Technical Issues Corrected in STK 12.4

Issue Id Release Note Category
104468 STK now supports the visualization of instanced 3D Tiles geometry, a common 3D Title representation for repeated geometry, such as trees or lamp posts lining a street. 3D Graphics
104469 You can now visualize large point cloud datasets using 3D Tiles. Tilesets can be styled with resizing, translucency, and outline effects. 3D Graphics
115653 Movie Timeline now supports the FXAA antialiasing option. 3D Graphics
113996 Saved accesses with saved computed data no longer recompute on scenario load when the access involves a constraint from Analysis Workbench. Access
95572 The user interface for adding AWB components has been updated to prevent selection of AWB components owned by an Access involving the current object (the one to which you are adding the constraint). Previously the user interface would allow the selection but the computational code would remove it from consideration because of the circular dependence. Access
111377 IGRF and WMM magnetic field model coefficients are now stored in an external text file (C:\ProgramData\AGI\STK\DynamicEarthData). So now when a new model is released, you can update the file directly without having to wait for a new release. Analysis Workbench
114017 The PassIntervals interval list time component for LaunchVehicles and Missiles has been removed, as these object do not have pass break settings.  They had always returned an empty list. Analysis Workbench
114019 The TrueOfOrbitEpoch axes have been updated to reflect that they are a constant offset of J2000, not ICRF. Since the J2000 and ICFRF axes are nearly identical, the results are nearly identical to previous results. Analysis Workbench
114500 The EphemerisTimes time array component for vehicles in Analysis Workbench has been updated to no longer return duplicate times even if the vehicle's ephemeris uses duplicate times. The duplicate times did not provide additional information and most users did not expect duplicate times to be provided by a time array component. Analysis Workbench
114730 The IAgCrdnFindTimesResult interface has been corrected to produce the earliest Start time and latest Stop time of its contained Intervals for its values of Start and Stop respectively. Analysis Workbench
114898 The slewing used by the Scheduled Vector or Axes in AWB has been updated so that if a constrained slew cannot be completed within the slew window duration that meets the slewing constraint limits (e.g., because the rates have been specified too slowly to be able to complete the slew within the specified duration) then STK will use a fixed time slew instead and will write a message to the message viewer indicating that the slew could not meet the constraint limits as specified. Analysis Workbench
115853 AWB Vectors and Points defined by a File better resolve their links for CoordinateAxes and CoordinateSystem defined by AWB components during load of the scenario. These components no longer revert to using the central body's Inertial system when their link could not immediately be resolved (this may occur when the component depends on an AWB component owned by an STK Object not yet loaded into the scenario) as they previously did. Loading errors now provide more contextual information concerning the AWB component and the filename being loaded. Analysis Workbench
95908 The Point type Fixed on Central Body has been added to all STK objects (other than Star) and is no longer restricted to Planets and central bodies. This type is useful for specifying a fixed position with respect to a central body shape. This is typically done using latitude and longitude, although other representations are provided. Analysis Workbench
10336 For enhanced usability, a user-defined pick string can now be specified when using Custom Intervals for vehicle graphics. This pick string is appended to the instance name when a vehicle orbit/route/trajectory is clicked on in the 2D or 3D Graphics window. Astrogator automatically populates the pick string with each segment's name when the mission control sequence is run. Astrogator
115254 An issue was fixed in Astrogator where a Stopping Condition's user-specified CalcObject and Constraints were not being initialized correctly unless that segment was located at the first level of a TargetSequence. Initialization now includes all segments in the main sequence. Astrogator
99928 The RefEpochElements and RefEpochElement_Array methods available for use in HPOP and EOMFunc Plugins have been fixed to correctly report the reference epoch and the not the current epoch. Astrogator
112503 Copy/pasting a satellite using the Astrogator propagator could result in the satellite being unable to propagate if scripting calc objects are used. This has been corrected. Astrogator
114660 The Phase Change RPO sequence has updated so that it no longer fails due to a nonexistent ‘fs_object’ under certain conditions. Astrogator
115272 Several RPO scripts have been updated to work correctly when the user's Object Model units are different from the defaults and not overwrite the user's units.A bug in the VBar_Reference RPO script has been fixed that could lead to an incorrect initial guess for the differential corrector. Astrogator
