Earth Plot

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August 9, 2026

2026-08-09:

Add support for CelesTrak's CSV files.
Change default Data Manager file name from tle.txt to datamgr.txt
Change default user.data.path from blank to user's Documents folder.

2026-04-16:

Orbital Path drawn last to avoid hidden beneath many objects and labels.
Add Sinusoidal and The Times map projections.

2025-05-14:

Fix application not exiting after closing windows.
Windows download contains SDL2.dll version 2.32.6

2025-05-12:

Fix Mac version exiting when minimizing main window.

2025-04-26:

Add support for TLE Catalog IDs with leading spaces instead of zeroes.

2025-04-22:

Add Alpha5 support for Catalog ID in TLE files.

2024-11-28:

Console code rewritten with many improvements.
TLE Manager file now referred to as Data Manager file.
Data Manager file syntax changed to be simpler and more flexible.

2023-04-05:

Update SGP4 Library to latest code on GitHub.
Add 'ver' command to Console.

2023-03-28:

Fix window position remembered between sessions. The position was drifting on Windows.
Add con.bg.color and con.fg.color to Set command.

2023-03-06:

Updated Mac version to current code base.

2023-03-02:

New console window with a 'set' command for changing settings.
Changes to loading and saving settings. This breaks some/most settings causing them to reset to defaults.
It is now recommended to use 'set' command instead of editing settings file.

2022-10-17:

Left click on plot will now select nearest orbital element.
Add popup with map projection name when changing map projection.
Add Mercator, Natural Earth, and Bottomley map projections.

2022-10-13:

Fix crash when reading invalid map projection from ini.
Fix Van der Grinten projection showing blank on Mac.
Add app icon for Mac.

2022-01-16:

Update Mac release.

2022-01-10:

Fix satellite path not updating.
Add 5 more map projections.
Add Shift+M for cycling through map projections backwards.

2021-10-12:

Improve TLE loading speed when using '*' to load specified elements.

2021-01-07:

Update Mac release.

2020-12-29:

Fix Orbital Path.
Add Orbital Period to Info
Add Tab / Shift-Tab to select Next / Prior orbital element.
Save / Load all colors for Info in Ini.

2020-12-17:

Fix settings initialization that caused all colors to be black.
Add support for TLE with Alpha5 Catalog Numbers.

2019-10-12:

Changed oribital path from lines to dots. Lines will return when fixed.
Labels can be toggled between All, Selected, and None using the L key.
Reading and writing more settings to ini for more user customization.
No new Mac releases until I figure out my Xcode issues.

2019-08-28:

Added orbital path for clicked element.

2019-03-10:

Fix clicking orbital element when Info docked left or top.
Fix crash when bitmap font not found.
Fix labels being clipped on right side of plot. Elements that are east of the prime meridian are now right justified.
Improve error reporting.
Internal optimizations.
Use latest SPG4 lib changes from GitHub.
Plot has a 10 pixel padding. This can now be set from the ini: Section = Plot, Key = Padding.
Plot shows orbital elements as a pixel of size 3. Can now set from ini: Section = Plot, Key = OrbSize.

2019-02-25:

Fix 'Orbital #' not updating.
Fix TLE parsing name lines with '0 ' prefix.

2019-02-24:

Added info panel showing details of selected orbital element.

2019-02-19:

Fix another label issue.
The coordinates in top left corner are meant for debug purposes and always show the first loaded orbital element on startup. I do plan to show an info panel showing more information for orbital elements.
Left clicking an orbital element now displays it's coordinates in the top left corner. This is in preparation for the coming soon info panel.

2019-02-18:

Fix labels for TLE data without names. This was causing bad labels and sometimes a crash. If no name then catalog number is used.
Add support for TLE data with a name line numbered 0. The 0 is stripped.

2019-02-17:

Display labels for all orbital elements.
Using newer version of SGP4 library.
Fixed loading multiple TLEs in the same file. Can now load .txt files downloaded from celestrak.com web site.
Support EarthPlot.ini in data folder or app folder. See online Help for more information.
Many internal changes to the data handling areas.
This release is built with Visual Studio Express 2015.

2017-01-12:

Code cleaning and improvements to shared SDL2 code.

2017-01-11:

Added ability to load multiple TLEs on start up.

2016-12-18:

Updated Mac version with latest features.

2016-12-16:

Wrote an ini file library in ANSI C.
Save window size and position to ini file.
Save map projection to ini file.
Save misc app info to ini file.

2016-12-09:

Changed SGP4 code to use "C++ SGP4 Satellite Library" by danrw.
Tracking now works thanks to new SGP4 library.