A list of the more important changes made to Assisi Forest during 2021.
Smaller bug fixes and interface enhancements are not generally listed.
Scaling Factors Report
2021.4.6
The old "Calibration" report was renamed Scaling Factors and cleaned up a bit. Here is the new user guide write up.
Scaling Factors Report
The Scaling Factors report displays a histogram of model scaling factors by species for selected stands in a unit.
Scaling Factors
Calculation of scaling factors for height, diameter and other models can be done during the sub sample stage of cruise compilation. Scaling factors are tested for significance at a designated confidence level and used when estimating missing heights where they “scale” model estimates up or down. Scaling factors are calculated for each stand and species and are saved to the SummaryByStandSpecies table.
A histogram chart of factors by species for a set of stands can give insight into how well estimation models perform. The Scaling Factors report does just this for a set of selected stands within a single unit. In general, one expects a normal curve of data points centered at 1. It is not uncommon to see a normal curve offset by +-10% or so.
Report Settings
Stands must be selected (blue) to be included in the report. The number and area of selected stands is shown in the report header. The calibration and CI (confidence interval) used when processing sub samples are shown in the header as well. If more than one calibration or CI was used within the selected stands, calibration and CI values will be a list. It is desirable to have a single calibration and CI across all stands so that histogram values are directly comparable.
Histogram Values
The report shows scaling factors that tested significant in dark blue and insignificant in light blue. Factor values are calculated scaling factors prior being truncated to between .5 and 2. Therefore factors ranging from 0 on up may appear in the histogram, while factors used by Assisi will be truncated to between .5 and 2. Factors greater than 2 are shown in the logarithmic scaled chart to the right.
Model Calibration
Histograms of scaling factors for models that have previously been calculated during sub sampling are be shown. Scaling factors are calculated when sub sample processing for a model is set to “Calibrate” sub samples. Other sub sample settings such as “Regress” or “Compare” do not calculate scaling factors.
Species
Species for which no scaling factor values are available are not shown.
Calibration Report Added
2021.4.6
The Calibration report displays all the settings that make up a Calibration: growth and taper models, volume, carbon & weight models, height and diameter models, defaults, sub sample settings, etc. The report begins with the formatted write up of the Document field if one has been entered.
Growth Details in Progress Viewer
2021.4.3
The Medium and Maximum detail levels of growth processing were cleaned up a bit. Now Medium displays only actions carried out during growth rather than the system level "cruise" and "grow" actions. Maximum includes the system level actions as well as summaries at the species level. Formatting was also improved for better clarity.
Stand and Lock Filtering
2021.4.2
Filtering on selected or locked stands was implemented in the navigator but not in grids. Now selected and locked filters apply to grids as well.
Operations Editor Improvements
2021.4.2
The stands for an operation are now members of actions rather than sites. This allows different actions in the same operation to manipulate different sets of stands. For example, an operation to clear cut may include preparation, tree removal, post cleanup and subsequent new stand definitions. Prep action may cover areas of stands not exclusively scheduled to be cut. Likewise post operation work may cover other operations and stands. And when new stands are defined, they are by definition single stand rows rather then the multi stand areas of a harvest unit. The net is that stands are more naturally members of individual actions rather than of sites.
Operations Import Sheet
2021.4.2
The Operations Sheet was updated to reflect changes to Operations.
Grown Stands and Trees Tables
2021.4.2
When inventory is grown to a new inventory year, the grown estimates are saved to temporary tables that are later recompiled to produce final inventory for the target year. These tables were temporary and are now permanent. The tables are SummaryByGrownStand and SummaryByGrownTree. The data in them is overwritten each time growth is processed, but will remain during and after the grown data is recompiled. The old GrownTrees table has been removed.
Truncating at Section Heights
2021.4.0
Assisi truncates logs to sawlog and merch heights if the truncated log is at least a scaling multiple in length. If not, log are moved to the next section up. Assisi also truncates at section heights when they the sections are of type sawlog or merch. But, Assisi was not checking for scaling multiple length when truncating sections. This version now performs that check. This may result in a small volume change for logs that previously were truncated to less than scaling multiple but now are moved to the next higher section. For example, a tiny sawlog piece probably had no volume. Now that piece would move to the merch section where it could contribute volume. Or for example a tiny merch piece that probably had no volume could be moved to the tree tip section. However, being in the tree tip, it will also not contribute to merch volume.
Improvements to Stand Simulator
2021.4.0
General speed increase.
Selection of stand/species/trees can be done with blocks of cells.
Dragging tracker bar reruns inventory and growth plots.
More reliable drag drop of stand and management actions.
Find & Filter Stands in Field & Inventory Editors
2021.4.0
Right click on a navigator’s title bar to see the Find and Filter panels
Both find and filter work on nodes that have been loaded. Assisi loads nodes down to the Stand level by default so that Find or Filter will find stands even though they do not appear expanded.