115289 The FMCircumnav RPO sequence has been updated to copy the spacecraft parameters at the start of the sequence to its initial state segments and the NMCircumnav and VBar RPO sequences has been updated to update the radiation pressure and radiation pressure coefficients on its initial state segments. Astrogator
115627 The FollowSun, NMCircumnav, and MatchPlane_SingleBurn RPO sequences have been updated to use new Astrogator Calculation Objects instead of creating VGT vectors during script execution. Astrogator
114925 Closing STK after using the IPOPT optimizer could cause STK to exit abnormally. This has been corrected. Astrogator
102154 The Astrogator object model IAgSearchControlCollection and IAgSearchResultCollection interfaces now operate as expected. Astrogator
104245 Inconsistent interactions/behavior associated with combinations of the 'Action' and 'When profiles converge' options for a target sequence have been corrected. Previously, the grayed out 'When profiles converge' setting would sometimes reflect behavior other than what was executed. Astrogator
110259 Issues where seed finite profiles would sometimes be rendered ineffective within nested target sequences and while interacting with scripting tool profiles have been addressed. Additionally, the seed finite behavior has been adjusted to update the existing "Duration" stopping condition on the finite maneuver or add a "Duration" stopping condition if one does not exist *rather than* replacing the existing list of stopping conditions on the finite maneuver with a "Duration" stopping condition. Astrogator
114193 Load behavior that would generate specific intrinsic attribute warnings associated with Astrogator initial state smart epochs has been addressed. Astrogator
114194 A crash that would occur if a default Lambert Solver Design Tool was duplicated and the resulting duplicate left unconfigured before a save/load cycle has been corrected. Astrogator
114478 An issue where the file exported from an optimal finite maneuver after seeding from a finite maneuver using template axes would not resolve the axes for serialization into the file has been corrected. Astrogator
114910 An issue where Astrogator plugin search profiles, including the shipped SNOPT, IPOPT and bisection profiles, would not have their changes applied if a preceding plugin search profile was inactive has been corrected. Astrogator
114977 Duplicated 'GEO Rendezvous' sequences from the MCS example segments folder would cause a crash through save/load. This has been corrected. Astrogator
114978 Duplicated 'Hohmann Transfer' sequences from the MCS example segments folder would cause a crash through save/load. This has been corrected. Astrogator
115260 A 'Reload Template Satellites' button has been added to the Astrogator RPO Setup tool to address certain workflows that could leave a scenario in an 'RPO loaded' state without the template satellites. Astrogator
116378 An issue has been corrected where a sequence placed at the top of the MCS and then saved with the scenario without having been collapsed caused STK to exit when attempting to use the Results button when the scenario loads. This issue would also sometimes cause an expanded sequence at the top of the MCS to collapse when adding segments after it. Astrogator
97566 A crash that would sometimes occur when using an AWB derivative scalar calculation object in the initial stages of an Astrogator run due to as yet unset ephemeris interval bounds has been corrected. Astrogator
113000 The logic used to build profiles and decide whether a climb or descent needs to be prepended to a cruise profile was modified to consider the user specification of StateCacheTimeInterval and MaxRelMotion (in the Procedure Calc Options dialog).  The logic formerly hardwired a difference on 1 cm for altitude difference between initial condition and requested cruise altitude and also used a value of 0.01 for the initial altitude rate to determine if the initial condition was in level flight.  The new logic starts with altRateTolerance = initial TAS True Airspeed: the speed that the aircraft is moving relative to the airmass that it is flying in. * sin(0.1 deg * MaxRelMotionFactor) and the altitudeTolerance =  StateCacheTimeInterval  * altRateTolerance. Aviator
115849 Confusing situations may be encountered when specifying the Thrust, Fuel Flow and Specific Impulse on the Missile Simple Propulsion Model. The inputs have been changed to help avoid these situations by allowing the user to specify two of the three inputs (Thrust, Fuel Flow and Specific Impulse) and have the third automatically computed. Aviator
115174 The Phased Array Antenna's Object Direction Provider, Ascii Direction Provider, and Script Direction Provider are no longer limited to 100 for the "members of interest". Communications
116011 A problem where the skywave doppler was not considering the object's velocity in the direction of the skywave signal propagation has been fixed. Communications
96299 TIREM now generates an error message when executing over a geographical region which doesn't have a terrain tile. Communications
