Notes
Below are the buttons which apply to the ArcGIS tab.
| Icons | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Zoom To | Zooms the view of the 3D Graphics Window to the selected object. |
| |
Open/Close Map Document | Open .mxd, .lyr, .mxt, or .pmf files |
| |
Toggle ArcGIS Data Refresh | Prevents all feature layers from redrawing |
Right-clicking the tree list area of the ArcGIS window will display a drop-down menu that includes the items mentioned above and the following menu items:
Click and browse to an ESRI Map Document. After a moment the
layer(s) of the opened map file will appear in the ArcGIS tab. Use
the check box next to a layer to toggle its display in the 3D
Graphics window. Toggle the plus and minus sign icons to un-nest
group layer sub-features and symbols graphics of a given map
layer.
Layers in the ArcGIS tab also have a Right click menu. Click Zoom To for quick location of a layer in the 3D Graphics window. You may also choose to close the entire map document from here.
Feature layers may take time to redraw. STK will redraw feature layers each time you zoom, rotate, or animate. The Data Refresh button can prevent your GIS Layers from redrawing each time the view changes.
The toggle Refresh button graphical state represents "what you
are about to do". Click to stop layer refresh. Upon doing this the
button changes appearance . Click when you wish to allow layer refresh again. Now the button
changes back to .
Another way to look at this is, if the button is green , refresh is off. If the button is red , refresh is on.
Note: If a layer is toggled on/off from the ArcGIS tab, only that layer will redraw and the refresh settings are not saved with the scenario.
This tool is similar to the Identify Tool found in ESRI ArcMap. Use it to return attribute information associated with layers and to import GIS layers into the scenario for analysis.
The Get Info Tool button is located on the Default Toolbar.
Click Get Info Tool 
on the
toolbar.
The Get Info Tool window will open in an undocked state. To dock it, right-click the title bar and select Dockable from the drop-down menu. Then click and hold on the title bar while moving it to a desired location within the STK workspace.
In the Get Info Tool window select the GIS layer from the Layer
drop-down list. Click Select Tool 
, and in the 3D Graphics window click
an individual object, or hold down the left mouse button and drag a
box around the area of interest.
When selecting items on the GIS layer the Select Tool uses a Lat/Lon shaped selection box. A list of the selected objects will appear in the left panel. Select an item from the list of objects to view information about that object in the right panel.
Note: You must click Select Tool each time you want to select an object or group of objects.
Use the Layers drop-down list to specify a different selection filter and try again. Each time a new box is drawn the Get Info Tool panel will refresh.
Once the Get Info Tool list is populated, you are ready to select layer items to be imported for use in STK analysis.
Right-click the root level "GIS" in the Get Info Tool hierarchy.
A selection is a user specified item or list of items to be imported into STK; when an item is selected it is highlighted light blue.
While it is possible to Select All from this menu, it is recommended that you start small and create a sub-set selection.
Use the right-click menu of an individual layer or sub-layer to make a selection, or individually import a layer into an STK object. Select Flash to display an item's location in the 3D Window. The item will turn green for a short time when Flash is selected.
Each selection will add to the previous until you select Clear Selection from the root menu.
Note: When the Get Info list is re-populated a selection is not cleared. In this way you can continue to select objects throughout the scenario.
When you are finished building a custom selection return to the root menu and select Import Selection; this action will:
Clicking Import Selection With Constellations will:
Note: If a feature has multi-parts, STK will create a constellation to group these parts together. If there are multiple features by the same name they will be separate.
Right-click individual layers to display and select the types of STK objects they can be promoted to:
Promoted polylines are propogated starting at the start time and travel at the default velocity. If the polyline has multiple paths you will be prompted to proceed or cancel. Proceeding will generate multiple objects. ESRI tools can be used to fix the data before promotion.
The ability to sustain a reasonable animation frame rate (20-30 fps) depends on the user's awareness of the available system resources and the amount of data being loaded at one time.
Some factors that affect rendering performance are:
Improve redrawing in a dynamic setting by clicking Data
Refresh on the
Globe Manager toolbar.
If your 3D Graphics view will not change, it is a good idea to only draw the data visible within that view. To do this turn Data Refresh on and set your View. Turn off Data Refresh when the data is finished loading. Zoom out to see the result.
Toggle Off Layer(s) which are not in use.
In addition to STK's system requirements, a multi-processor computer is recommended. GIS Analyst takes advantage of CPU hyperthreading. This will directly improve rendering performance.
If the globe is displayed with a solid color when the Drape On Surface option is turned on, check the configuration of your map document. Make sure that all the layers are configured for a transparent background. Also make sure that the map data frame background is set to "no color".
Consider modifying the GIS files (.lyr, .mxd, .pmf, and .mxt) to achieve better rendering performance. Globe Manager cannot modify them so you will need to follow the steps below in an ArcGIS application.