Click the capability in the table below to jump to the corresponding release notes section.
| Release Notes by Capability | ||
|---|---|---|
| Access | Analysis Workbench | Analyzer |
| Astrogator | Aviator | Chains |
| CommRad | Coverage | Deck Access |
| Sensor objects | STK Engine on Linux | STK General |
| Test and Evaluation Tool Kit | ||
Access
STK's Access capability determines when one object can see another object, given any applied constraints. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 106916 | When computing Access between a Facility or Vehicle object and a Planet object, the Line of Sight constraint now ignores central body obstruction if the Planet object’s central body is same as the Facility or Vehicle object’s central body and the ephemeris sources of the central bodies are different. Previously, central body obstruction was not ignored when the central bodies were the same and their ephemeris sources differed. | Access |
| 109125 | For Access calculations, the default Sensor Preferred Time Sense is now "Receive" instead of "No Preference." You can change this setting via the Edit Preferences menu (Access Defaults page) or the AccessConfig Connect command. The default track mode for Targeted, Tracking sensors will match the Sensor default Preferred Time Sense described above. If you set the default Sensor Preferred Time Sense to "No Preference," STK will set the track mode to "Transpond." | Access |
| 110049 | Labeling of statistical summary data for AER Access reports has been updated to be more intuitive. | Access |
| 120267 | STK now correctly saves a Plugin Script Access constraint. Previously, if you enabled such a constraint for an object and saved the object, the constraint would not be loaded correctly when the object was reloaded into a scenario because the save operation failed to output correctly. | Access |
| 120293 | The Access AER report, when reporting the range to a Star object, now reports the distance to the star using its parallax value. This value is not modeled as varying with time, given the uncertainty in the parallax value itself. | Access |
| 120732 | Access constraints based on Analysis Workbench (AWB) components (i.e., constraints that use a Vector, Angle, Scalar Calculation, or Condition) now correctly consider the AWB component's availability times when evaluating constraint satisfaction. Previously, these times were ignored, allowing STK to use a value in constraint processing even when the value wasn't actually computed at the time requested of the access computation. | Access |
| 121333 | The Local and Local Apparent constraints of an object linked to an Antenna object are now disabled on the Constraints Temporal property page of that object. You must configure such constraints on the linked Antenna. | Access |
| 121403 |
The QuickReport_RM Connect command now returns the same content that the Connect command QuickReportCreate displays for the case where the QuickReport was created for an Access for a pair of objects from A to B but the actual access was computed from B to A. Previously, STK deleted the B-to-A access and created a new access from A to B using all default settings to return the content of the QuickReport. Moreover, that new access would continue to exist, so it might appear to users that their original access had somehow lost all of its user-defined settings. Now, if neither the A-to-B access nor B-to-A access exists, STK will create and use a temporary access to report the QuickReport content. STK will delete the temporary access once it transmits the data back over the Connect socket. |
Access |
Analysis Workbench
STK's Analysis Workbench capability comprises four application-wide tools that you can use to create custom components for your scenarios. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 120465 | The three spatial calculations computing altitude — Altitude, Altitude(AboveMSL), and Altitude(AboveTerrain) — now correctly report altitude when the reference point is underneath the ellipsoid surface by allowing for a negative value. | Analysis Workbench |
| 121774 | You can use the CalcScalar Functional Mockup Unit (FMU) plugin with STK 12.7.1 and later versions. Previously, the Plugin Settings page would appear blank, not allowing selection of an FMU. | Analysis Workbench |
| 122119 | For SatisfactionTimes, computed for either a Scalar Bounds Condition or a Scalar Thresholds ConditionSet, STK now computes these correctly when the scalar calculation uses an angle dimension. Previously, the results would be incorrect for the following types of angles: dihedral, angle to plane when signed is on, angle off boresight, Euler angles and the axis-angle angle in an attitude parameter set, angles appearing in an Orbit trajectory parameter set, azimuth in Trajectory(CBF).Spherical and Trajectory(CBI).Spherical parameter sets, and longitude in the Trajectory(Cartographic).Detic.LLA parameter set. | Analysis Workbench |
Analyzer
STK's Analyzer capability blends the engineering analysis capabilities of ModelCenter with STK. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 80702 | Analyzer will increment double values correctly in Trade Studies when step size is a fractional increment. For any study scenario where this was an issue, you must delete the PXC file saved in the scenario directory and recreate the saved study parameter inputs for the study to correct the issue. | Analyzer |