109659 The ITU-R P.531-13 model has been updated to use the Space Weather AP data file as a default. This data is used to compute the Total Electron Content and the ionospheric noise temperature by using the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model. Communications
112517 Fixed an issue where Urban Propagation computes max loss despite unobstructed line-of-sight. Communications
111752 When STK Communications constraints are computed between invalid Communications pairs, STK will now show messages in the message viewer that the link pair is not valid (e.g. link between a transmitter object and an antenna object, instead of a receiver object).  The Constraint data report will show invalid default values for the metric (e.g. frequency constraint invalid value will be shown as -0.1 Hz) Communications
112998 STK now integrates with Spectral Science Inc's MODTRAN atmospheric model for optical, infrared, and ultra-violet frequencies. Communications
114945 STK CommSystem object graph style (Power Flux Density CDF.rst and Power Flux Density CDF.rsg) changed from bar chart to XY line graph. These reflect the updated data types as well. Value and Percentage fields have proper units. Communications
115336 Using a receiver object with a linked antenna as Coverage grid object could produce incorrect values for the Figure of Merit. This has been corrected. Communications
112922 The ITU-R P.618-12 tropospheric scintillation propagation loss model was incorrectly validating the fade outage percentage input value. The incorrect limits were 0% to 100% but should have been 0.01% to 50%. Because of this users were allowed to configure the model in such a way as to producing floating point errors and incorrect values. In the latest release of STK, the fade outage percent limits have been corrected. If a user created a scenario with an invalid fade outage percent value, on load STK will reset the value to 0.01% or 50% and issue an warning message in the message viewer. Communications
113544 An issue was fixed where STK would crash when trying to import an antenna object using in an invalid *.antenna file format. Communications
115720 The antenna gain computation has been updated for STK's complex antenna models defined through external files. The models affected are the Ansys ffd format, Remcom UAN format, and Ticra GRASP format. These antenna formats do not contain an antenna impedance value, so STK now uses a factor of 2 pi/377 to compute gain. If a different value is used at the time these files are generated, you need to account for that with an additional loss term in STK to scale the gain difference. Communications
116388 An issue was found with the CommSystem object in STK which caused the "Multibeam Antenna Beam-ID" to always be reported as "N/A" regardless of which beam was selected. This issue has been corrected and now the correct beam ID is reported. Communications
116456 Fixed the phased array antenna's script direction provider not loading saved object members. Communications
116468 An issue was found in the STK CommSystem object that would cause the incorrect antenna beam to be selected when using the Multibeam Receiver Model in the receiver object. This has been corrected in the latest release of STK. Communications
116583 The Comm System object report and graph styles for the CDF and PDF report and graphs have been updated. Please use the new styles for these reports and graphs. In case your old scenario have previous version(s) of the CDF and PDF styles, please delete those from your scenario and create new graph and report styles for the Comm System CDF and PDF generated data. Communications
113776 Updated the SDFSave and SDF_RM Connect commands to add the ability to load objects into STK using the url of the object located on the SDF. Connect
114755 The Parallel Connect command has been updated so that the option to automatically compute Coverage, Deck Access, Chain Access, or Volumetrics in parallel can be enabled or disabled per computation. Connect
115411 The ImportFromDb Satellite Connect command has been updated to support searching for satellites by Launch Site, Launch Date, and Name or ID. Connect
116201 The ability to use terrain server for Coverage computations (option found under Scenario -> Terrain -> Advanced Analysis Operation) has been disabled as this capability did not return the expected results. Coverage
113662 Satisfaction graphics for a coverage definition were still being computed even when accesses were not computed. This led to many unnecessary computations where there is nothing to display, slowing down animation. The state of computed accesses is now checked on animation so the computations are performed only when accesses have been computed. Coverage
115613 Loading a scenario with a Figure of Merit that uses an Analysis Workbench CalcScalar containing access data elements could cause STK to exit. This has been corrected. Coverage
98334 The STK Help has been updated to more accurately describe the behavior of the date constant time instant time components Today, NoonToday, Tomorrow, and NoonTomorrow to indicate that their values do not update when the internal system clock date changes at midnight. Documentation
