RegWise uses a scenario-based approach to answer "What if?" questions on a regional or national level. PlanWise uses a combination of simulation and optimization to answer not only "What if?" questions but also "How to?" questions. PlanWise is scale-independent and can analyse a single stand or an arbitrarily large area (limited only by computer resources). PlanWise can also be used for regional or national level analyses if (for example) NFI-plot data are used as input data.

 

RegWise has a system of rules inherited from the Hugin system, the predecessor to RegWise. These rules determine, for each time period, harvest levels and silvicultural actions, and allocates them to stands or sample plots using prioritization functions for different treatments.

 

In contrast, PlanWise calculates several alternatives for each stand, and from a certain optimization problem selects the alternative that should be selected for each stand so that the overall objective function is maximized (or minimized depending on type), subject to any constraints that have been stated.