OpenRocket feature idea: cert flight packet

[neil_w]

I was wondering if there would be value in having a feature in OR that would print out, in one convenient packet (maybe just one sheet), the info needed for a cert flight. At minimum, I was thinking (given selected motor):

1. Rocket background info, taken from the Rocket Configuration dialog:
   
2. Rocket side view, with CP, CG, and stability margin shown
3. Other rocket vital statistics
4. Detailed simulation results for selected motor

Does this sound useful? What else should be included?

(conceivably this could be useful for non-cert flights as well, not sure)

 

[SolarYellow]

Would love this. I do something like that for first flights already, but it takes several pages.

Would be an excellent feature if it was possible to select multiple sims to print flight data for. It would be good to have one with zero wind, straight up, and a few with varying degrees of wind and launch angles.

Also (possibly a different OR development project) report stability calculated for the sim step after rod clearance. That's typically lower than what is reported in the main panel. Would be very valuable to report that for different wind conditions. I've come to the conclusion that wind-caused instability at the moment of launch doesn't get enough attention in the community.

 

[nict]

Sounds like a great feature.

 

[neil_w]

Good thoughts, thanks.

Would be an excellent feature if it was possible to select multiple sims to print flight data for. It would be good to have one with zero wind, straight up, and a few with varying degrees of wind and launch angles.

My assumption would be that the sims would already have been defined... or are you suggesting that the packet generation would offer you the ability to specify parameters to vary like this? The latter is a lot more complex, and probably wouldn't be in the first release of a feature like this (if ever). Not impossible though.

Also (possibly a different OR development project) report stability calculated for the sim step after rod clearance. That's typically lower than what is reported in the main panel. Would be very valuable to report that for different wind conditions.

There are so many additional things that could be reported on sims in the table view. You can however get this information today in the plot. First add "Stability margin calibers" as a Y axis plot type (in next release should be able to choose calibers or % as units). Check "Launch rod clearance" in the "Flight events" list.


Then you get the plot:

 

[SolarYellow]

Good thoughts, thanks.


My assumption would be that the sims would already have been defined... or are you suggesting that the packet generation would offer you the ability to specify parameters to vary like this? The latter is a lot more complex, and probably wouldn't be in the first release of a feature like this (if ever). Not impossible though.

I was thinking of selecting multiple sims from the table of already-executed sims. Would also be useful for first flight of a new scratch build design. I will often sim a dozen or more different motors and decide that just a handful are well suited to the rocket. Printing out a design summary including sim highlights with just those few motors on it would be really neat.

There are so many additional things that could be reported on sims in the table view. You can however get this information today in the plot. First add "Stability margin calibers" as a Y axis plot type (in next release should be able to choose calibers or % as units). Check "Launch rod clearance" in the "Flight events" list.

I know how to look at that by exporting or plotting the flight data. I was thinking about the summary table of sim results. I guess if

4. Detailed simulation results for selected motor

means the graph you showed, that would include it as shown.

 

[DigBaddy]

I think this is a good idea Neil. Having sim results for all simulations included could be useful. If it prints compactly enough, having hard copies for all my birds in the range box would be handy.

 

[neil_w]

I think this is a good idea Neil. Having sim results for all simulations included could be useful. If it prints compactly enough, having hard copies for all my birds in the range box would be handy.

I guess there's a difference between printing the simulation for one motor to expressly cover one flight, vs. printing a bunch of different sims for the same rocket at one time. Among other things, CG position changes for different sims (if motor config is different). I'm thinking one page per sim would be good. That'd give room for the rocket figure, some summary data, and perhaps a plot. If you want to include a bunch of different sims, then you would just get a bunch of different pages, each one basically self-contained. This would also make it easier to add new motors to the packet in the future without needing to reprint the whole thing.

I'd like to try to narrow down what should be included on a single page summary. Should a sim plot be included? I'm thinking yes, but then it opens up the question of what parameters are included in the sim plot. We could make it completely configurable but it starts to become a bit of a slog to set the whole thing up each time.

 

[jmasterj]

I printed out a bunch of OR sims for my certs, so this sounds great! I'm not sure a plot is necessary. The information in the sim table is the most applicable, IMO.

 

[neil_w]

I printed out a bunch of OR sims for my certs, so this sounds great! I'm not sure a plot is necessary. The information in the sim table is the most applicable, IMO.

Would you be looking for a single page per sim, or a bunch of sims for the same rocket on a single page?