113847 The Cosecant Squared antenna model documentation has been updated to more accurately reflect how STK 12 and later versions models this type of antenna. Documentation
114241 The "Modeling near-real-time relays in STK" tutorial has been updated to improve clarity. Documentation
116227 Instructions for using the AFSPC SGP4 algorithm, version 8.2, with STK 12.2 and later has been updated. A change made by AFSPC now requires additional installation settings. Contact customer support for the updated FAQ. Documentation
115397 STK could abort if the EOIR Scene window is interacted with while it is closing. This has been corrected. EOIR
114735 Loading custom models with multiple materials in EOIR could result in bad material index lookups. This has been corrected. EOIR
115957 Pointing an EOIR sensor at a star could result in the star being off center in the EOIR view. Star positions are now being calculated more precisely to correct this problem. EOIR
114852 The listing of entries in a TLE file, displayed using the From TLE Tool from the Insert STK Objects tool when selecting a Satellite, has been corrected to display an entry that is not found in the default satellite database file (as set on the Scenario's Database page for satellites) using the common name found in the TLE file (if present in the file as a separate line before lines 1 and 2), rather than tle-sscNumber. TLE files formatted with a common name are often found on the Celestrak website. General
116110 Vehicles that are set to use Hermitian interpolation will continue to use Hermitian interpolation for position and velocity, even when the acceleration is also requested. Previously, if acceleration were requested the vehicle would switch to use Lagrange interpolation for position, velocity, and acceleration; now, only the acceleration is computed using Lagrange interpolation when set to use Hermitian. General
114659 IAgDrDataSetCollection.ToArray has been updated. The result contains an array of vectors that may have different lengths. Previously, the vectors that were longer than the first vector were truncated, and vectors that were shorter contained repeated data. The method has been updated so that the vector lengths are all returned correctly. Shorter vectors may be filled with empty values after the data is complete. General
96499 The Motion Blur options have been removed from the Movie Timeline since they are no longer supported by STK but having them enabled made movies much slower and larger. General
98663 Articulations are now properly saved and loaded when created via the Movie Timeline Tool. General
114836 The sensor Obscuration Tool may return incorrect values if used for multiple sensors in a scenario even if used independently since some internal data was not being clearer. This has been corrected. General Astro
113871 The SignedInclination CalcObject has been corrected to report inclination as its description indicates (being negative when the location is nearer the descending node than the ascending node). Previously, it reported the positive value unless precisely at the descending node. General Astro
114406 When exporting a Code500 ephemeris file, values for Area and SolarPert are now correctly written to the header. General Astro
114418 STK now supports the use of space weather flux in the format used by NASA's DAS tool (i.e., solarflux_table.txt, see https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/mitigation/debris-assessment-software.html). This is most appropriate for use in the lifetime tool, as it does not contain historical nor predicted Ap/Kp flux data, only historical and predicted F10.7 data. General Astro
114448 The Realtime propagator has been updated so that when the look ahead propagator is set to J2Perturbation or J4Perturbation and the data is hyperbolic, the motion will be computed using the TwoBody algorithm, as the J2Perturbation and J4Perturbation propagators don't apply for hyperbolic orbits. General Astro
115269 The algorithm used to associate an STK Central Body with the ephemeris for a spiceId from a spice file has been improved to check if the ephemeris can be read using the spice library routines at each segment start time in the file, rather than only using the earliest segment start time. Previously, if the file had ephemeris earlier than the spice ephemeris loaded into STK for its central bodies, the association would fail and the file could not be used. STK's installation installs spice files with ephemeris starting in Jan 1990, so files having an earlier segment than this would fail to load. General Astro
115277 The Insert from Standard Object Database Tool has been improved to enable searching by Launch Site and Launch Date when using the local file search method. Previously, these search options were only available when using the online search method. General Astro
115480 The scenario's Geo Mag Flux tool, and the corresponding data provider Flux File Data, will now report values past the last time of the native data from the file set in the Geo Mag Flux tool when that file supports extrapolating beyond the native data by using a solar cycle repeat cycle. The Schatten, SolFlx_CSSI.dat and Nasa DAS files all support extrapolation using a repeat cycle (by default, Schatten and the CSSI files use a 12 yr repeat cycle while the Nassa DAS file uses a 4014 day cycle): values for times past the end of the native data are found by subtracting the repeat cycle from the date until that adjusted date lies within the native data--and the values for that date are used. General Astro
