General Settings
In the Preferences window of the Edit menu, go to the General page to define how STK starts and what windows are available. The following sections appear on the General Settings page.
Application Startup
The Application Startup options enable you to select the following window appearances during the STK startup process:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Splash Screen | Select this check box to have STK show its splash screen when starting. |
| Product Configuration Selection | Select this check box to have the STK startup display a dialog box so you can choose which STK license to use from the ones available to you. Within the dialog box, you can also select for STK not to show this dialog box again. See Licensing for more information. |
Behavior
The Behavior section enables you to control the following general STK behavior options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Use the "Welcome to STK" wizard |
Select this check box to have the STK automatically display the Welcome to STK wizard when you launch STK. The Welcome to STK window is an easy way to jump into STK by creating a new scenario, opening an existing one, or learning about STK. |
| Use "New Scenario" wizard when creating Scenarios | Select this check box to have the STK display the "New Scenario" wizard when creating a new scenario. |
| Show warning when licenses are expiring | Select this check box to have the STK display a warning in the Message Viewer when licenses are expiring soon. |
| Show unlicensed objects warning when loading a Scenario | Select this check box to have STK display a warning if you created a scenario using a different license than what currently resides on your machine. |
| Do not show unlicensed choices in interface | Select this check box to have STK hide unlicensed options and features from displaying in the STK GUI. This is not available with free licenses. |
| Attempt to ideally size each instance of the Properties panel | Select this check box to have STK resize both the properties tree and page to adjust to the widest item. If not selected, STK only resizes the property page. |
| Show warning when closing a Scenario that has unsaved data | Select this check box to have the STK display a warning if you attempt to close a scenario without saving it. |
| Save Report/Graph/Dynamic Display/Strip Chart state on scenario save | When selected, any reports and graphs that are open when you save the scenario will automatically be reopened the next time that you load it. |
| Default to Browse view when opening a file from the SDF | When selected, the Browse tab appears as the default view when you open a file from the STK Data Federate (SDF). Otherwise, the Search tab is the default view. |
| Show Full Paths For Recent Files | Select this check box to have STK display the complete file paths for files that you have recently accessed. |
| Disable editing for Area Targets with more than <n> boundary points | Enter the maximum number of boundary points that STK can use to define an area target. Once the maximum is reached, STK will disable the Boundary properties page for the Area Target. |
Graphics
The Graphics section includes the following check box options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Show Multiple Graphics Cards warning on startup | When selected, a dialog box appears on startup of STK if you have more than one graphics card installed. A computer with a Remote Desktop application installed can trigger this dialog box. For information on maximizing your computer's graphics performance in STK, refer to Troubleshooting Graphics Card Issues. |
| Update Animation time as "Scroll to Time" slide is updated | If not checked, the 2D and 3D Graphics windows will only update when you release the animation slider. This is the default behavior. When checked, the 2D and 3D Graphics windows will update as you move the animation slider. |
| Show the "Terrain for Analysis" dialog when adding new terrain to a central body | If checked, STK will prompt you to declare whether or not you will use terrain data for analysis when you first insert it. |
| Keep 3D visualization terrain synchronized with Scenario terrain properties |
If checked, any changes that you make to the Central Body terrain server or tileset on the Scenario's Basic->Terrain page will also apply to 3D visual terrain in Globe Manager. Turning off the Central Body terrain server does not affect 3D visual terrain. |
Animation
The Animation section includes the following option:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Date Display Precision | Enter the number of digits of precision for STK to use for the current animation time in the 2D and 3D windows, the status bar, and the Animation toolbar. The default is 3. |
GPU Accelerated Analysis
The GPU Accelerated Analysis section includes the following option:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable GPU Accelerated Analysis | Select this check box to have the STK use the GPU for accelerated processing within certain tools (i.e., Solar Panel Tool) and any analysis that involves 3D Tiles. |
Do Not Show Again Dialog Behavior
For certain actions in STK, you can choose to have STK provide a confirmation dialog box to make sure you really want to take that action. These confirmation dialog boxes include a check box with which you can elect for STK to not show the confirmation for future actions.
The check boxes on the Edit > Preferences > General page are of the form "Enable XXX dialog", where XXX represents the following actions:
- Unlink From Component
- Change Reference Type
- Change Component
- Close 3D Window
By default, these check boxes are checked.