 

[jmasterj]

Would you be looking for a single page per sim, or a bunch of sims for the same rocket on a single page?

I agree with your single page per sim suggestion for this purpose.

 

[lakeroadster]

Does this sound useful? What else should be included?

I think that's a good idea Neil. It would be useful to an RSO and the folks involved with certifications.​

Should a sim plot be included? I'm thinking yes, but then it opens up the question of what parameters are included in the sim plot.

I don't see the value in the plot. A printout of the flight simulation tab shows all the data the RSO and certification crew needs.​

​

The exception being if the rocket is a multi-stage bird. In that case the plot is helpful as it shows altitudes and velocities for the various stages.​

 

[kjhambrick]

Yes, please !

I would also love to be able to print the Flight Sim Summary for all selected motors:



Sorry about the ugly text ... I've never bothered to set up Java for my high-rez screen on my Linux Laptop

Delimited text would work best for me but ...

I will be buying motors on-site at the launches for the time being and the motor I really want may not be available.

Such a list would allow me to make 2nd or 3rd choices ...

And since you've asked:

One other thing that would be handy would be to add the time to apogee down in the image area like so:

Apogee: 4793 ft at 17.2 sec

But then again, maybe this is not an issue for people with properly configured Java Graphics

Thanks for asking neil_w !

-- kjh

 

[sambatterman]

Super great idea! I love this.

 

[Donnager]

Yes, please !

I would also love to be able to print the Flight Sim Summary for all selected motors:

Same here. I would be equally happy with even more excited over the ability to highlight them all, and copy and paste all the cells to a spreadsheet. Now, I just transcribe them all, or at least the ones I am most interested in.

I have tried pasting these sims using PrintScreen to paint/Word, but that seems to be a little wonky.

 

[Hobie1dog]

This would make life more enjoyable for me.

 

[Donnager]

Same here. I would be equally happy with the ability to highlight them all, and copy and paste all the cells to a spreadsheet. Now, I just transcribe them all, or at least the ones I am most interested in.

I have tried pasting these sims using PrintScreen to paint/Word, but that seems to be a little wonky.

In retrospect, asking for this may be very big. Making the results of multiple sims cut/pastable could take a great deal of time.

I'm not being critical, I love the software.

 

[neil_w]

I recognize this software display is a product of a variety of calculations that appear in cells at my convenience. That doesn't make it cut and paste-able. This ask could be pretty complex.

It's been discussed and requested before, and filed as issue #1997 on Github. It's a reasonable request, although quite separate from the original proposal of this thread.

 

[Donnager]

I'll try and avoid stepping on toes in the future. As I said, I love the software.

And I'll continue to transcribe my sims into spreadsheets.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[neil_w]

I'll try and avoid stepping on toes in the future. As I said, I love the software.

And I'll continue to transcribe my sims into spreadsheets.

Thanks for all your help.

No toes stepped, keep the input coming.

 

[kjhambrick]

Neil --

It should be possible to extract the OR Summary Data without any additional calculations -- it is already in the .ork files.

Attached is a dump of my Level 2 Candidate Rocket Sims for all motors that fit, sorted by Altitude.

The data was bashed together on a Linux Box via a q&d gawk script.

I've looked for an Open Rocket XSD File which would make this almost automatic but I can't find it.

Anyhow, the script is VERY ugly because I hard-coded the tags that I am interested in but it does work for single stage rockets.

If anyone wants it I would be happy to share the script but no laughing at the crappy code

-- kjh

 

[neil_w]

Neil --

It should be possible to extract the OR Summary Data without any additional calculations -- it is already in the .ork files.

Attached is a dump of my Level 2 Candidate Rocket Sims for all motors that fit, sorted by Altitude.

The data was bashed together on a Linux Box via a q&d gawk script.

I've looked for an Open Rocket XSD File which would make this almost automatic but I can't find it.

Anyhow, the script is VERY ugly because I hard-coded the tags that I am interested in but it does work for single stage rockets.

If anyone wants it I would be happy to share the script but no laughing at the crappy code

-- kjh

Yes... and likewise, having the program be able to export that data directly likewise should be readily possible. Just needs to be implemented.

 

[Hobie1dog]

GO NEIL

 

[nict]

Sorry about the ugly text ... I've never bothered to set up Java for my high-rez screen on my Linux Laptop

I'd really like to see this addressed - sorry for the thread creep.

