OpenRocket feature suggestions

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MetricRocketeer

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Hi everyone,

I have become a big fan of OpenRocket, at least as far as designing rockets. However, I have a few suggestions for future versions of OR.

Here are two:

• One thing that RockSim does have, which OR does not, is the ability to group similar items in a subfolder. This can provide a tidier display of a rocket's features, and OR should offer that option, in my opinion.

• Also, with RS, when you open a dialog box but you want to abandon it, you can hit "cancel." Actually, most software offers such a feature. However, OR does not. You can lose track if you made a change or didn't make a change. So, OR should have a cancel button.

All in all, however, OR is a fantastic piece of software. One feature I very much enjoy is the fact that, when you click on a rocket item, that item is highlighted in the rocket-design list. That feature -- which RS does not have -- is tremendously helpful.

I am glad that I have begun using OpenRocket.

Thank you for listening.

Stanley
 
• One thing that RockSim does have, which OR does not, is the ability to group similar items in a subfolder. This can provide a tidier display of a rocket's features, and OR should offer that option, in my opinion.
You can group subassemblies inside Phantom Body Tubes. I attach "Air Fins" to PBTs when decals that appear on one side of a fin, but not the same on the other. I'll put my centering rings inside the Internal tube that forms the motor tube. You can close or open these by clicking on the box with the + or - inside of it. This is very useful for things like trying to simulate wing nuts or eye bolts.

1613551811475.png

1613552294315.png


• Also, with RS, when you open a dialog box but you want to abandon it, you can hit "cancel." Actually, most software offers such a feature. However, OR does not. You can lose track if you made a change or didn't make a change. So, OR should have a cancel button.

OpenRocket allows you to Ctrl + Z to undo changes. OR you can go to the Edit feature... You can also Re-Do changes if you need to.

1613552012699.png
 
Last edited:
• One thing that RockSim does have, which OR does not, is the ability to group similar items in a subfolder. This can provide a tidier display of a rocket's features, and OR should offer that option, in my opinion.
That has been requested: https://github.com/openrocket/openrocket/issues/695

It would be very useful, unfortunately I gather it is not a trivial thing to implement. Hopefully we'll see this some time in the future.

• Also, with RS, when you open a dialog box but you want to abandon it, you can hit "cancel." Actually, most software offers such a feature. However, OR does not. You can lose track if you made a change or didn't make a change. So, OR should have a cancel button.
I agree this is a very odd behavior in OR, and it has bitten me on many occasions. I too would like to see it changed. I'm not sure if there's an existing open issue for that, but if not I'll add it.
 
You can group subassemblies inside Phantom Body Tubes. I attach "Air Fins" to PBTs when decals that appear on one side of a fin, but not the same on the other. I'll put my centering rings inside the Internal tube that forms the motor tube. You can close or open these by clicking on the box with the + or - inside of it. This is very useful for things like trying to simulate wing nuts or eye bolts.
Hi K'Tesh,

Good. This was very helpful. Probably having a specified item entitled "subfolder" or "subassembly" -- the nomenclature used by RockSim -- would still be useful. But your explanation about phantom body tubes does solve that problem.

OpenRocket allows you to Ctrl + Z to undo changes. OR you can go to the Edit feature... You can also Re-Do changes if you need to.

Here I continue to assert my suggestion about the need for a Cancel button.

The problem is that you can get confused as to whether you have actually made a change or not. If you have not actually made a change, then you do not want to undo something. You should just be able to cancel out of the dialog box.

That is my opinion, but I appreciate your input.

Stanley
 
Hi K'Tesh,

Actually, I now have to backtrack on your suggestion about using a phantom body tube. Yes, it may be helpful. After you made the suggestion, however -- and I appreciate your having come up with the idea -- I have been working with it. The problem is that the location of the items that you place within the phantom body tube may change, and the rocket design may get messed up.

So, while OpenRocket is indeed fantastic software, still provision should be made for a subassembly or subfolder. That is my considered opinion.

Stanley
 
Hi K'Tesh,

Actually, I now have to backtrack on your suggestion about using a phantom body tube. Yes, it may be helpful. After you made the suggestion, however -- and I appreciate your having come up with the idea -- I have been working with it. The problem is that the location of the items that you place within the phantom body tube may change, and the rocket design may get messed up.

So, while OpenRocket is indeed fantastic software, still provision should be made for a subassembly or subfolder. That is my considered opinion.

Stanley

Before moving them, set your Position relative to: Tip of the nose cone, move it, then set it back to top or bottom of the parent component if you want.


1613622898524.png
 
I'd like to put in a good word for how awesome the next release of OpenRocket is going to be.
Pods, Stages and Boosters are really useful features for their original purpose, but I've also been misusing them as general purpose containers. For example, if you create a stage that's made from a zero sized body tube with a pod attached, you can basically position the entire contents of the pod anywhere and use the stage controls to turn it on and off to experiment with configurations.

For example, here's a single stage Space Shuttle design with three extra fake stages added to group parts for the orbiter, SRBs, and external fins:
Screen Shot 2021-02-17 at 8.42.59 PM.png

By messing with the stage buttons, I can turn individual components on and off without modifying the design itself.
The design without the extra flight fins:
Screen Shot 2021-02-17 at 8.45.48 PM.png

And just the Orbiter:
Screen Shot 2021-02-17 at 8.47.04 PM.png
A cool thing is that the CG and CP get recomputed based on just the enabled components, so for example that last diagram shows the CP/CG relationship of the orbiter during glide recovery. And if you're careful to put the "real" stages that have actual motors at the end of the list, the flight simulations still work right.

I kinda want there to be a new part type that basically behaves like "stage with zero length tube anchor point and pod" as a single thing, so I don't feel like I'm abusing the poor program.
 
Before moving them, set your Position relative to: Tip of the nose cone, move it, then set it back to top or bottom of the parent component if you want.
Hi K'Tesh,

Thank you for your reply.

OK. I have now tried this workaround whereby you change the relative position of the object to the tip of the nosecone, and it does work. But it is cumbersome, and you also lose the relationship of the object with its parent component, unless you change the numbers again -- and this starts to get confusing.

I don't want to be dogmatic here. And I highly respect your great work with OpenRocket. I have learned a lot from you.

I still say that, to make OpenRocket even better than it already is, provision should be made for a subassembly or subfolder.

Stanley
 
I still say that, to make OpenRocket even better than it already is, provision should be made for a subassembly or subfolder.
Based on past discussions, I would say the the OR team wants to add this feature and I would expect to see it in a future release. However, that likely translates to a pretty long time on the calendar.
 
Based on past discussions, I would say the the OR team wants to add this feature and I would expect to see it in a future release. However, that likely translates to a pretty long time on the calendar.
Hi neil_w,

OK. I will wait patiently.

I am glad that it is on their radar.

Stanley
 
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