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.
  and ) have been added.

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

• Lupin validation added

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

• Fixed kill_crop in 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.