115481 The algorithm for computing the 81-day averaged F10.7 values for the Schatten and SolFlx_CSSI.dat files has been improved; however, the difference in the values using the new and old algorithm is very small, much smaller than the uncertainty in the predicted values themselves. General Astro
115572 Time Components that are derived from Date Constants (e.g., a Fixed Time Offset using the reference start instant of Today, Tomorrow, NoonToday, etc.) that are set as the Scenario Epoch, will now set the Scenario Epoch correctly when the scenario is saved and reloaded. While the epoch would be set correctly when set during the STK session, when the Scenario was saved on one day and then loaded on some day afterward, the Time component would not end up setting the Scenario epoch correctly. While the Date Constants themselves have always worked correctly when set as the Scenario Epoch and loaded from a Scenario, derived Time Components that used the Date Constants would not set the Scenario Epoch correctly. Left uncorrected (e.g., by resetting the Scenario Epoch to some other component), exported attitude files and ephemeris files would incorrectly mark the Scenario Epoch in their files, resulting in data that was time offset compared to the original vehicle's data. General Astro
115573 Date Constants defined in the Analysis WorkBench (e.g., Today, Tomorrow, NoonToday, etc.) have been fixed to again reference the local day, not the UTC day. This was inadvertently broken in STK 12.2. General Astro
115608 An issue was fixed in the computation of the force model contribution of the time-dependent contributions to the solid and ocean tide models. The phase angle used in the computation of the gravitational contribution was computed incorrectly for some constituents and now has been fixed. Using the incorrect phase angles still provided an improved solution as compared to ignoring the tide contributions entirely; using the correct phase angles is a small improvement over using the incorrect values. General Astro
115757 The CVCSDS OPM file reader used in the Initial State Tool has been corrected to no longer complain when more than one maneuver or user defined data element appears in the message. The OPM formats allows multiple maneuvers or user defined data elements to appear. Note that neither the maneuver nor user-defined data elements are actually read by the OPM reader: the maneuver data appearing in the message is not used during propagation. General Astro
115760 An units conversion issue with the nominal ocean tide amplitude values has been corrected to interpret the amplitude values as being in meters rather than centimeters. The nominal amplitude can be used by a user to filter out ocean tide constituents whose amplitude is too small to be considered in an analysis.  The spherical harmonic coefficients actually used for computing the ocean tide contribution for a constituent remain correctly interpreted as being in centimeters-- the unit conversion error only affected the filtering out of constituents, not the computation of a constituent's contribution to the ocean tide force. With this correction, a user would need to increase the minimum acceptable ocean tide amplitude by 100 to obtain the same sets of constituents as a older version of STK would use. General Astro
114453 An error in the loading of ephemeris files containing covariance information has been corrected. The error was limited to cases where the covariance section of the file contained three or more consecutive entries at the same epoch. The result of the error was that STK would generate error messages indicating that the covariance section of the file contained less than the expected number of entries. General Astro
115717 Running mexConnect commands from the MATLAB Engine Command Window is not supported in this STK release. You must use a normal MATLAB application window to work with mexConnect and exchange data and commands between MATLAB and STK. MATLAB plugins that execute in the MATLAB Engine are not affected. MATLAB Interface
115076 The STK Object Model's IsTimeVarExtremumAvailable method for Data Providers now properly returns false for interval statistics. MATLAB Interface
115375 The MATLAB connectors install now includes support for version of 2015a and later. Connectors for older versions of MATLAB have been removed. If needed, please contact tech support. MATLAB Interface
108206 The IAgStkAccess interface now includes properties for obtaining the base and target STK objects used in the access as well as the access name. Object Model
114097 The GetCurrentUnitAbbrv method for UnitPreferences in the ObjectModel has been fixed to report the unit abbreviation using the object model's unit preferences settings. Previously, the abbreviation for a compound unit was only created from each simple dimension's internal units. Note that the conversion of values for compound dimensions was (and continues to be) working. Object Model
