Visual
SAT-Flare Tracker 3D
1.
THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
The user
graphical interface is composed of a main graphical Work
Window, of a Control Panel and of
a Menu Bar
at the top of the interface. The control panel, which is
visible
in the right side of the Fig. 1, is composed of different frames that
collect important controls, such as the time controls, the star
settings, the orbit plotting and so on. In order to keep the window
compact, two sets of frames have been created, but only one at a time
is visible. To switch the set of frames it is necessary to click
on the Info
Frame,
which is highlighted in the right up corner of the Fig. 1. By clicking
on the Info frame, the set of frames will change as showed in Fig. 2:
the star settings,
orbit plotting
and satellites frames will be replaced
by the Views
and Draw settings
frames. In addition, when the control panel is not necessary, by double
clicking on the Work Window will make it disappear.

Fig. 1 - The first set of frames is visible in the control panel at the
right side of the window.

Fig. 2 - The
second set of frames is visible in the control panel at the right side
of the window.
1.1
THE WORK WINDOW
The
main Work Window will show a 3D representation of the active objects,
such as the Earth Globe, the Satellite Orbits, the Stars, and so on.
The basic philosophy is to render on the same window all the selected
objects by using a 3D representation, though the downgrade to a 2D
representation is still possible. In addition, the rendering
of the
celestial objects, as well as the satellite representation in
the
sky, can be reversed and flatten in order to achieve a sky map-like
representation. The user can set the desired view by activating and
deactivating the objects by means of either the Menu Bar or the Draw Settings
frame of the control panel. The latter element collects and duplicates
all the important draw settings that are contained in the Menu Bar and
allows the user to quickly access them without having to navigate the
drop down menus of the Menu Bar.
The view angle and the zoom factor can be changed by using either the
keyboard or the mouse; please see the Keyboard
Short-Cuts and the Mouse Usage
sections to learn how to use them.
1.2
THE CONTROL PANEL
The
Control Panel consists in the following frames:
Some
of them compose the first frame set, while the others compose the
second frame set. To switch from one set to the other it is
necessary to click on the Info
Frame that is always visible. When not necessary, the control panel can be hidden
by double clicking
on the main graphical Work
Window.
1.3
THE MENU BAR
The
menu bar collects the drop-down menus that allow the user to access
almost all the program functions. Only a few functions can be found
only in the control panel: the Star
Settings Frame, the Orbit
Plotting Frame and Satellites Frame
contain controls that are not present in the Menu Bar. The menu bar is
composed by the following elements:
BACK
By
Simone Corbellini
