Summary information

One shortfall of our visual simulation tree is it's not easy to see all the detail provided for a simulation at once. Fortunately, CLEM offers descriptive summaries of your current set up. These can be displayed by selecting any component from the simulation tree (especially the Resources holder, Activities holder or the CLEM component for groups) and then selecting the Summary tab and the link to display the descriptive summary in your web browser.

This summary is presented as HTML text using the CLEM colour scheme and can be printed (right click anywhere in the summary, and select Print, and make sure to include Print background colours and images from your printer settings. This HTML file is also saved in the folder holding your simulation file as CurrentDescriptiveSummary.html.

This summary takes you through the current set up of the component and all child components and provides an easy way to spot potential problems or incorrect parameters. A complete summary of your simulation is also a useful tool to include with your apsimx file when distributing or publishing simulation results.

Using computer models can be frustrating and sometimes feels like trial and error, especially when confronted with cryptic error messages or a model that simply stops. We have aimed to provide feedback about potential problems and report errors in plain English when they happen to assist with trouble shooting.

Getting the multitude of parameters with the appropriate units entered is a challenging task. CLEM has a parameter validation process when you run a simulation. This process will check to ensure all required parameters are provided, they are in the required range and the components in the tree structure are all correct. Invalid parameters will be displayed in the CLEM component Messages tab for you to address. The APSIM Next Generation interface will also check some values as they are entered and alert you to problems with the entry of values.

All error, warning and information messages are available in the Summary component of your simulation, but we recommend using the CLEM component to view the status of your simulation. The Messages tab will display the important messages from your latest simulation run in as formatted style.

Error messages are usually critical problems that the model or APSIM environment encountered while performing your simulation. CLEM error messages will have a plain English description of what went wrong and a suggestion of how to fix the problem if available. For APSIM errors we refer you to the APSIM Next Generation help, or feel free to contact us.

Warning messages are not critical to the running of the simulation and may be exactly how you wanted it to run. These messages are just to let you know something didn't seem right in your simulation or you may have missed an important setting.

Information messages provide feedback relating to important aspects of the simulation.