Off Grid Gecko
Well-Known Member
So, as I've said once or twice, I'm working on a new rocket simulator project. In the process, I've stumbled across something that I consider pretty handy, and if there is any interest, I'm happy to share it with you guys.
After I finished the basic components for the 3D rocket builder, I wanted to get started on the flight model for the program. While it is limited in some respects at the moment (it doesn't use the motor end weight at all for the moment, for instance), the testing platform that I made has become something of a useful program on its own. At some point in the future, this node will gather data from the 3d model and use that to plot out important flight data, but for now the two components are totally separate.
I don't know about you guys, but while designing a rocket, sometimes I just want to do some quick checks to get an idea about what kind of altitudes I'm looking at, or what kind of motor delay might be best suited. I use a spreadsheet, but this has now completely replaced it, in my eyes, and I'm thinking about exporting this as a stand-alone program.
If it looks cool and you'd like to give it a try, just post a reply and I'll upload the program somewhere with download links. I'll probably port it to Linux, Windows, and Mac, but if you have some other OS you'd like to try running it on (an android phone or something) I can get those files out to you for testing purposes. If there's enough interest in an app, I can look into maybe doing that once it's a bit more complete.
Sorry, but the SI units are fixed for the moment. Custom units is a component that I'm leaving to tackle later for the main program.
For that, if you want a peek at the construction part of the simulator, check this out:
pretty groovy right? Still needs tons of work as the functionality isn't all there yet and the models have some ugly bits on their inside parts (which will become a problem pretty soon) but I'm making progress. And there's a ton of code cleanup that I still need to do. Will be a long time on this part, but thought it might pique some interest as well. As I said though, this isn't going to be part of the calculator, but the calculator is allowing me to toy with the simulation model independently to get some statistics right and then I can close gaps once the two are combined.
After I finished the basic components for the 3D rocket builder, I wanted to get started on the flight model for the program. While it is limited in some respects at the moment (it doesn't use the motor end weight at all for the moment, for instance), the testing platform that I made has become something of a useful program on its own. At some point in the future, this node will gather data from the 3d model and use that to plot out important flight data, but for now the two components are totally separate.
I don't know about you guys, but while designing a rocket, sometimes I just want to do some quick checks to get an idea about what kind of altitudes I'm looking at, or what kind of motor delay might be best suited. I use a spreadsheet, but this has now completely replaced it, in my eyes, and I'm thinking about exporting this as a stand-alone program.
If it looks cool and you'd like to give it a try, just post a reply and I'll upload the program somewhere with download links. I'll probably port it to Linux, Windows, and Mac, but if you have some other OS you'd like to try running it on (an android phone or something) I can get those files out to you for testing purposes. If there's enough interest in an app, I can look into maybe doing that once it's a bit more complete.
Sorry, but the SI units are fixed for the moment. Custom units is a component that I'm leaving to tackle later for the main program.
For that, if you want a peek at the construction part of the simulator, check this out:
pretty groovy right? Still needs tons of work as the functionality isn't all there yet and the models have some ugly bits on their inside parts (which will become a problem pretty soon) but I'm making progress. And there's a ton of code cleanup that I still need to do. Will be a long time on this part, but thought it might pique some interest as well. As I said though, this isn't going to be part of the calculator, but the calculator is allowing me to toy with the simulation model independently to get some statistics right and then I can close gaps once the two are combined.