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, right click anywhere on the simulation tree
Click the Options link.
The first thing you must do is to create a toolbox folder to store you toolboxes in. To do this click the Add a toolbox folder link. Browse to the location you want to save the folder then make a new folder there. It is recommended that you keep your toolboxes in a folder not under the APSIM installation directory. Call it something like c:/apsim_toolboxes. After adding the toolbox folder you should now see the folder added to the list in the Options window.
Now click the the Create a new empty toolbox in the selected folder link, making sure the folder you just created is selected in the list in the Options window. The window will let you specify the filename for the new empty toolbox. 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.
In the Options window 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 another 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 "Options" window instead of making a new folder you just browse to the location on your hard drive where you have saved the folder containing the .xml or .soils file that you wish to add.