. This
allows the user to sow different varieties, sowing rates etc., at
different times in the simulation/rotation rather than being stuck
with the same establishment method for the whole rotation as was the case.
The samples demonstrate this. Names follow irri conventions.
Sorghum
Sorghum is sensitive to heat stress at flowering.
Infrastructure
The APSIM infrastructure has been significantly reworked allowing better multi-paddock variable
and event addressing. A paddock can now use dot notation to get the value of a variable in
another paddock e.g. .paddock1.wheat.lai
APSRun
APSRun has been rewritten (now called ApsimRun.exe). It is now a multi-threaded application
capable of scheduling and running multiple instances of APSIM on multi-CPU computers.
APSIM User Interface
- Enabling and disabling of nodes has been fixed
- Reporting frequency list is now correct
- Summer and winter Cona / U are now remembered correctly
- Tracker examples now show up when tracker is added to a paddock
- Many other small defects have been fixed.
APSIM 6.0 release notes
26th March 2008
This release of APSIM is not 100% backwards compatible with previous versions, particularly
with respect to .con / .par files. The control file converter will automatically attempt to
make all the necessary changes but sometimes it fails. All the changes are related to new PLANT
output variable names. The complete list of old and new names is as follows:
| Old variable name | New variable name |
| dm_green(1) | RootGreenWt |
| dm_green(2) | LeafGreenWt |
| dm_green(3) | StemGreenWt |
| dm_green(4) | PodGreenWt |
| dm_green(5) | MealGreenWt |
| dm_green(6) | OilGreenWt |
| dm_green_leaf | LeafGreenWt |
| dm_green_stem | StemGreenWt |
| dm_green_pod | PodGreenWt |
| dm_green_meal | MealGreenWt |
| dm_green_oil | OilGreenWt |
| dm_green_fruit | FruitGreenWt |
| dm_green_root | RootGreenWt |
| dm_green_floret | FloretGreenWt |
| dm_green() | GreenWt |
| dm_green | GreenWt |
| n_green_leaf | LeafGreenN |
| n_green_stem | StemGreenN |
| n_green_pod | PodGreenN |
| n_green_meal | MealGreenN |
| n_green_oil | OilGreenN |
| n_green_fruit | FruitGreenN |
| n_green_root | RootGreenN |
| n_green_floret | FloretGreenN |
| n_green(1) | RootGreenN |
| n_green(2) | LeafGreenN |
| n_green(3) | StemGreenN |
| n_green(4) | PodGreenN |
| n_green(5) | MealGreenN |
| n_green(6) | OilGreenN |
| n_green() | GreenN |
| n_green | GreenN |
| leaf_wt | LeafGreenWt |
| stem_wt | StemGreenWt |
| pod_wt | PodGreenWt |
| meal_wt | MealGreenWt |
| oil_wt | OilGreenWt |
| fruit_wt | FruitGreenWt |
| root_wt | RootGreenWt |
| floret_wt | FloretGreenWt |
| tuber_wt | TuberGreenWt |
| leaf_n | LeafGreenN |
| stem_n | StemGreenN |
| pod_n | PodGreenN |
| meal_n | MealGreenN |
| oil_n | OilGreenN |
| fruit_n | FruitGreenN |
| root_n | RootGreenN |
| floret_n | FloretGreenN |
| leaf_p | LeafGreenP |
| stem_p | StemGreenP |
| pod_p | PodGreenP |
| meal_p | MealGreenP |
| oil_p | OilGreenP |
| fruit_p | FruitGreenP |
| root_p | RootGreenP |
| floret_p | FloretGreenP |
| p_green() | GreenP |
| p_green | GreenP |
| p_senesced() | SenescedP |
| p_senesced | SenescedP |
| n_conc_leaf | LeafGreenNConc |
| n_conc_stem | StemGreenNConc |
| n_conc_pod | PodGreenNConc |
| n_conc_meal | MealGreenNConc |
| n_conc_oil | OilGreenNConc |
| n_conc_fruit | FruitGreenNConc |
| n_conc_root | RootGreenNConc |
| n_conc_floret | FloretGreenNConc |
| p_conc_leaf | LeafGreenPConc |
| p_conc_stem | StemGreenPConc |
| p_conc_pod | PodGreenPConc |
| p_conc_meal | MealGreenPConc |
| p_conc_oil | OilGreenPConc |
| p_conc_fruit | FruitGreenPConc |
| p_conc_root | RootGreenPConc |
| p_conc_grain | GrainGreenPConc |
| p_conc_floret | FloretGreenPConc |
