home / software /

Help

Data Manager File

The Data Manager File is a text file used to tell Earth Plot which objects you want to track. Without it you will not see any objects plotted. The file can be created using any text editor. I will explain the file syntax using examples.

I get TLE data from CelesTrak.org. CelesTrak provides data in different formats. Earth Plot only supports the TLE format at this time. If I download the Space Stations file then my Data Manager File could be as simple as: 

C:\Users\username\Downloads\stations.tle

If I also download the Weather file then my Data Manager File would be: 

C:\Users\username\Downloads\stations.tle
C:\Users\username\Downloads\weather.tle

Earth Plot will load and track all the satellites from those two files. Since both files are in the same directory the above can be simplified to the following: 

C:\Users\username\Downloads {
    stations.tle
    weather.tle
}

The above does not mean additional files must now be in the Downloads directory. We can still load satellites from a file not in the Downloads directory by adding another line to the file: 

C:\Users\username\Downloads {
    stations.tle
    weather.tle
}
D:\TLE\other.tle

The real benefit of the Data Manager File is when you want to only load some satellites from a file. For example, if I want to load only the NOAA weather satellites from the weather file I would do the following: 

C:\Users\username\Downloads {
    stations.tle
    weather.tle {
        noaa*
    }
}

The above is using the '*' wild card to indicate any number of characters. This means any satellite with a name that begins with "noaa" will be loaded. There is also a '?' wild card that is used to indicate any single character.

The wild cards are optional and are only used with satellite names. You can also specify satellites by their catalog number. If I only want to load the International Space Station from the stations file then I could do the following: 

C:\Users\username\Downloads {
    stations.tle {
        25544
    }
    weather.tle {
        noaa*
    }
}

Support for Catalog IDs using Alpha5 syntax was added to the April 22, 2025 release. You can use full numeric IDs or Alpha5 syntax. When using Alpha5 syntax the letter must be upper case.

After you have downloaded your TLE data and created your Data Manager File you then need to tell Earth Plot to use it. You do this with the Earth Plot Console's "set" command to set the "obj.data" variable.

Coastlines File

The coastlines file contains the data used for drawing the coastlines on the map. EarthPlot looks for a file named world.dat in the same folder as the executable file.

With the Earth Plot Console you can tell Earth Plot to use a different file.

Information Panel

The Information Panel displays information about the selected object.

Press I to show and hide the Information Panel. Press Shift+I to change the position of the Information Panel.

Selected Object

Select an object by left clicking on or near its point. The object closest to where you click will be selected.

Press Tab to select the next object and Shift+Tab to select the prior object.

The order of the objects is determined by the order in which the objects were loaded. The order of the files, listed in the Data Manager File, determines the loaded order.

Labels

Objects are labeled using the optional title line from the TLE. If there is no title line then the catalog number is used.
Press L to cycle through the label choices.

Map Projections

Data can be plotted using the following map projections:

Press M to cycle forward through the map projections and Shift+M to cycle backwards.