I haven't noticed anything slower about the sliders. If the object is way back in the scene it will take longer to slide from left to right than if it is closer to the camera and it can be maddening but that's how it's always worked. With the trees, the defaults just set you up with the trunk type and leaf. The trunks react differently to parameter changes depending on which type of trunk it is. Fiddling with branches per segment and the number of segments seems to be the most important to get the look of a certain tree. Distribution also makes a big or small difference depending on which type of tree it is (be careful to change distribution only in small steps). I'd suggest setting leaves to 0 or 1 while playing around with the tree shape in general. I ran into the resizing thing not wanting to shrink a Leo picture once...couldn't make it happen again though so don't know what it was. Spit