| dm_senesced_leaf | LeafSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced_stem | StemSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced_pod | PodSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced_meal | MealSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced_oil | OilSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced_fruit | FruitSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced_root | RootSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced_floret | FloretSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced(1) | RootSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced(2) | LeafSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced(3) | StemSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced(4) | PodSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced(5) | MealSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced(6) | OilSenescedWt |
| dm_senesced() | SenescedWt |
| dm_senesced | SenescedWt |
| n_senesced_leaf | LeafSenescedN |
| n_senesced_stem | StemSenescedN |
| n_senesced_pod | PodSenescedN |
| n_senesced_meal | MealSenescedN |
| n_senesced_oil | OilSenescedN |
| n_senesced_fruit | FruitSenescedN |
| n_senesced_root | RootSenescedN |
| n_senesced_floret | FloretSenescedN |
| n_senesced(1) | RootSenescedN |
| n_senesced(2) | LeafSenescedN |
| n_senesced(3) | StemSenescedN |
| n_senesced(4) | PodSenescedN |
| n_senesced(5) | MealSenescedN |
| n_senesced(6) | OilSenescedN |
| n_senesced() | SenescedN |
| n_senesced | SenescedN |
The following variables no longer exist:
dm_dead
dm_dead_leaf
dm_dead_stem
n_dead
p_dead
deadleaf_n
deadleaf_p
tlai_dead
cep
Sorghum
Version 6 incorporates updated nitrogen algorithms that more realistically simulate
the functional basis of nitrogen dynamics in the plant. For example, these routines
allow grain nitrogen concentration and leaf senescence to be emergent properties of
the effects of growth and development process on N dynamics.
Changes have been made to the default sorghum genotypes, with early, medium and late
types now having on average 14, 16 and 18 leaves respectively. Users may see changes
in yield for these cultivars due to these changes in phenology.
A default fertile tillering calculation has been included that will estimate the tiller
number if none is added by the user. This rule only applies to the Australian sorghum
cropping regions. Users can still enter this value.
APSIM user interface
- The 'shared' concept has now been extended to allow full inheritance. Simulations
can now be inherited from other simulations with the bits that are differnet being
underlined in the tree
- 'Rules' and 'Logic' in the user interface are now the same thing - called 'manager'.
Users can right click on the properties tab in a manager component and select edit.
This will allow them to add/delete/rename properties
- The graph toolbox has been redesigned to use the new APSIM Report functionality.
Graphs can now be dropped on an output file
- Updated the OzCot variable list.
- Simplified the code to further externalise button presses and menu clicks.
APSoil and ApsimUI are now the same executable as a result.
- Added a WaterSupply sample to the user interface.
- Reworked the APSIM user interface by making all 'actions' (button bar +
context menu) externalised to an actions.xml file. Users will notice a much
improved menu when right clicking on a node in the simulation tree.
- The run window now displays error messages in red.
- Fixed bug in .apsim file changetool where variables were being stripped
when converting from an old .apsim file to a new one - reported by Howard Cox.
- Removed duplicate parameter Receive_crop_runoff from 'Dam' in the standard toolbox
- reported by Perry Poulton
- Harvesting rule in standard toolbox can now work with ozcot
- Added GRASP to standard toolbox
- Added some GCM / SOI index components to the standard toolbox
- Fixed operations crash in user interface
- Added INPUT
- Added a 'constants' section to the top of the output variable window. These constants'
are written to the top of an output file, on multiple lines. NB: This may break any
third party tools that expect the headings to start on line 4 of an output file.
APSIMOutlook
- APSIM Outlook has been reworked to facilitate rebadging work done by
CSIRO Plant Industry at Narrabri.
APSIMReport
- Minor modification to the pie chart colouring so that set colours are applied to
each slice. Done for Yield Prophet.
- Major reworking of code to use more .NET forms and controls. The whole data
form is now very different.