| 120044 | The STK Plugin to Model Center now supports the use of Load Balancing when performing trade studies. Additionally, the Model Center user can utilize multiple STK processing blocks in a single Model Center Model. | Analyzer |
| 120210 | The STK Plugin to Model Center now supports the use of multiple STK processing blocks in a model. | Analyzer |
| 120596 | The Aviator object in Analyzer now has two new output properties. ProcedureDuration returns the total duration for an individual Aviator procedure. PhaseDuration returns the total duration for an entire Aviator phase. | Analyzer |
| 120693 | This corrects an issue where the Analyzer plugin was providing some invalid values from STK Data Providers in Model Center processing. Also, the plugin now provides a ValueStepSize input parameter when you add Data Provider values that are time varying output to the list of parameters for Data Providers. ValueStepSize input is not available for providers that are not time varying. | Analyzer |
| 120996 | The main Analyzer dialog box now correctly adjusts its three panels so you always see both left and right panel edges when you change the box's size. Before, making the dialog box sufficiently smaller would cause you to lose the right edge of the left panel. | Analyzer |
| 120999 | The Analyzer plugin will correctly switch between the Use STK Engine mode in settings to the STK GUI mode. | Analyzer |
| 121592 | Analyzer now correctly sets the Height Above Ground for a Target object. | Analyzer |
| 121769 | Support for the STK Aviator Restricted processing has been removed. | Analyzer |
Astrogator
STK's Astrogator capability contains specialized analysis computations for interactive orbit maneuvering and spacecraft trajectory design. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 120258 | Occasionally while running a script in the Astrogator scripting tool, upon the initial run of an MCS, interval boundaries for the vehicle, defined later in the associated sequence, would lead to floating point exceptions. Additional error checking is now in place to further facilitate such workflows and guard against these types of exceptions. | Astrogator |
| 120655 | Astrogator now correctly posts SNOPT constraint status messages to the target sequence status grid while running a SNOPT profile. | Astrogator |
| 120759 | This corrects an issue that caused named Astrogator time intervals in AWB to, on occasion, be sorted out of order when two or more zero-length segments abutted. | Astrogator |
| 120956 | AGI has deprecated the ReferenceType attribute on the Delta Right Asc and Delta Declination calculation objects in the MultiBody folder. Use the attribute BodyReferenceType instead. | Astrogator |
| 120972 | Astrogator now correctly computes the solar beta angle for segment summaries with segment output coordinate systems set to something other than central body inertial. | Astrogator |
| 121019 | Corrected an issue when the Maintain_NMC and Maintain_VBar Astrogator RPO sequences would sometimes incorrectly indicate that differential forces were not acting on the relative satellites even though they were. | Astrogator |
| 121189 | Corrected an issue where some specific date values could have been rejected when setting the dates through the Object Model using date formats that accept numerical input, such as EpSec or EpYear. | Astrogator |
| 121207 | Corrected an issue where some user-created exponential density functions in Astrogator propagators would disappear through save/load cycles. | Astrogator |
| 121288 | The Component Browser now prevents you from deleting user-created central body components. This avoids possible STK system crashes and other undefined behavior resulting from the underlying, entangled STK central body remaining after its Component Browser component has been removed. | Astrogator |
| 121289 | Corrected an issue where unresolved links could arise from attempting to seed a finite maneuver from an impulsive maneuver before running the impulsive maneuver on a satellite copied and pasted in the Object Browser. | Astrogator |
| 121530 | The Astrogator maneuver attitude set using Euler angles now always sets the correct values when using the AssignEulerAngles function. | Astrogator |
| 121704 | Corrected an issue where the load/save/load and new/close/new cycles involving user-created central body components loaded from the install or user config file areas were causing a crash on the second load or new scenario operation. | Astrogator |
Aviator
STK's Aviator capability provides an enhanced method for modeling aircraft that is more accurate and more flexible than the standard Great Arc propagator. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| AIR-100 | You now have the option to filter out invalid rows when importing external Aero files in the Advanced Fixed Wing Tool's external Aero file import. Invalid *.aero file rows are rows in which values of ClAlpha, K, or Cd0 are less than zero. | Aviator |
Chains
STK's Chains capability determines the times when one object can see another not by direct line of sight but by means of a third object. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 120752 | The computational performance of the Chains Access AER data and Chains Access Data Data Providers has improved. This is particularly true for those cases where the Chains computational interval is short and the time spans of the ephemerides of the vehicles used in the Chain are particularly long. | Chains |
Communications & Radar