Additional Area Fields
2021.3.6
Additional area field for Net, Gross, Legal, Riparian and Roads were added to the Stands table.
FVS Models
2021.2.1
FVS models are now being added to Assisi. The implementations will be an Assisi C# implementation from source publications using FVS source code for reference.
The major difference between Assisi FVS and FVS is how model configuration is setup. Assisi uses a “calibration” concept while FVS uses a variant, region, local as well as hard coded internal options. The result will be that while Assisi uses most of the same equations, a one to one Assisi Calibration to FVS variant/region/species will be difficult to achieve: results should be close but differ. When FVS runs are desired, the FVS import and export tools can be used to transfer inventory to and from FVS databases.
Assisi FVS models will be licensed separately from Assisi with their own yearly maintenance.
New Crown Competition Factor Equations
2021.2.1
CCF was changed from a hard coded equation to a formal calibration equation. In prior versions, CCF was implemented internally with no user settable options. CCF is now a calibration equation with options settable in the Calibration Editor.
New Equations Added to Support FVS Models
2021.2.1
Bark Thickness Equations
Diameter Inside Bark at Breast Height.
DBH Equations
Small Tree Total Height Equations
ORGANON & Even or Uneven Age Stands
2021.1.6
ORGANON has two methods for estimating heights. One uses SI equations the other DBH based equations. If a stand is assumed even aged and the % BA for the dominant species is above 80, the SI equations are used and a stand BH age will be needed. If a stand is assumed not even aged, then the DBH equations are used and a stand BH age is not needed.
To accommodate ORGANON preferences and explicitly set which height method internal to ORGANON is to be used, an IsEvenAge field has been added to the Stands table. When IsEvenAge is set to true, ORGANON’s SI equations will be used and Assisi will issue an error if BH age is not set. If IsEvenAge is set to false, ORGANON’s DBH equations will be used and Assisi will not require a BH age.
Note that these rules apply to height estimations not height growth. During growth, ORGANON internally estimates a “effective” stand age from site curves so ages are not technically required for growth. However, ORGANON does use ages to validate certain options. For example, fertilization can only be processed on even age stands which then requires BH age.
Section Truncating
2021.1.6
When Log Segmenting is set to Fixed or Optimized, logs called in the field are treated as section calls. Sections are variable lengths with quality calls used as criteria for marketing. Whether segmenting is fixed length or optimized to a market, any logs recorded for trees will be used as criteria in the segmenting process.
This has not changed. But previous to this version, sections did not force a break at section boundaries. Previously, logs that crossed section boundaries would be given the quality of the section where 50% or more of its length falls. This approach however causes small section calls to be dropped when they are not big enough to be 50% of any sized log. Cull calls in particular are often small, would not be 50% of a log length and be ignored in the process.
Starting with this version, log segmenting stops at section boundaries. If you have a 2 ft cull section midway up the tree, sawlogs will stop at the cull and begin after the cull. Note that this approach will create more small logs just before section boundaries which will often be graded as cull as well. There is still work to be done for log segmenting.
Changed Notes and Description Fields to Binary DOCX fields
2021.1.5
Assisi now stores RTF fields such as Notes and Description as binary in the DOCX format. The Notes and Description fields have been replaced with the binary Document field in all but the Allowed values tables.
To move existing Notes or Descriptions to the new Document field, you must import them directly into Document editors in Assisi. Notes are simple text so they can be copied directly from the database and pasted into the Document editors. Descriptions are RTF so these must be saved as an RTF file then imported in the Document editors.
If you have too many values to do this by hand, I have some C# code that does the conversion itself.
Assisi Scripting Class Names Changed
2021.1.5
Exposing internal classes directly rather than through interface definitions. The names of most classes are now used without the “I” prepended. For example, “IAssisi” becomes just “Assisi”.
Scripting Editor Fixes
2021.1.5
Editing inside the Script Tool is now faster and does not reformat code. References in code now correctly eliminate reference errors. Debugging has been fully removed from scripting: scripts run “In Process” so debugging scripts will stop the entire Assisi GUI making continuing not possible. To step through script code, script Assisi from a separate Visual Studio instance.
FVS Import / Export Fixes
2021.1.1
Species in FVS can be either FIA number or a code. Assisi now parses for either.
Mapped FVS damage codes to separate board and cubic defect fields. Previously, only board defect was mapped.
Updated FVS columns to correct types. Previously many were simply text, which worked but were not aligned with true FVS database column types.
Added Exit Menu Item
2021.1.0
Added an Exit menu item to the File Menu. Prior there was only the “X” box in the upper right app corner. That was apparently causing some to not exit Assisi at all and thus not freeing up floating licenses. Adding the File|Exit button hopefully fixes a few of these cases.