Open Rocket: Small Fiddly Bits?

Any chance OR will include mass objects such as Swivels, Engine Hooks, Screw Eyes, and Retaining Rings?

My priority list for these objects would be:

Engine Hooks (a nice little selection of the common ones as presets)
Screw Eyes (ditto)
Retaining Rings
Swivels

K'Tesh said:

Any chance OR will include mass objects such as Swivels, Engine Hooks, Screw Eyes, and Retaining Rings?

My priority list for these objects would be:

Engine Hooks (a nice little selection of the common ones as presets)
Screw Eyes (ditto)
Retaining Rings
Swivels

Click to expand...

One thing I wanted to add for a while are HPR retainers, motor adapters (eg Aerotech 38-54 or LOC paper tube adapters), and RMS & CTI hardware adapter systems. For the little bits like swivels, eye bolts & nuts, etc, I either ignore them, or just adjust the overall weight and cg of the unloaded rocket its built. This doesn't help at all if your goal is to have OpenRocket produce a Bill of Materials though.

Motor hooks poses an additional problem since there are no facilities to place this object on the motor tube. However, that does add to the realism to the 3d views.

Kevin

I was able to simulate a motor hook on a simulated adapter I designed... I made it a metal "fin". However have to resort to MS Paint to optically fake out the notch for it in the retaining ring.



Mind you, it didn't have the 90 degree bends, it was just a flat "fin" mounted to the motor tube. A second "notch fin" was added to create the notch it was shaped to be the same height as the centering ring/thrust ring, then In the snapshot I took of it, I added the black edges w/Paint, and removed the shadows.

If you rotate the .ork file you can see the shadows of the "notch fin".

View attachment 24mm to 29mm motor adapter.ork

Wow, that's pretty cool. I've been watching your nose cone magic thread as well and saw some of the amazing things you've been able to create with the limited facilities in OR. I think it would be useful to have in the component database more complex things which can be pulled into models - such as your NCs which are composed of a variety of transitions and other sundries. How about we try to make that a feature in a future version of OpenRocket? Having standard components which consist of complex subassemblies would actually advance my motor adapter work as well.

Kevin

K'Tesh said:

I was able to simulate a motor hook on a simulated adapter I designed... I made it a metal "fin". However have to resort to MS Paint to optically fake out the notch for it in the retaining ring.



Mind you, it didn't have the 90 degree bends, it was just a flat "fin" mounted to the motor tube. A second "notch fin" was added to create the notch it was shaped to be the same height as the centering ring/thrust ring, then In the snapshot I took of it, I added the black edges w/Paint, and removed the shadows.

If you rotate the .ork file you can see the shadows of the "notch fin".

Click to expand...

kruland said:

Wow, that's pretty cool. I've been watching your nose cone magic thread as well and saw some of the amazing things you've been able to create with the limited facilities in OR. I think it would be useful to have in the component database more complex things which can be pulled into models - such as your NCs which are composed of a variety of transitions and other sundries. How about we try to make that a feature in a future version of OpenRocket? Having standard components which consist of complex subassemblies would actually advance my motor adapter work as well.

Kevin

Click to expand...

I'd say "Go For It!"

One of the things I'm doing with the nosecones, I'll create a .ork of a nosecone I'm using. When I want to sim a rocket, I open the .ork, rename it and save it, then remove the necessary "fake bits", and continue on with my virtual build.

Now if I could only figure out how to use Semroc's Custom Cone Designer to create the upscaled/downscaled nosecones I want/need for my builds. I've managed a couple of them, but still can't figure out how to make a true upscale of the Estes PNC-55AC (Blowmolded) I need for my Cherokee D builds or my desired "Defender" (#1924) upscale build.

For those who don't know about the nosecone thread... You can find it here.

Oh, on the "Bill of Materials", perhaps it can be edited to include "unseen" objects (swivels, screw eyes, engine hooks, retaining rings)? I ask as I'm not where I can run the program and investigate myself.

Another little thing that would be nice... A printed label for finder's info to be added to the .pdf. I like to print mine and glue it to the bottom of balsa bulkheads/nosecones.

One thing I'd like to add to my list of requests.

Optional background colors. A lot of my rockets resemble a polar bear in a blizzard.