 

[bad_idea]

If anyone wants it I would be happy to share the script but no laughing at the crappy code

I'd like to see it. As a stone-axe style of shell-scripter who uses endless chains of pipes and while loops, I doubt your code is anywhere near as crappy as mine.

 

[kjhambrick]

Here you go bad_idea

I did discover a bug yesterday.

The file bar.txt attached below includes an Estes E16 but it should contain BOTH an Estes E16-6 as well as an Aerotech E16-7W

At a glance, I believe that MAYBE the Motor::Sim Data Structure in the .ork file is 1::M but I set up the gawk array structures as 1::1 so each Sim will step on previous ( ??? MAYBE ??? )

I've not looked for the issue in the script because this works well enough for my purposes ...

To install on a Linux Box:

1. copy the attached get-or-sims.sh.txt into your $PATH as get-or-sims.sh
2. chmod 755 /path/to/get-or-sims.sh

This MAY work on Windows 10 or Windows 11 in the WSL Environment: Install Linux on Windows with WSL

I've not tried it but from what I can tell without any real research, WSL is Ubuntu running as a Hyper-V Machine.

Note: this is pure-D command line stuff. No GUI here !

-- kjh

p.s. This is the output for get-or-sims.sh -h

$ get-or-sims.sh -h

usage:  get-or-sims.sh [ Options ] OR.ork

get-or-sims.sh unzips an OpenRocket.ork file and gathers the XML tags necessary
to produce a Sim Summary of all Motor Configs in the OpenRocket.ork file.

Output is to stdout ; errors to stderr ( see -o option below )

Bugs:  Does not find all Sims in your .ork file with similar motors.

       Perhaps because the Motor -to- Sim Data is modeled
       as a 1::M structure in the OR.ork file ???

Options are:

   o)    OutNam="$OPTARG"
        
   u)    Units="$OPTARG"
        
         not implemented ... units are:

         Distance ...:  ft
         Velocity ...:  ft/sec
         Acceleration:  G

   A)    SortArgs="-k2,2n"
         SortBy="Altitude"
        
   D)    SortArgs="-k11,11"
         SortBy="Motor Diameter ( x Length )"
        
   h)    Usage 0

p.p.s. I've got a compiled perl script which converts delimited text directly to Excel via the command line.

Not included here -- Excel Output is left as an Exercise for the User.

 

[kjhambrick]

I'd really like to see this addressed - sorry for the thread creep.

nict --

Are you saying that I am not the only one with crappy OR text dialog boxes on Linux ?

If so, you made me feel better because misery loves company

You also saved me going down a rabbit-hole looking for the wrong issue !

Thanks ( maybe, I think )

-- kjh

 

[John Kemker]

Neil --

It should be possible to extract the OR Summary Data without any additional calculations -- it is already in the .ork files.

Attached is a dump of my Level 2 Candidate Rocket Sims for all motors that fit, sorted by Altitude.

The data was bashed together on a Linux Box via a q&d gawk script.

I've looked for an Open Rocket XSD File which would make this almost automatic but I can't find it.

Anyhow, the script is VERY ugly because I hard-coded the tags that I am interested in but it does work for single stage rockets.

If anyone wants it I would be happy to share the script but no laughing at the crappy code

-- kjh

Please share the script. I promise I won't laugh at your code.

 

[kjhambrick]

John --

See post number 26 just above.

The script is attached and the instructions are in the post

-- kjh is that snickering I hear ?

 

[anbhtblr]

Neil --

It should be possible to extract the OR Summary Data without any additional calculations -- it is already in the .ork files.

Attached is a dump of my Level 2 Candidate Rocket Sims for all motors that fit, sorted by Altitude.

The data was bashed together on a Linux Box via a q&d gawk script.

I've looked for an Open Rocket XSD File which would make this almost automatic but I can't find it.

Anyhow, the script is VERY ugly because I hard-coded the tags that I am interested in but it does work for single stage rockets.

If anyone wants it I would be happy to share the script but no laughing at the crappy code

-- kjh

AWK - cool. I haven't heard-about/used AWK in too many years. Keep it up! Are you also a Perl or Tk aficionado?

 

[kjhambrick]

anbhtblr --

I still do quite a bit of Perl and a lot of expect ( a Tk PlugIn ) to automate interactive sessions in old terminal programs and just a little PerlTk for the GUI.

But I started with nawk on UNIX in the '80's and it is my goto for q&d prototyping.

-- kjh