How Do I Create Pointing (Targeted / Scanning / Sweeping / Creeping-line) Sensors in STK?

STK provides several methods for defining sensors and sensor pointing. This article shows some of the most common methods, as described below and demonstrated in the attached scenario.

1.  Sensors that don't move (a.k.a., push broom sensors) are very easy to model. For example, if you want to model a fixed, side-looking sensor, you can set the following sensor properties: 2.  Sensors that track specific targets are also easy to model. For example, if you want to model a payload that has a gimbal that tracks a target, you can set the following sensor properties:
3.  Sensors that scan back and forth are also relatively easy to model. Copy your fixed sensor and then change the pointing properties:
4.  If you want to create more complex "sweeping" patterns (a.k.a., creeping line sensors), you can use the "External" pointing type, which enables you to load a custom ASCII data file. For further details, see the Sensor Pointing File Format help.  

The challenge with this pointing type is that you need to generate the pointing data. Fortunately, there is an example HTML / Javascript tool in the attached scenario that will generate this pointing data based on a variety of parameters you can specify:
In order to use this tool, you need to define the sweeping pattern relative to the body X axis of the parent object. In this example, the parent object is a satellite, so the X axis is in the velocity (or "ram") direction. To get the sweeping pattern to be relative to the sensor, you have to first create a duplicate satellite and change the attitude of the satellite to point in the direction of the original sensor. Here are the steps used in the example: Now that you have the "PointSensor" satellite object that has the body X pointed in the same direction as the body Z vector of the original fixed sensor, you can create the new sensors.  Start by creating the same fixed sensor using the following properties: Now that you've verified that our new fixed sensor along the body X is the same as the original fixed sensor, create the sweeping sensor using the sensor scanning utility. Hit F5 to refresh the sensor scanning utility and reload the parent objects; then set the following properties: Click "Create" to finalize the creation of the sweeping sensor.
Note: This utility automatically resets your animation time. Right-click your timeline and select “Set Animation Time Here”; then pause the animation.

This utility automatically sets a range constraint for viewing the sensor, but you want to remove those constraints for both sensors.
Begin animating to see the "FwdScan" sensor sweep.