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Lucid Builder Tutorial

Tutorial 2 – Scoring the Key

Before starting to score the key, it is useful to have the species information (Appendix 1) on hand to assist scoring the key. It’s also assumed that you have either completed Tutorial 1 and have entered Features and Entities for the key. Or open the unscored edition of the key found in the tutorial file pack. There are essential three ways to ‘score’ your key (enter score data).
  1. Scoring Entities by Features.
  2. Scoring Features by Entities.
  3. Scoring via the Spreadsheet view.
The scoring method your choose is entirely a personal preference. The scores entered by any of the methods results in the same set of data, they are just different views of the score data. Start by opening your tutorial key or the pre-made unscored tutorial key in the Lucid Builder. To make viewing the score options within the Features and Entities start by expanding all levels of the hierarchy for both Features and Entities. Do this by setting focus on the Features Panel and click the expand tree option Lucid expand tree icon on the main toolbar. Once expanded do the same by setting focus on the Entities Panel and clicking the expand tree option again in the main toolbar. Next, enable Score Mode by clicking on the ‘Enable Score Mode’ button Toggle score mode icon located on the scoring panel to the right of the Entities panel. When Score Mode is enabled, the various score buttons and options will be shown.
Lucid Builder Score toolbar options
Lucid Builder Score toolbar options.

Notes on Scoring

  • Multiple scores for states frequently occur; for example, some fungal species have more than one colour present and so all relevant colour states should be ticked (scored).
  • In at least some cases, misinterpretations of states can exist. For example, in a number of species, a cursory glance may suggest that the substrates of moss and humus are common. This is not usually the case and a closer inspection will show that the species are growing on soil amongst litter, humus or moss. These situations can be dealt with by using the 'Common Misinterpreted Score'. I.e. Tick soil as present and moss/humus as Misinterpreted.
  • A blank (Absent) score indicates that a particular state does not occur for that taxon. Where there is uncertainty, you should use the uncertain score "?".
  • Since Lucid allows you to set up a hierarchy of Entities - such as Family, Genus, species - you can propagate scores to children under a specific parent by pressing Control (ctrl) key when you click to score in the score box for the parent. For more information on score propagation see the Lucid Builder score help.

To commence scoring make sure that the first species ‘darwinensis‘ is selected in the Entities window and then use the description for Camarophyllopsis darwinensis to fill in the tick boxes. The entry data for Camarophyllopsis darwinensis is given below with a suggested score in brackets beside each selected state.

Tip

By default, the large blue tick of Common Score will be active and can be left at this setting unless a different score is indicated.

Cap
Shape – convex to hemispherical (common)
Dominant color – pink and brown with pinkish tints (both scored as common); (This is not a good match, but suffices for the example.)
Surface texture – smooth (common)
Surface viscidity – dry (common)

Gills
Attachment to stem – bow-shaped or running down the stem (common)
Color – pink (common) Glutinous margin – absent (common)

Stem
Dominant colour – white to pale cream (common)
Surface texture – smooth to powdery (both these scores are common); sometimes hairy (rare)
Surface viscidity – dry (common)

Spores
Shape – sub-globose to globose (common)
Contents – hyaline (common)
Length range (micrometres) – (4.0-) 4.5-5.2-6.0 (use Numeric Scores, see further below for more details on this.)
Dimorphism – absent (common)

Ecology and Distribution
Habitat – monsoon forest or sclerophyll forest (both scored as common)
Growth habit – gregarious or caespitose (both scored as common)
Substrate – soil (common)
State distribution – NT Qld (both scored as common)

To insert the Spore Length Range, select its scores box. Any Numeric Score state can always be identified by the presence of a hash mark Numeric score not set icon within the score box. A text entry window will appear with a row ready for insertion of the range of values. Depending on which score view you are using (scoring Features for a selected Entity vs scoring Entities for a Feature) the Numeric Score dialog will list the Feature for scoring for the selected Entity, or it will list all the Entities for the selected Feature, with the selected Entity highlighted ready for data entry. Examples of the two scoring views regarding the Numeric Score dialog are shown below.
Lucid Builder Numeric Score dialog scoring by a Feature example
Lucid Builder Numeric Score dialog scoring by a Feature example.
Lucid Builder Numeric Score dialog scoring by Entity example
Lucid Builder Numeric Score dialog scoring by Entity example.
Insert the values as given into the text entry boxes. The Builder automatically ensures that the correct sequential values for a range are entered so that each new entry is either equal to or greater than the previously entered value. Finally, enter the units of measurement – micrometers – and press Enter. Lucid’s Numeric scores also support misinterpretation and uncertainty. The Numeric Score Type can be selected by clicking on the score type text for the Numeric Feature where a drop down list will appear. For more information on misinterpreted and uncertain numeric scores, see Builder Help. The completed entry for Camarophyllopsis darwinensis are shown below.
Lucid Builder Numeric Score dialog showing score values for Camarophyllopsis darwinensis
Lucid Builder Numeric Score dialog showing score values for Camarophyllopsis darwinensis.
After saving the key, complete scoring the State entries for the remainder of the species and then re-save the key. This now has a completely scored key which is ready for later insertion of species data such as text and images, etc.

Tip

At any time, the key can be tested using the built in Player launch function. To access the function, select the Preview Key button Preview icon on the main toolbar.

This will start a copy of the Lucid Player with the key automatically loaded and ready for use in your preferred web browser. Any aspect of the key can then be checked for its operation. For more information about the Lucid Player, see the Lucid Player Help.