The soil file is the same as any plant file so far (e.g. group, type, model parameters), but will be populated with new parameters soon. It is identified as a soil file if it uses the Cobblestone component type:
---
Group: pavement
Type:
Cobblestone:
Interception:
model: Translucent
transparency: 0
optical_properties:
PAR: 0.15
NIR: 0.9
plot_paving: 80
...
The Cobblestone type is a special type that defines a soil as a plane, discretized in cobblestones for the light interception. It requires an interception model (e.g. Translucent as for the example above), and a plot_paving parameter that defines the number of cobblestones (i.e. cells) used to pave the ground. The size of the cobblestones depends on the size of the plot and the number of cobblestones. The size of the plot is given in the scene file (.ops file, see this section).