STK's Communications & Radar capability simulates the performance of communications systems in the context of a mission. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 120404 | There was an issue found in STK 12.6 where the Min/Max color settings the user would enter in an Antenna's property window would become swapped when being displayed in the 3D Graphics Window. This issue also occurred when looking at the volume colors for Radar Cross Sections being displayed in the 3D Graphics window. This fix ensures the proper Min/Max colors now appear. | CommRad |
| 120587 | Analysis Workbench components, dependent on a sensor's body axes, that are used by plugin scripts within Access no longer error out just because the sensor's body axes are not available. Previously, when Access requested the sensor body axes orientation at an unavailable time because of light time delay issues, the script would error out. | CommRad |
| 120892 | In STK, you can use Satellite Collection subsets as interferers in comm systems. Comm systems can depict desired links versus interference via different colored lines. An issue was discovered in STK 12.6 that caused interference lines to draw to the center of the Earth for any subset used as an interferer. Interferer lines now draw correctly in this release. | CommRad |
| 121519 | An issue was discovered in STK 12.6 where STK was double-counting any transmitter being used in both a transmit and interference constellation. This resulted in the transmitter showing as the primary transmitter in the Link Information report and as an interferer in the Interference Information report. This double counting no longer occurs. | CommRad |
| 121666 | Corrected an issue found in 12.7 where rain override values from the RF Environment properties page were not propagating from parent objects to receivers when computing rain loss. | CommRad |
| 121873 | Corrected an issue where external Comm/Radar data files, such as external antenna files, would not load properly when loading the scenario from a VDF file. | CommRad |
| 121940 | Corrected an issue where the Custom A, B, and C script plugins points on the RF Environment would not retain the configured script file on scenario load. | CommRad |
| 122116 | S_DBW and N_DBW in the Comm/Radar VOACAP Files data provider were being reported in dBm, but these are now correctly reported in dBW. | CommRad |
| 122117 | When you change the Required SNR value, STK now displays this (correct) VOACAP Required SNR value in the VOACAP Input Files section of the report, rather than displaying the incorrect default value. | CommRad |
Coverage
STK's Coverage capability takes coverage analysis capabilities to the next level by extending visibility analysis to discretized, distributed areas, as seen from a collection of assets. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 118124 | The CoverageDefinition Grid Connect command now accepts longitude values from -360 to 360 degrees when specifying a LatLonRegion. Previously, it ranged from -180 to 180 degrees, which prevented you from setting anything that crosses 180 degrees. | Coverage |
| 119521 | If you select parallel mode for a Coverage computation, STK will use parallel mode for any subsequent automated recomputations of that Coverage. | Coverage |
| 120550 | The regional acceleration computation used when computing accesses for a CoverageDefinition has improved. It now only includes those constraints that are to be used for access to the regions to properly bound the accesses to any grid points within a region. | Coverage |
| 121441 | STK now displays Figure of Merit (FOM) smooth contour graphics on all 2D maps instead of only for the central body of the FOM. | Coverage |
| 121679 | Corrected an error in the System Response Time figure of merit that caused STK to hang or crash when the Coverage Definition object that hosted the System Response Time figure of merit was defined to use a Satellite Collection Subset as an asset. | Coverage |
| 122075 | Corrected an issue where the coverage Data Provider for "Visible Assets by Full Name" could not be found. | Coverage |
Deck Access
STK's Deck Access capability enables you to compute access to a set of objects, not currently defined within the STK scenario, from a single object within the scenario. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 120566 | The OutReport and OutFile DeckAccess Connect command options are now optional. | Deck Access |
Sensor objects
STK's Sensor object models the field of view and other properties of a sensing device attached to another STK object. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 120646 | STK now displays a new notification to you when saving a scenario that contains subobjects of the same type and with identical names. This gives you a chance to rename objects and prevent the last saved names from overwriting the others. | Sensor Objects |
| 120891 | STK now properly loads 3D Model Pointing Element names and sensor pointing definitions that have spaces in their names. | Sensor Objects |
STK Engine on Linux
STK's Engine on Linux enables engineers and scientists to rapidly build and deploy custom software applications that embed AGI's premier geodynamic analysis and visualization engine. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 121047 | STK Engine Containerization code examples have been updated to use Red Hat UBI8. | STK Engine on Linux |
STK General
