We are pleased to announce that SMC/XR and SPARTA have released SEAS3.7.1. The development team has been hard at work to ensure that thisversion of SEAS provides the best experience for your analysis efforts.

Just a bit of background: SEAS 3.7.1 was intended as a maintenancerelease to get a sensor confusion model into the hands of the usercommunity. Our extended Beta period began in September and since thattime, ongoing study requirements allowed us to introduce someadditional new features. These new features included road networks withroute planning as well as a 3D vector model for increased control ofsatellite orbits.

On a technical note, some design decisions were recently made toimprove the usability of the Road Network features. Road weights cannow only be zero or greater; a negative weight discards a roadconnection. The ModifyRoadfunction also now takes only 3 parameters. If you have been using theRoad Network features during the Beta cycle, it is recommended youconsult the updated documentation to ensure proper operation of yourWarfiles.

The new help system, which was introduced with SEAS 3.7, has beengreatly expanded to provide an even better explanation of the featuresavailable within SEAS. Some features that were undocumented with theprevious release are now fully documented both within the documentationand the UltraEdit template files.

For those users who already have SEAS 3.7 and do not need aninstallation CD, an upgrade package will be released shortly via theTeamSEAS website. Keep an eye out on the site for this announcement.

[Update: See the discussion forum for instructions on downloading the upgrade package]

Looking forward, the development team is planning some majorimprovements in support of studies to be conducted this summer.Satellites will soon support two-line element (TLE) orbit definitionsand improvements to both communications and the LTL are on the horizon.Expect a SEAS 3.8 Beta with these new features starting in theJuly-August timeframe.

Looking even longer term, the path to SEAS 4.0 is currently beingsketched out. The future of SEAS played prominently during lastsummer's User Group meeting and we plan to ramp up even more discussionin the coming months. Please use the forums to let us know whatfeatures and improvements you'd most like to see as SEAS grows.