115279 IAgSpEnvMagFieldGfx.ComputeBField has been removed from the Python API. Use IAgSpEnvMagFieldGfx.ComputeBFieldAsArray instead. Object Model
116344 The Python API has been updated so that methods expecting a list of RGBA colors may now be used (e.g. IAgStkGraphicsPointBatchPrimative.SetCartographicWithColors). See the Python Programming Guide for a description of how to use colors with the Python API. Object Model
114809 Access constraint plugins now correctly register and unregister when a Scenario is created and deleted. Previously, these plugins would not unregister, but still register on each creation of a Scenario, resulting in multiple copies of the same plugin of the same name being available for selection to use with Access. Plugins
115208 Native Python plugin points have been added to STK for Access Constraints and VGT Calc Scalar plugins. Plugins
111987 Confusing behavior associated with drag model plugins for Astrogator atmospheric density models has been adjusted in both the UI and Object Model. Specifically, the ability to interact with the plugin settings of the placeholder 'Drag Model Plugin' has been restricted. Plugins
113846 Displaying the VOACAP output file in a report would omit data after the month and year. This has been corrected. Radar
115804 Computations involving a Radar object's RCS using Ansys HFSS exported RCS data in CSV file format could cause STK to exit. This has been fixed. Radar
116174 An issue was found when authoring Radar scenario objects which contain external files, such as the external antenna pattern file. The external files were not properly packed into the VDF. Therefore, when the VDF was loaded the Radar object would not be properly configured with the external files. This issue has been corrected for the next release of STK. Radar
113717 The Export button for Reports has been updated to export the exact contents shown. Reports and Graphs
113672 SEET Debris Flux data providers (reports and graphs) have been extended to report through 2030. SEET
115348 The search results provided by the local file search, when searching for Spacecraft in the Insert From Standard Object Database tool, has been improved to report only one row per satellite number and to report all common and official names in the "Name or ID" column. You can enable this column by right-clicking on any column heading The direction that the aircraft is pointing. and turning "Name or ID" on. Previously, multiple rows may have been reported for the same satellite number, with each row having a different common name (but all other data was identical). Standard Object Catalog
115504 Satellites created from the Insert from Standard Object Database tool, when using only the local search, will no longer set the satellite mass to 0 kg when the satellite database file (i.e., the *.sd file set in the Database tab of the scenario's settings) does not actually contain a value of mass for that satellite: the default mass value of 1000 kg will be used instead. Standard Object Catalog
114798 The Component Browser GUI has been updated with a button above the tree to allow the user to switch to Expanded Categories View mode. This populates the grid with all the components of the currently selected Component Type, organized by category User Interface
115805 Propagating a TwoBody, J2Perturbation or J4Perturbation satellite after only setting the propagation frame to a new value will now correctly force the re-propagation using the updated setting. Previously, if this one selection was the only changed setting, the setting would not be set into the satellite and re-propagation would not occur. User Interface
115817 The user interface for the TwoBody, J2Perturbation, and J4Perturbation propagators has been corrected so that the panel displays the correct elements for a vehicle that was previously set to use TrueOfOrbitEpoch as the propagation frame and used TrueOfEpoch as the displayed coordinate system on the panel, but the coordinate system epoch was not the same as the orbit epoch. The panel was failing to account for the frame transformation between the TrueOfEpoch frames at these two different epochs. User Interface
115127 The Satellite Reference property page now resizes when the properties browser resizes. User Interface
115403 STK running on a Frame could exit when displaying button tooltips. This has been corrected. User Interface
116108 An issue was found in STK which would cause a crash when make changes to a page which contained components from the component manager and apply the page without closing window. Subsequent changes to the component in the component manager would lead to the crash. This issue has been resolved in the latest release. User Interface
114213 The Movie Timeline Wizard can now use parallel computing to scale recording operations for the 2D Graphics windows across multiple cores and machines. Visualization
114387 The Movie Timeline Wizard can now use parallel computing to scale recording operations across multiple cores and machines when using Timeline keyframes to control the camera. Visualization