The STK General list contains corrected issues that affect STK as a whole. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| 85599 | In the Deck Access tool dialog box, when you select Collection Subset as the Type, the drop-down menu for Name now works correctly. | STK General |
| 92267 | Printing reports now maintains proper spacing and alignment when 'Japan' is set as the locale. | STK General |
| 105041 | STK now remembers the Aviator Catalog Manager GUI screen layout, particularly the sizing of the tree component, so you don't have to resize the screen each time you close and open it. | STK General |
| 105561 | For the Globe Manager's file selection functionality, you now use only the check boxes next to file names to choose a file for inclusion in the scenario. Previously, just highlighting a row would deem the file in the row as "selected." | STK General |
| 109889 | The Message Viewer dialog box is now larger, to accommodate larger filenames. | STK General |
| 111673 |
For a Sensor object, the Sensor Obscuration and Sensor AzEl Mask tools are available. In past versions of STK, the selection of Obscuring Objects did not always work correctly, but for STK 12.8 all selection possibilities function correctly. |
STK General |
| 114585 | Corrected a problem where the results from Deck Access could not be reconciled with the area targets imported using the same source shapefile. The Scenario importer was not counting invalid polygons when it assigned names to them. Now both DeckAccess and the importer use the same logic to name objects. | STK General |
| 116942 | Launching the Jupyter Notebook plugin inside STK now launches the running Jupyter server in an integrated web browser window. Previously, launching this plugin inside STK opened an empty gray window. | STK General |
| 117012 | STK now provides a sharper display of 3D View Pilot buttons and images. | STK General |
| 117235 |
Changing an STK window workspace placement from Dockable-Bottom to Integrated was causing STK to crash, but this now works. |
STK General |
| 118669 | You can now specify the step size of satellite initial state exports if you also specify the start and stop times. | STK General |
| 118935 | For Scalar Calculation Figure of Merit, in the Select Scalar dialog box, the Scalar Calculation For text field for Access input was at times not readable but now is always readable. | STK General |
| 120212 | The Window3D Connect command will now correctly hide or show the Microsoft Bing Maps toolbar displayed on 3D Graphics windows or in the application toolbar area. | STK General |
| 120284 | In STK Viewer (not STK), certain mouse click types in the Message Viewer were causing the table to disappear. Now all mouse clicking processes properly. | STK General |
| 120448 | The geographic definition of Somalia in the STK Area Target database has been updated to include the disputed territory of Somaliland. | STK General |
| 120656 | When viewing 3DTilesets in STK, views with the camera tilted toward the horizon would often show high-resolution tiles near the camera but the quality would drop off rather quickly. A significant change was made to 3DTileset rendering that now provides much higher quality tile selection for farther views. | STK General |
| 120765 | In the Globe Manager, the Add 3D Tilesets dialog box now now correctly provides you with the option to select Show full path with name. | STK General |
| 120819 | You can now save to the Ansys Minerva root folder. | STK General |
| 120983 | In version 12.7, labels for Axes did not include the Axis name in the label and would only appear as "X", "Y", or "Z". This issue has been fixed to restore the original behavior of including the axis name in each label. | STK General |
| 121082 | The reset button now works on the 2D and 3D Graphics windows' animation toolbar. | STK General |
| 121280 | The ICRF support angle tables have been extended to a larger date range (1974 - 2150). This change should reduce slowdown of analyses past 2050. This slowdown occurred previously due to moving off the end of the tabulated ICRF angle table. | STK General |
| 121319 | In the 2D Graphics window, for the window's animation toolbar, you can now use both the Current Scenario Time field and Scroll To A Time control bar to properly set the animation time. | STK General |
| 121358 | The AZ EL Mask tool was undersampling mask points for straight lines. This issue has been fixed, enabling a better representation of straight lines in this tool. | STK General |
| 121507 | STK Python API's GetValues method for Data Provider execution now processes about twice as fast. | STK General |
| 121644 | You can now use Connect commands for importing and exporting single components and folders of components to/from the Component Browser. | STK General |
| 121661 | A scenario will no longer crash when removing one of the Access objects from a QuickReport. | STK General |
| 121676 | The CCSDS OEM external ephemeris file reader better reports file reading problems to the Message Viewer. | STK General |
| 121739 | Editing a subset of a SatelliteCollection object no longer deletes it. Previously, when editing a subset, STK would delete the subset and then recreate it. The problem was that deleting the subset would remove any graphics settings configured for it, and other STK Objects (e.g., Chains, Coverage, DeckAccess, etc.) would lose their connections to that subset. | STK General |
| 121811 | Corrected an issue where a crash was possible when issuing a Connect command to delete an entry from an object's ModelList, specifically for cases where the timestamp for the model list entry was not in the model list. | STK General |
