Previously in this blog I wrote an article about using STK Engine with mono (see here). At that time, mono supported running a purely analytical STK Engine application, but with some limitations. One of the limitations found was the lack of proper support for passing arrays as parameters to the STK Engine methods (i.e. marshalling of COM safearrays between managed and unmanaged code). Since then, I have contributed two patches (r136836 and r149817) to the mono code base that address these issues. (more...)
January 29, 2010
November 9, 2009
Avoid casting to types ending with ‘Class’
Preamble
Avoid casting a COM object to a type ending with ‘Class’. Casting to a type ending ‘Class’ is not guaranteed to succeed and may throw an exception:
"No such interface supported Unable to cast COM object of type .... Instances of types that represent COM components cannot be cast to different types that represent COM components; however they can be cast to interfaces as long as the underlying COM component supports QueryInterface calls for the IID of the interface."
August 18, 2009
Visual Studio Tools for STK9 1.0
Visual Studio Tools for STK9 is a new download on the ADN Download Center. This package adds a set of tools and utilities to Visual Studio, facilitating the development of STK Engine applications and STK plugins. The following capabilities are added to the Visual Studio IDE (C# and VB.Net): Toolbox controls, IntelliSense Code Snippets, and Add STK Reference context menu. (more...)
June 3, 2009
Using the Object Model with C++Builder 2009
We recently had a question about how to use the STK Engine within C++Builder (previously known as Borland C++ and now produced by CodeGear). In this article I will walk you through the steps required to enable the STK Engine in your C++ Builder environment. A full example is provided and attached to this article. It is a C++Builder port of the STKProTutorial tutorial available in a regular STK 8 install. (more...)
May 18, 2009
What’s New in STK 9: User Interface Plugins
With the upcoming release of STK 9 we are shipping a new API called “User Interface Plugins” or “UI Plugins”. The purpose of the new API is to allow end users extend the STK User Interface in order to implement custom workflows, automate repetitive tasks, etc. Users will be able to add your custom windows, toolbars and context menus to the STK environment, and receive notifications when their custom UI elements are activated (a button on a toolbar is clicked or a menu item is selected). (more...)
May 13, 2009
STK 9 Astrogator Object Model
With STK 9 just about wrapped up, I have time to talk about some of the new features added to the STK Object Model. I'll be focusing today on one of the major pieces that was added, Astrogator. For those who aren't too familiar with Astrogator, it is a specialized analysis module for interactive orbit maneuver and spacecraft trajectory design. Astrogator acts as one of the propagators available for a satellite object. This module calculates the satellite's ephemeris by executing a Mission Control Sequence, or MCS, that you define according to the requirements of your mission. By exposing it through the STK Object Model you now have more options for automating repetitive tasks, integrating with other applications or even developing your own custom application. (more...)
April 23, 2009
STK Java API 9.0 supports Eclipse SWT RCP/Plugin applications
Who's been enjoying the STK Java API? A show of hands/comments? Well good news, there's a lot more to enjoy in the release of STK / STK Engine 9.0.
One of the largest features of this release is the support for native Eclipse integration with the STK Java API by embedding the STK Engine Globe, Map, GfxAnalysis SWT Widgets into an Eclipse plugin or Eclipse RCP framework application. Before this release the SWTAWTBridge class was required for integration with the Eclipse UI framework, however, this approach could potentially be tricky as was discussed in a previous blog article.
The STK Java API 9.0 has been "split" to support two major UI frameworks. Previously the STK Java API supported the Sun Microsystems's Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT)/Swing UI framework that is standard with the Sun JDK/JRE install. Now with the release of STK Java API 9.0, the Eclipse.org Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) UI framework is also supported out-of-the-box. For more details on the SWT UI framework refer to the Eclipse.org website.
March 16, 2009
What’s cooking in STK Engine 9.0…
Hi everybody! Sorry for not posting more articles on this blog for the last couple of months. We have been busy working on STK 9.0! We have lots of exciting Engine features currently in the final stages of development (this is in addition of many, many new features in the STK Desktop application as well, both on the user interface usability and the computational capabilities). The STK 9 Seminar Series will be held tomorrow and (more...)
November 3, 2008
mono
Update to this post available here
In the past few months a couple of requests for information have been posted on ADN forums regarding using STK Engine (4DX) with mono on Linux (see here and here). This question also comes up from time to time directly from customers. In the past the missing piece has been COM interop (STK Engine is written in C++ with the API exposed to .Net using COM Interop). Therefore when mono 2.0 came out at the beginning of October the mention of better COM interop support sparked my interest. From Miguel de Icaza's blog announcing mono 2.0: «COM interop is now complete (works on Windows with "real COM" and can be used on Unix with Mainsoft's COM or Mozilla's XPCOM)». However I could not find anywhere a list of what is or is not supported at this point. The documentation is somehow sparse, or outdated and still referring to mono 1.1 in most places. So I decided to take a look and evaluate what is possible (more...)
October 29, 2008
New sources of information
It's been a few weeks since my last post (just before the UC), and I would like to bring to your attention two new sources of information relevant to STK Engine (4DX) development that AGI has made available or will make available in the near future.
First of all thanks to everybody who attended the UC. It was great with lots of interactions and feedback. I was impressed by the number and depth of STK Engine (4DX) applications that are being built!
The first source of information that we published is the 2008 AGI Users' Conference Resources. It contains the various presentations from the UC and is now available online on the UC site.
And there is even more good news for STK Engine developers. In case you missed the announcement AGI will make the code available for some of the Custom Application Framework addins. This is significant because it will provide many actual examples about how to accomplish certain tasks with STK Engine. So, even if you are not using the Custom Application Framework directly to build your application, or if you are using a different language (Java, C++, etc...), looking at the code will demonstrate the logic and steps required to implement that task with STK Engine. For more information see the blog from our Custom Application Framework friends!
