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.

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


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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:
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By Simone Corbellini