Visit Planner

The Visit Planner performs a schedulability assessment of Pass Plans and Survey Steps.


Overview of Visit Planner

The Visit Planner analyzes the selected observations and shows dates when the observations may be scheduled (schedulability). The Visit Planner may be run on one or more selected Pass Plans, Survey Steps, or Execution Plans. Constraints checked by the Visit Planner include the general visibility of a target from the observatory as a function of time, and the impact of any constraints or Special Requirements.

Running the Visit Planner 

In the APT hierarchical editor, select one or more Pass Plans or Survey Steps (or Execution Plans, if working on an approved program). Click the Visit Planner button in the top tool bar, then click the Update Display button (on the bottom of the Visit Planner form).

  • The Update Display button is disabled after the Visit Planner has completed. Schedulability results are saved with the program and remain available after you close and re-open the program.
  • If any parameters that affect schedulability are changed, the Update Display button is enabled and the Visit Planner must be run again.
  • The Visit Planner may be run at any time by selecting Force Update Display from the Visit Planner menu. 


Demonstration of the Visit Planner

Screen capture demonstrating the use of the Visit Planner. This graphic shows that Visit Planner needs to be run on the selected Survey Steps. The yellow caution symbols indicate the need to validate the selected Survey Steps by running the Visit Planner. Click the red Update Display button to run the Visit Planner.

The time for the Visit Planner to complete depends on the number of plans or steps selected and their complexity. Setting a shorter date range can reduce the time it takes for the Visit Planner to complete (see Set Processing Date Range).

When the Visit Planner run completes, APT shows either green checks  (tick) or a red x (error) indicating schedulablity. Click the plan or step to show detailed constraints. 

Demonstration of Unschedulable Survey Steps

Screen capture of the Visit Planner showing an unschedulable Survey Step with diagnostics. To show detailed reports, click the small arrows to the left of each Survey Step. In this example, the red X (error) on Survey Step 3 (in the tree editor) indicates the step contains one or more constraints that cannot be met. In the timeline view, the red X (error) on Orient Range provides more detail, indicating an orient has been selected for Survey Step 3 that is not schedulable.

Generally speaking, the less your survey steps are constrained by Special Requirements, the more likely that they will be schedulable without further interaction. Special Requirements that constrain scheduling are shown on the Visit Planner display:

  • When all Pass Targets in all the Survey Steps are Fixed Targets, any special requirements  are shown on each Survey Step.
  • When any of the the Survey Steps includes a Region Target, any special requirements are shown on each Segment but not on the Survey Step (see the Figure of a Region Target in the Visit Planner). 

Figure of a Region Target in the Visit Planner 

Visit Planner showing schedulability when a Region Target is included. In this example, Survey Step 4 includes a Region Target. Note that for Survey Step 4, schedulability is shown for each Segment, but not at the Survey Step level. Any Special Requirements ( APT Parameter Field BETWEEN and APT Parameter Field ORIENT RANGE ) are also listed with each Segment.

Visit Planner Menu

When the Visit Planner is displayed, a Visit Planner menu is available on the APT menu. The Visit Planner menu has two options: Force Update Display, and Set Processing Date Range.

Force Update Display

Force Update Display causes the Visit Planner to run on the selected plans, even if the plans have not been updated since the last time the Visit Planner was run.

Set Processing Date Range

The Visit Planner calculates schedulablity over its default date range (2027-02-17 through 2032-02-16). To set a shorter date range, select Set Processing Date Range from the Visit Planner menu. Dates are in yy-ddd format.

Setting a shorter date range can reduce the time it takes for the Visit Planner to complete.

For additional questions not answered in this article, please contact the Roman Help Desk at STScI.

Latest Update

Clarified how Visit Planner saves results.
Publication

 

Initial publication of the article.