# Difference between Cesium and STK

**URL:** <https://community.cesium.com/t/difference-between-cesium-and-stk/5737>\
**Category:** CesiumJS\
**Created:** [July 2, 2017, 10:04pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/difference-between-cesium-and-stk/5737 "2017-07-02T22:04:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Saugat\_Awale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@Saugat\_Awale](https://community.cesium.com/u/Saugat_Awale)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 10:04pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/difference-between-cesium-and-stk/5737/1 "2017-07-02T22:04:17Z")

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Hey Guys I am new to cesium and it is prudent for me to get proficient in cesium because my current employment requires it.

Currently I need to represent the graphics created originally in STK in cesiumJS. I am thinking of achieving this by exporting the czml file. However, my question is why use one or the other. What are the differences between the two and why do we need both and just one of them is not enough? Thanks.

P.S. I may be asking more redundant questions in the future but please understand that this is my genuine misunderstanding. Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Rachel\_Hwang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Rachel\_Hwang](https://community.cesium.com/u/Rachel_Hwang)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/difference-between-cesium-and-stk/5737/2 "2017-07-05T01:05:43Z")

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Hi there,

STK and Cesium are fundamentally different in that Cesium is a globe rendering engine, while STK is a more complex simulation tool for aerospace computation (which uses Cesium for visualization). If your goal is just to do some sort of visualization, you can just use Cesium.

Best,

- Rachel

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**Author:** ![Scott\_Reynolds](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/cesium/user_avatar/community.cesium.com/scott_reynolds/32/2014_2.png) [@Scott\_Reynolds](https://community.cesium.com/u/Scott_Reynolds)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/difference-between-cesium-and-stk/5737/3 "2017-07-06T21:13:04Z")

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A slight clarification. STK does not use Cesium for visualization but does support customers that wish to present their STK analyses on the web by exporting CZML.

Hope that helps.

Scott