| 121926 | The KML Exporter utility now correctly exports Area Targets, Line Targets, MTOs, and all vehicle objects. | STK General |
| 122006 | Corrected an issue on machines without GPU hardware access where a glTF 3D model that was missing a material could crash STK. | STK General |
| 122020 | Sensors with custom patterns now draw their pattern projection correctly. Previously, there were some cases where spurious lines would be drawn outside of the pattern. | STK General |
| 122062 | The CZML export plugin now correctly exports Half Power and EOIR sensors. | STK General |
| 122071 | Corrects an issue that was introduced in 12.7 where Planet labels were not visible beyond a view distance of 1e10 meters. | STK General |
| 122085 | Korean OS now displays text using an appropriate font. | STK General |
Test and Evaluation Tool Kit
STK's Test and Evaluation Tool Kit (TETK) is a suite of tools designed to support the test and evaluation activities of a mission life cycle across multiple domains, including aircraft, satellites, missiles, maritime, and ground vehicles, and ground facilities. In the STK v12.8 release, you can find the following improvements:
| Issue ID | Release Note | Capability |
|---|---|---|
| TETK-62 |
The Data Element Picker now has Collapse All and Expand All functionality on all controls. |
TETK |
| TETK-709 |
A Name field is now available when creating and editing graph annotations. This enables you to provide a unique, optional name to help identify each annotation that is on a graph. To support this update, the TE_Graph connect command was updated with a new AnnotationName keyword as part of the Annotation parameter. |
TETK |
| TETK-1102 TETK-1220 |
The Graph Properties window now includes a Background section, which enables you to change the background color of the inside and outside regions of a graph. Additionally, you can upload an image as the graph background inside of the graph axes. To support this update, the TE_Graph connect command was updated with three new keywords: BackOutsideColor, BackInsideColor, and BackImage. |
TETK |
| TETK-1108 |
Previously, the Graph Properties window included a Set All Intervals button, which enabled you to set the display interval for all line segments in the graph. This button has been changed to a drop-down menu and includes a Set All Time Steps option, which enables you to set a custom time step for all line segments in the graph. |
TETK |
| TETK-1109 |
To assist in the creation of scripts, you can now right-click and copy the Long Name, Short Name, and Source Path of a graph’s Y Metric and X Metric to the system clipboard. Additionally, you can now right-click and copy the Display Interval path to the system clipboard. Lastly, you can right-click and copy the Long Name, Short Name, and Source Path of a data element to the system clipboard. |
TETK |
| TETK-1222 |
You can now specify the scale used for each graph axis as either Standard or Logarithmic from the Y Axis/X Axis Scale drop-downs. As part of this update, the TE_Graph connect command was updated with two new keywords: YAxisScale and XAxisScale. |
TETK |
| TETK-1442 TETK-1527 TETK-1528 |
A new Constraints tab is now available as part of the tracks workflow. From this panel, you can edit the coordinates of an existing bounds constraint. You can also create a new bounds constraint by entering the coordinates and clicking Apply. The TrackWorkflow bounds button has also been updated. It will prompt you to change to ECF view, which increases the accuracy of the drawing. The results of the drawing will appear in the Constraints tab. The coordinates will no longer be automatically applied, and you must click Apply to view the results. Additionally, the TrackWorkflow clear bounds button has been updated. It clears the values in the Constraints tab, and you must click Apply to view the results. You can toggle the visibility of the applied bounds constraint using the check box to "Show Applied Boundary". You can change the color of the bounds constraint using the color picker. |
TETK |
| TETK-1492 |
The layout of the Workflows panel has been updated to enable you to select a workflow from a drop-down at the top of the panel instead of from a navigation list. |
TETK |
| TETK-1518 |
A radio button has been added to the Track ID List control to toggle between all track IDs and filtered track IDs. The filtered list of track IDs is influenced by both the filters on the track and the data valid used. |
TETK |
| TETK-1591 TETK-1592 TETK-1593 |
The Whole Track Customization tab and Track Graphics tab have been merged into one tab in the Tracks Workflow.
|
TETK |
|
TETK-1788 TETK-1913 TETK-2339 |
A new Current State tab is now available as part of the tracks workflow. From this panel, you can enable a custom marker to highlight unique track IDs at the current animation time. Additionally, you can add a custom label for the marker, as well as change its color, size, and stroke width. Current State markers default to using interpolation between track points. |
TETK |
| TETK-1830 TETK-1831 TETK-1834 TETK-1835 |
The Track Pick Mapping window now uses two panels: Layout and Details.
|
TETK |
| TETK-2063 | The TETK Training Tutorial topics have been updated to reflect recent features and functionality that have been added to TETK, including graph annotations and the revised Tracks workflow, among other things. | TETK |