Elements of the Main Window

Rendezvous' main window provides the primary interface and controls to the user.  It is arranged like this:

This window is segmented into four sections which are described in detail below.

The Calendar and Clock

The calendar and clock allow the user to select what is called the Epoch Date in Rendezvous.  The Epoch Date is the base time relative to which all other time intervals are measured.  The year and month are selected using the arrow buttons on either side. The date is selected by clicking the appropriate day in the calendar well.  The time can be changed in one of two ways.  You can select a field in the clock by clicking in either the hours, minutes, or seconds field, and then the arrow buttons are used to increment or decrement the value in that field.  Alternatively, you can select a field, and then type in a new value directly.  You must press the "Enter" key for the new value to take effect.



Time Interval Control

Several of the operations in Rendezvous require a time interval to be specified.  This interval is specified using the text fields located in an area labeled "Ground Trace Control" in the main window.  Each of these fields represents an offset from the Epoch Date measured in seconds.  The primary use for these fields is to control the interval through which the Ground Trace is displayed. The ground trace begins at the offset time specified in the Start field and ends at the offset specified in the End field.  The trace is calculated at intermediate points specified by the value in the Delta T field.   The default is to show a ground trace beginning at 0 seconds, calculated at 100 second intervals, through a final value of 1500 seconds.

The MET (Mission Elapsed Time) field shows the time at which the sensor and target icons are displayed.  The default is to show the icons at the beginning of the trace, at zero seconds offset.  If you would like the icons displayed at the end of the trace, simply enter the same value in the MET field that is in the End field.  Always remember that the Ground Trace Map shows the state of the system at the Epoch Date plus the Mission Elapsed Time offset.

There are also four buttons located in this section.  The top two buttons allow a user to increment and decrement the Mission Elapsed Time by an amount specified in the Delta T field.

The Real-Time toggle button forces the Epoch Time to the real wall-clock time and starts a timer which updates Rendezvous every ten seconds.  This is handy when a user wishes to perform real-time tracking of particular sensors or targets.

The Telemetry button allows a user to specify a loadable bundle which saves particular information to a file.  This is a feature available only to users of Rendezvous-Pro, and requires detailed knowlege of the internal objects of Rendezvous.



Browsers

The browsers allow a user to select which sensors and targets he wishes to display.  When a state vector file is loaded, the name of the file is used as the constellation name and is displayed in the first column of the browser.  The second column displays a list of all the objects contained in that file.  A user simply scrolls the browser to the object he wants to view, and double clicks on that entry.  A check mark appears next to that entry indicating that it is selected and is being displayed in the Ground Trace window. Double clicking that entry again will de-select it and remove it from the Ground Trace display.  If you double click a constellation entry in the first column of the browser, all objects in that constellation will be selected and a check mark is displayed next to it. Double clicking on the constellation again de-selects all its objects and removes them from display.  A checkmark icon indicates an entry is selected.  No icon means an entry is not selected.  A dot next to a constellation name in the first column means that some of its objects are selected.

Note:  Clicking on a constellation entry in the first column will select all its objects.  Sometimes there are hundreds of objects in a constellation file.  If you select all of them, it can take many minutes to calculate and display all their trajectories.  Be careful when selecting whole constellations.



Ground Trace Maps

Here is a display of the Orthographic rendered Ground Trace Map.  On slower machines, this map can take up to a minute to display.  The ground trace maps are designed to display a wealth of information.  Details on the capability and use of the maps can be found here.