Animating a Scenario

As you define and analyze a scenario using STK, you can set the scenario in motion to more fully understand time-based relationships and interactions. Because satellite systems are so dynamic, it is often helpful to analyze the scenario in motion.

For the animation of a scenario to be meaningful, the objects in the scenario with time dependencies should be properly defined. For example, vehicles must have ephemeris within the animation period to be affected by the scenario animation. Animating the scenario displays satellites moving along their orbit and ground tracks, the intersections of sensors with the central body and the subobject locations for planets and stars.

If you're animating a scenario and need to perform other tasks in STK, you may want to first Pause the animation and then begin other tasks. If you animate while multitasking, all other processes and applications may run slowly.

Animation & its Relationship to Vehicle Tracks

In preparing to animate a scenario in STK, it is important to understand the relationship between the date/time established for orbital elements and the date/time established for the animation. You must propagate a path and generate ephemeris for a vehicle that overlaps all or a portion of the date and time range set for the scenario animation. If the date and time of animation fall outside the range of available ephemeris, the vehicle doesn't move during animation. You must either propagate ephemeris that use the date and time set for the scenario animation or change the date and time for your scenario animation so that it falls within the span of the available ephemeris.

Update Animation Time

You can update the animation time to the time displayed in a specific field by clicking the button attached to that field and selecting Update Animation Time.