Using a tool
Settings, quality and size
Leave them alone on the first run, then change one thing at a time and watch the price move.
Leave the settings alone on your first run of anything. Every card ships with defaults chosen for the tool, and a first pass at defaults tells you whether the tool is even the right one, which is the question you actually have. Open them with the gear at the bottom right of the card. The panel slides out to the right, aligned with the card body, so the card and its settings stay readable together. ## What you usually find in there - **Quality or tier**, where the model offers more than one. Higher tiers cost more and take longer, and on a first look they rarely change the answer to "is this the right direction" - **Aspect ratio**, which is worth setting early because reframing later costs another run - **Size or resolution**, which moves the price - **Count**, on tools that return a set Beyond those, settings are the tool's own. The gear on a 3D generator holds face counts and texture resolution; the gear on a video model holds duration and frame rate; the gear on **ace-instrument** exposes ACE-Step's synthesis knobs, which is most of why that tool exists. ## Change one thing at a time The reason is not tidiness. When two settings move together and the result changes, you have learned nothing about either one, and you have paid for the run. The tools that return sets are built around exactly this discipline. **variations** moves along one named axis at a time, colour or proportion or grade, so the eight takes are comparable. Doing that by hand across eight runs is the same work with more opportunities to lose track. :::caution[Aspect ratio is not a crop] Changing the aspect ratio changes what the model composes, not how the output is trimmed. A 16:9 run and a 1:1 run of the same prompt are two different pictures, not one picture in two shapes. ::: ## Settings change per model On a card with a model pill, the settings belong to the model that is selected. Swap the pill and the panel changes with it, because a setting one model offers may not exist on another. That is why a setting sometimes disappears when you swap. It has not been hidden from you, the new model has no such control. :::tip[When the price will not move] Some settings cost nothing. Aspect ratio is usually free, because the model bills on pixels rather than shape. Size and quality almost always move the number. Watch the pill beside Run as you change things and each tool's shape becomes obvious quickly. ::: ## Prompts are a setting too On tools with a prompt, the words are the highest-leverage control on the card and they are free to change. Say what the thing is, what the light is doing, and what lens you are imagining. Leave the style adjectives out until you have seen a first pass, because they tend to overwhelm everything specific you asked for. If the prompt is the part you are stuck on, the [prompting chapter](/docs/using-plnty/prompting/the-prompt-card/) goes further, and **prompt-enhancer** will rewrite a rough line into a fuller brief you can edit.Leave the settings alone on your first run of anything. Every card ships with defaults chosen for the tool, and a first pass at defaults tells you whether the tool is even the right one, which is the question you actually have.
Open them with the gear at the bottom right of the card. The panel slides out to the right, aligned with the card body, so the card and its settings stay readable together.
What you usually find in there
Section titled “What you usually find in there”- Quality or tier, where the model offers more than one. Higher tiers cost more and take longer, and on a first look they rarely change the answer to “is this the right direction”
- Aspect ratio, which is worth setting early because reframing later costs another run
- Size or resolution, which moves the price
- Count, on tools that return a set
Beyond those, settings are the tool’s own. The gear on a 3D generator holds face counts and texture resolution; the gear on a video model holds duration and frame rate; the gear on ace-instrument exposes ACE-Step’s synthesis knobs, which is most of why that tool exists.
Change one thing at a time
Section titled “Change one thing at a time”The reason is not tidiness. When two settings move together and the result changes, you have learned nothing about either one, and you have paid for the run.
The tools that return sets are built around exactly this discipline. variations moves along one named axis at a time, colour or proportion or grade, so the eight takes are comparable. Doing that by hand across eight runs is the same work with more opportunities to lose track.
Settings change per model
Section titled “Settings change per model”On a card with a model pill, the settings belong to the model that is selected. Swap the pill and the panel changes with it, because a setting one model offers may not exist on another.
That is why a setting sometimes disappears when you swap. It has not been hidden from you, the new model has no such control.
Prompts are a setting too
Section titled “Prompts are a setting too”On tools with a prompt, the words are the highest-leverage control on the card and they are free to change.
Say what the thing is, what the light is doing, and what lens you are imagining. Leave the style adjectives out until you have seen a first pass, because they tend to overwhelm everything specific you asked for.
If the prompt is the part you are stuck on, the prompting chapter goes further, and prompt-enhancer will rewrite a rough line into a fuller brief you can edit.