I enabled the SAPLING Add-On and added a Tree.
A related panel appears in the Tool Shelf. Work on the tree depends on this panel but unfortunately it can disappear without warning haltng work on the tree.
Why does not the Sapling panel stay put in the Tool Shelf while the Add-on is being used?
How to retain the panel and can it be restored if it is gone?
Help will be appreciated.
you creat your “tree” object and then modifify it ASAP, once you click into the scene
it applies the current tree.(and you can mo longer edit, with the the sapling controller sliders, its now a mesh object)
you can rotate the scene just dont “click nothing” in the scene… that will turn it into a
mesh object and lose the controller.
If you have a preset tree that you like, you can export that preset, then load it at a different time.
just give the preset a name that click export.
Moved from “Released Scripts and Themes” to “Python Support” (If there is a release thread for Sapling, we can actually merge this into that one)
Thanks a million. I just didn’t understand how the Tool shelf works and was getting quite frustrated about getting on with the tree.
You have explained how a Toolshelf panel works - very helpful.
A great pity that the tools cannot be revived with some key strokes - as with the modifer ‘subdivide’ that works from the Toolshelf and also by pressing W. I do hope the developers can be persuaded to offer a shortcut to recover the Panel options.
Thank you, Holyenigma74
I am aware, Truman, that it is you are who has brought Sapling to Blender. Thank you.
I am so pleased that you are working a newer version that is free of restrictions.
I have tried making trees laboriously following methods demonstrated by Blender experts like J Williamson, David Ward and Andrew Price (Blender Guru). The latter in fact has a whole course dedicated to Nature projects.
But nature lovers in Blender badly needed a way to bypass the tiresome details and then along came Sapling.
Greg Zaal (Blendernerd.com) introduced me to Sapling through his tutorial in vers 2.59. I then asked him how come his Toolshelf had a host of options displayed whereas mine (in 2.61) showed so few. He replied the options were hidden and one had to dig them out.
I do hope the options will be more accessible in the new version of Sapling.
I believe Sapling has a great future and I look forward to the new version.
Truman, thanks very much for this addon. Did you ever manage to finish the newer version? I’m using the addon for the very first time today (following Andrew Price’s Christmas Tree tutorial), but the slightest thing causes me to lose the sapling controls (I pressed “A” by accident, so now I have to go back and remake the tree from start). It would be so great to access these controls at any time.
Thanks so much!
~Adam
I just noticed you also can’t “Export Presets” in Blender 2.76. That feature is definitely the next best thing to “unlimited editablity”. Perhaps a conflict with the new Blender release?
Thanks to other info people posted online, this can be easily solved by running Blender as an administrator. Either right click blender.exe (or your shortcut) and click “Run as Administrator” or right click blender.exe (or your shortcut) and go to “Properties” then “Compatibility” and check “Run this program as an administrator” to do this automatically every time you start Blender.
For all issues with Sapling, I would just direct those people now to the new and improved version of Sapling currently being worked on.
Just download, open the folder, and copy the folder inside of it to the Blender addons folder and you’re good to go.
Thanks so much for that! I copied the folder “add_curve_sapling_3” into “C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.76\scripts\addons” and it works great. 
CopperPlate, very good detective skills on the Run as… solution. Ace Dragon, I have no idea how you manage to keep up on so many things!!! Thank you for posting the link. Exporting Sapling trees for later modification or groves was prohibitively difficult; no longer! I can’t wait.
…
And for the new Blender Bugs ready to plant saplings ASAP, remember the basic after copy/pasting the folder. Deactivate the old Add-on and Activate the new sapling 3 in User Preferences and save those Preferences from your startup file. That’s my best amatuer contribution to this helpful thread!
Thanks HelloHiHola! I had forgotten about that. Yep, deactivating is important or the new Sapling 3.1 link will launch the old Sapling add-on. BTW, you don’t have to run as Administrator anymore to be able to save a preset in the new Sapling 3.1 addon! 
Would be awesome to have a sapling panel in the tool shelf to reopen the edit menu just like other add on.
Its very frustrating to start all over again if you made one mistake.
Although sapling tree generator version 3.2 looks pretty cool.
@antonvdh Take a look at Modular Tree. It’s free and open source as well and I think you get much better results than the Sapling add-on.
Thanks for the modular tree tip.