- Multi page PDF's can now be generated from reports.
APSIM infrastructure
- Change the component interface so that parameters (SDML) is passed into the
FORTRAN / DELPHI components as a string. This was done for AgResearch.
- .NET component interface has been reworked to use the existing APSIM component interface.
New metadata tags (e.g.
APSFarm
- Added "detailed cash flow" analysis to economics module
- Stability changes to UI components have been made.
SoilN2
- Change for sandy soil mineralisation processes for Western Australia. 2 lines were added:
wfmin_index = 0.0 0.5 1.0 2.0 ! index specifying water content for water factor for mineralization
wfmin_values= 0.05 1.0 1.0 0.5 ! value of water factor function at given index values(mineralization)
SoilWat2
- Added settable water table depth for water logging studies. Parameter is called 'water_table'
Plant
- Continued refactoring of PLANT. All Tops and Stover calculations have now been
modelled using the composite pattern.
- dm_green, dm_dead, dm_senesced, n_green, n_senesced, n_dead, p_green, p_senesced,
p_dead and dlt_dm_green are now scalars rather than an array of values for each part. To output dm_green for the leaf part use: dm_green_leaf.
- Added a set_stage event to Plant phenology.
- Correction to remove biomass phenology and N
- Added new genericArbitratorXY class to plant to allow partitioning rules to be specified using interpolation functions.
- Bug fixes to cohorting leaf part and some refactoring of plant utilities.
- The RootPart class has be refactored so that it is self contained. As part of this
work a NoRoot class can be instantiated that meets the crops water and nitrogen demands i.e. a potential crop can be easily simulated.
- A new StoragePart has been added to PLANT to facilitate work on a Potato module for APSIM.
- A new FloretPart has been added to PLANT and broccoli modified to use it.
- The arbitrator part in PLANT has been made more generic with a lot of its functionality being externalised to the .ini file.
- Added stage x digestibility table for several crops (e.g. lablab, wheat, lucerne, sweet sorghum)
- Removed all dead pools in PLANT
- Many of PLANTS output variables have been renamed
- A new pool and composite pool class has been added to PLANT
- Many changes have been made to PLANT to allow grazing
- Some corrections have been made to the P and SW stress
- A start has been made on a new photosynthesis class
Lupin
Lettuce
- A new lettuce model has been added
Oats
- Added new variety: Wintaroo
Weeds
- Corrected p_conc_init names in the weed.ini file.
APSwim
- Added methods for parameterising SWIM using soilwat-type parameters
Manager
- Allow replacement of multiple values of a variable e.g. soilwat2 set sw = sw1 sw2 sw3 (mm)
- The manager module can now handle 100 character values for its local variables.
- Some manager arithmetic has been fixed
- Cotton is seen as a crop and works properly in rotations
- Warnings are given when an undefined variable is used in an expression.
Potato
- A revised version of Potato from Shaun Lisson.
Canola
- Triazine tolerance has been built into the cultivars in the canola.ini
file. It is now no longer necessary to specify this at sowing time.
- Added canola validation
Report
- Fixed defect where a date format on a variable line wouldn't work e.g.
today as Date format dd-mmm
- The REPORT module now outputs less than 3 decimal places for some units.
- Users can now specify units for output variables with unit conversion
happening automatically. Supported units: g/m2, kg/ha, t/ha
SILOInput
- The SILOInput component now has better error handling in timeout situations when
communicating with SILO.
CSIRO Plant Industry PASTURE and STOCK
- SILO was modified so that it outputs solar radiation units as MJ/m^2 rather than
MJ/m2. When APSIM met files have these revised units, PASTURE runs in APSIM properly.
- Changed all references to Farmwi$e to now point to AusFarm
Graz
- The Rickert and McKeon grazing model has been resurrected.
- A usage sample is in its installation directory.
Maize
Sysbal
- Sysbal has been modified to report less false positives, particularly from PLANT
Ozcot
- New cultivars have been added from CSIRO Plant Industry at Narrabri
Lucerne
- The .ini file has been modified to fix the 'sprayed' class
Oryza
- Oryza is now released as part of APSIM, and works in ApsimUI.
- Some minor modifications from Don Gaydon have been added.
- A usage sample is in the installation directory.