Adding user-selected files to your VDF | Optimizing your distribution

VDF Setup Considerations

When creating a VDF, you should consider including only what your audience needs.

What is an acceptable amount of time to wait for a VDF to open?

Start creating VDFs to get a benchmark. Take advantage of the "Size of File Selected" option. On an average PC, it takes about three minutes to save or open a one (1) GB VDF. Also consider client internet connection speed when saving VDFs to a remote network share or cloud storage location.

Why exclude large files (typically globe content) from the VDF?

• Not all files compress. Big VDFs take longer to load. A VDF is similar to a ZIP file in that the contents you select are bundled and compressed. But not all files compress equally. The file size of a file already heavily compressed will be translated directly to the VDF file size. Examples of heavily compressed files are the STK^® terrain and imagery formats like .pdttx, .pdtt, and .jp2.
• More than one VDF may depend on the same large file(s). If you have more than one VDF which uses the same image/terrain file consider using the VDF Overview to reference dependencies which must be obtained separately by the recipient.
• Recipients may have the large file(s) already. Recipients of a VDF may already have the large files (STK Terrain, Imagery and Maps, or STK Data Disc) in a network location or a location with more available disk space which is different from where the VDF will be saved. See Edit Preferences - File Find for setting the search path used by the STK application to locate imagery / terrain / models.
• Clients may have internet access allowing them to use Microsoft's Bing Maps or Esri's ArcGIS Online.

What are the alternatives to excluding large files from a VDF?

• Streaming Bing, REST, or Web Map Service (WMS) imagery sources.
• Let the STK application re-create some of the data when the VDF is opened:
• Delete Az-El mask (.aem) files from the scenario folder prior to saving the VDF.
• Delete .cva files from the scenario folder and have the recipient compute Access.
• Under Edit Preferences - Save/Load Preferences, clear Save for:
• Vehicle Ephemeris.
• Accesses.
• Sensor Targeted pointing times.
• Use the same .pdtt file for both Globe Manager and Scenario - Basic - Terrain.
• Use the Imagery and Terrain Converter to crop both imagery and terrain for only the required area.

When creating a VDF for use exclusively by the STK Viewer application, you should not include the 2D Graphics window or any custom/user data.

Adding user-selected files to your VDF

In addition to STK-specific content, you can add your own non-STK files to your VDF. These can include data files, reports, presentations, HTML pages, scripts, spreadsheets, and other files beneficial to the audience.

You can also manually add files that are not automatically included by the authoring process. For various reasons, there are file types and datasets that do not normally get included in the VDF. The data files can be large, indirectly associated, or exhibit a complex nature. Some datasets that are not automatically included are:

• File-based Terrain Sources on the Scenario Properties - Basic Terrain page.
• STK Celestial Imagery.
• STK High Resolution Maps.
• TLE Files.
• Map details.
• Space weather files.
• Planetary SPICE files.
• Plugin scripts.
• Core astrodynamic files pertaining to celestial body properties (other than Earth orientation parameters). These files are already part of the STK application.

For datasets that are large, it is best not to copy them to the VDF. Instead use a network-based solution (see Distributing VDFs within organizations). For smaller datasets, such as STK/Astrogator^® files and plugin scripts, you can add them individually from the Authoring a VDF window, or if they already exist in your scenario folder, you can add them quickly by selecting Copy scenario folder contents.

Optimizing your distribution

Distributing VDFs within organizations

You can minimize the size of a VDF by pointing to data rather than copying it. Like a scenario, VDFs maintain network links.

Many users already employ network resources for sharing data among STK scenarios, These can include terrain, imagery, geospatial vector data, 3D models and textures, cloud files, and more. When your scenario points to these datasets on the network, you can have the VDF do the same. In the Authoring a VDF window, do not select Copy... for datasets that are already referenced to the network. The VDF will preserve the network paths and the data will not copy. You can send this VDF to users on the same network and have them see the full content.

Distributing VDFs to non-connected users

When authoring for users without network or internet access, you must selectively choose what data to copy in the VDF. You have the option of not copying large datasets—such as globes, 3D models, markers—and rely on default ones that will activate on the receiving end. For other potentially large datasets, such as analytical terrain, you can make a smaller dataset or simply not include it. These tradeoffs are part of the authoring process. The VDF will display whatever content it finds in the file, and may prompt you in the case of globes. Lacking a network you can send a custom globe to the user and have the STK Viewer application prompt for its location.