README.TXT WinOrbit 3.1 11 Mar 97 An artificial earth-satellite tracking and display program for Windows 3.1, OS/2 or Win95. May also work with WinNT. Installation ------------ UNZIP the file. Be sure that you use the proper settings for UNZIP to retain [relative] path names. Some subdirectories should be created. Start the program with "Run" from Program Manager or File Manager (or double-click the filename in File Manager). See below for required file VBRUN300.DLL. Documentation ------------- In addition to the files *.TXT, which should get you started, there is a very extensive Windows Help file (WinOrbit.Hlp). Read it! Choose "Help:Help", and start by reading the instructions in "Setting up the Program". In case of trouble, see the hints below. Upgrade installation - customization files ------------------------------------------ If you have previously edited the .QTH files, be sure to save them (or answer NO to the unzip question about duplicate files). The .INI file will be automatically updated when you Save Settings. If upgrading from 2.x to 3.0, read the file UPDATE.TXT. If you have 3.x, back up your SAT\DATABASE.2LI file before unzipping the new software, otherwise it will be overwritten. A note about SVGA displays -------------------------- WinOrbit presents a lot of information on the screen. Some older displays may not have enough resolution to fit it all in. Every attempt has been made to make it usable on a minimum display of 640x480 at 15 twips/inch. Choose "Help:System Info" to find out what your display resolution is. If you cannot see all the features on the maps, try "Setup:Colors..." The program works fine on 16, 256, and 16-million-color displays. In the past there has been a problem with the maps on 32k and 64k-color displays. Try changing the colors to see if that helps. If it does, let me know. (The ocean is supposed to be blue and the landmass an olive-green, in the default color settings.) I believe this has been fixed in 3.0, but there are now some problems with 256-color (palette-based) displays. A note about date and time formats and the "millenium bug" ---------------------------------------------------------- Windows allows the user to customize the date and time format (for example 12 vs. 24 hour time, or European vs. American date order). Unfortunately, this makes the programmer's job a bit harder. I haven't tested every combination of formats. However, the following should work: 12 or 24 hour time (with or without AM/PM annotation) Short Date formats "DMY" and "MDY" If you find a particular format that fails, please let me know. In version 3.0, I have attempted to be sure that the program will continue to work after Jan 1, 2000. One major uncertainty is how the kep epochs will be handled after that date. I'm assuming that they will become either 00001.0001 or 100001.001 (after 99365.999). To change date and time formats, use the "International" Control Panel that is part of Windows. Windows 95 and NT ----------------- The program does run under Windows 95. There may be some problems with long directory names. To be on the safe side, stick with the old DOS 8.3 name conventions. OS/2 ---- WinOrbit works under OS/2. Set it up as you would any Windows program. International users (including Canadians) ----------------------------------------- WinOrbit should work correctly with any setting of the Country in the Windows International Control Panel. Please read the above about date/time formats. Also, please note that the Number Format in the International Control Panel must use different "decimal separator" and "1000s separator" characters. (This is the normal condition, i.e. "."/"," or ","/".", but not "."/"."of ".", not ",". Please report any strange occurrences (numbers rounded or truncated, for example). Thanks. If you have difficulty with the program, I'd appreciate hearing the specifics - what went wrong, what the Control Panel settings were, and what (if anything) you changed to fix it. Getting updates --------------- I will try to post updated versions to oak.oakland.edu and ftp.amsat.org. Look for WINORBxx.ZIP, where xx is the version number (e.g. version 2.3 --> WINORB23.ZIP). Also check out the WinOrbit web site (see the Help file). In case of trouble ------------------ 1) if the program ran once, but won't run now, delete the file C:\WINDOWS\WINORBIT.INI (or rename it) and try again 2) read the help file (WINORBIT.HLP) using Windows Help: -Start Help by choosing Help in Notepad, FileManager or Program Manager, [or WinOrbit if it is running]. -Choose the "File:Open" menu item and select "winorbit.hlp" -Read about "Setup" and "Troubleshooting" 3) contact the author (as described in the help file). Files included in distribution (WINORB28.ZIP) --------------------------------------------- (See UPDATE.TXT for directory info) WINORBIT.EXE - the program WINORBIT.HLP - the help file (manual) LATLONG.QTH - sample observer location database LAUNCH.QTH - Worldwide satellite launch points (for map) README.TXT - this file READMExx.TXT - update file (e.g. README21.TXT) CMDIALOG.VBX - Visual Basic library file GRID.VBX - Visual Basic library file WINORB.DLL - Windows Dynamic Link Library file DIBAPI.DLL - Windows Dynamic Link Library file USERALGO.DLL - Windows Dynamic Link Library file DATABASE.2LI - Satellite Database file AO-10.ATT - Attitude file for Oscar 10 AO-13.ATT - Attitude file for Oscar 13 DO-17.SKD - Automation schedule file for DO-17 (sample) MIR.SKD - Automation schedule file for MIR (sample) ORBS-xxx.KEP - sample satellite data file in AMSAT format ORBS-xxx.2LI - sample satellite data file in NASA format STS73.VEC - sample data file in Vector and AMSAT formats Additional file *** REQUIRED *** -------------------------------- VBRUN300.DLL - Visual Basic library file This is a big file, so I left it out of the program archive, but it is available from many places (as VBRUN30x.EXE, self-extracting archive file). For example: ftp.amsat.org: /amsat/software/windows/ oak.oakland.edu: /pub3/simtel-win3/dll/ http://www.sat-net.com/winorbit WARNING ------- This program is free. There is an old adage: "you get what you pay for". Do NOT assume that the orbital calculations are correct. Always check the results of this (or any program) before making any critical decisions. I make absolutely no guarantees of any sort. Commercial use is prohibited. Copyrights and stuff -------------------- The program and associated files are copyrighted by the author. You have permission to use these files non- commercially. If you redistribute, please include all the files in the original .zip file. Visual Basic and Windows 3.1 are products of Microsoft. The author of this program has licensed copies of both products. VBRUN300.DLL and CMDIALOG.VBX are products of Microsoft. They are provided free of charge to users of WinOrbit by the author, under the terms of the Microsoft license. Same for GRID.VBX. DIBAPI.DLL is based on sample code provided by Microsoft, but they are not responsible for my implementation of it. This package was archived with the Info-Zip program Zip 2.0. Info-ZIP's software (Zip, UnZip and related utilities) is free and can be obtained as source code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites, including: ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip/*, and oak.oakland.edu:/pub/msdos/zip/*