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.
The included world.dat file contains the data used for drawing the coastlines on the map.
You can use the Earth Plot Console to tell Earth Plot to use a different file.
Only one object can be selected. 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. Object order is determined by the loading order listed in the Data Manager File.
The Information Panel displays information about the selected object.
Press I to show and hide the Information Panel and Shift I to change its position in the window. Positions are Top, Right, Bottom, and Left.
Use the Console to change colors and font.
The Orbital Path shows the path to be taken by the selected object.
Press P to show and hide the Orbital Path.
Use the Console to change color and number of orbits.
Objects are labeled using the optional title from the object data file. If a title is not provided then the catalog number is used.
Press L to cycle through the following label choices.
Use the Console to change color and font.
Earth Plot defaults to the Equirectangular map projection but offers several other map projections.
Press M to cycle forward through the map projections and Shift M to cycle backwards.
The following is a list of supported map projections.
