OpenRocket 14.06

OpenRocket is an free, fully featured model rocket simulator that allows you to design and simulate your rockets before actually building and flying them. OpenRocket features a full six-degree-of-freedom simulation, realistic wind modeling, a multitude of different components including free-form fins and canted fins, clustering and staging. Read more about its features and see screenshots.

OpenRocket is an Open Source project licensed under the GNU GPL. This means that the software is free to use for whatever purposes, and the source code is also available for studying and extending. OpenRocket needs help to become even better. Implementing features, writing documentation and creating example designs are just a few ways of helping.

General

Fully cross-platform, written in Java
Fully documented simulation methods
Open Source, source code available under the GNU GPL

User interface

Easy-to-use user interface for rocket design
Real-time view of CG and CP position
Real-time flight altitude, velocity and acceleration information from a continuous simulation performed in the background
Zoomable schematic view of rocket from the side or rear, with rotation around the center axis

Design

A multitude of available components to choose from
Trapezoidal, elliptical and free-form fins supported
Support for canted fins (roll stabilization)
Staging and clustering support
Automatic calculation of component mass and CG based on shape and density
Ability to override mass and CG of components or stages separately

Simulation and analysis

Full six degree of freedom simulation
Rocket stability computed using extended Barrowman method
Realistic wind modeling
Analysis of the effect of separate components on the stability, drag and roll characteristics of the rocket
Fully configurable plotting, with various preset configurations
Simulation data can be exported to CSV files for further analysis
Simulation listeners allowing custom-made code to interact with the rocket during flight simulation

Planned future features

OpenRocket is under constant work in the free time of the developers. You can have a sneak preview on what has been planned by checking the TODO-file in the SVN repository.

Below are a few major features that are under consideration:

Aerodynamic computation using CFD (help needed!)
Better support for supersonic simulation (help needed!)
3D view of the rocket design (help needed!)
Printing and saving figures, simulation data and designs
Support for ready-made component databases
Customized support for hybrid rocket motors and water rockets
Importing and plotting actual flight data from altimeters
Rocket flight animation
A "wizard" for creating new rocket designs
More ideas are listed in the TODO-file!

Release notes:

New Release
This release contains very minimal changes.
It fixes an annoying bug in tables that many people experience.
A texture is added for Klima motors.
[ OpenRocket full changelog ]