Version 3.0.2 - 18th December 2014
Version 3.0.2 of AstroGrav is an upgrade containing major improvements to the creation and evolution of rubble piles, together with other minor improvements and bug fixes. This information is intended for existing users who are already familiar with AstroGrav and want to quickly find out about the main changes. This is a free upgrade for customers who have already purchased an AstroGrav 2 or AstroGrav 3 license, so that all you need to do is download Version 3.0.2 and use it in place of your old version. If you have any problems with this new version, please don't hesitate to contact us so that we can help you out.
Version 3.0.2 of AstroGrav has the following new and improved features.
Rubble Piles
Version 3.0.2 of AstroGrav includes a new command for creating rubble piles, together with a major performance improvement when evolving simulations that contain rubble piles.
The Edit / Split Object... has been added to allow you to easily convert an asteroid, comet, or any other object into a rubble pile. This new command allows you to specify the following.
- The number of identical components that the rubble pile is to have.
- Whether the rubble pile is to be two-dimensional (a rubble disc) or three-dimensional.
- Whether the components are to be numbered or lettered. If the components are numbered, then '-1', '-2', '-3', etc are appended to the names of the components to distinguish them. If the components are lettered, then '-A', '-B', '-C', ... '-Z', '-AA', '-AB', '-AC', etc are appended to the names of the components to distinguish them. Numbering is likely to be the more useful, with lettering provided mainly because this is the standard convention for designating comet fragments.
- The rotation period, with a value of infinity used to specify a non-rotating rubble pile.
- The x-, y-, and z-components of the rotation axis. Only the direction of this vector is used, so that multiplying all three components by the same positive number will have no effect. Multiplying all three components by -1 will reverse the direction of rotation.
Sample Simulations
Version 3.0.2 of AstroGrav includes the following updates to the sample simulations.
- The start date of the Solar System simulations has been changed from 01/01/2014 to 01/01/2015.
- The names of comets in the Solar System simulations have been changed to the standard form that is used in the comet import (Edit / Import Objects...) command. 1P/Halley and C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) are typical examples of the new names.
- Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) has been added to the Solar System simulations.
- The Planets, Asteroids simulation has had the Moon added to it, and has been renamed Planets, Moon, Asteroids to reflect the change.
- The Planets, Comets simulation has had the Moon added to it, and has been renamed Planets, Moon, Comets to reflect the change.
- The Planets, KBOs simulation has had the Moon added to it, and has been renamed Planets, Moon, KBOs to reflect the change.
Other Improvements
Version 3.0.2 of AstroGrav also has many other minor improvements and bug fixes, including the following.
- The choice of mnemonics used for the items in the Edit menu has been improved. This applies only to the Windows operating system, as Mac OS X doesn't use mnemonics.
- The startup process has been changed so that a fresh installation of AstroGrav automatically opens the Planets, Moon sample simulation, instead of opening a newly created simulation.