Registration for the 2016 OpenVSP Workshop is now open. Go to the workshop website for details.… Read more

It has been a while since the last release, I’m sure you’ll find that this version has lots of things to make it worth the wait. There are a lot of changes here–and there may be some lingering bugs. Please dig in and report success/failures to the Google Group.

Many of the embedded libraries have been updated, so if you compile yourself, you’ll need to refresh your build.

SnapTo has been added. This feature lets you adjust any parameter until the part snaps to a collision (or offset) with another part.

Leading edge modifications options matching the trailing edge modifications have been added. Likewise, leading edge control surface subsurfaces.

Multiple kinds of edge treatment have been added (not just flat). So, if you ever wanted to make a di… Read more

The 2016 OpenVSP Workshop will be held August 23-25 at NASA Ames on Moffett Field California.

Contact Rob McDonald if you would like to contribute to the program.

Please check the workshop website for updates.… Read more

Brandon Litherland has been working hard to create a new set of OpenVSP tutorial videos.

The first videos will be suitable for the absolute beginner and we hope to work through OpenVSP creating videos that will explain all the features and nuances of the program.  Check back for updates.… Read more

Another collection of small fixes and features, with one or two that are sure to be crowd pleasers.  Get it now and don’t be left out!

Most of the changes fall into two categories.  Sub-Surfaces and the main GUI.

The first sub-surface work allows multi-surface geoms (common with custom components) to assign sub-surfaces on a per-surface basis (rather than to all surfaces).

In addition, sub-surfaces are now output to DegenGeom files.  This kind of extension of the DG file format was always expected, so hopefully parsers have been written to ‘just work’.

Sub-surfaces are output as a u,v polyline, it is up to the DegenGeom user to figure out what that means for their stick or plate representation.  Sub-surface names are also written out as wel… Read more

This version has lots of fixes and a handful of features. There is something here for everyone, so update — you don’t want to be left out.

The addition of tessellation clustering control for wings (chordwise and spanwise) will be important to lots of users. This only affects the wireframe and things related to it (DegenGeom, VSPAERO, CompGeom, etc). It does not affect the underlying shape or the surface parameterization.

To do this, NACA 4-digit and CST airfoils types had to be re-parameterized to an equal-arc-length basis. This will change loft with mixed airfoil types and possibly attachment points. An option to recover the old behavior is included.

Cluster is controlled with two parameters (LE/TE or Root/Tip). If you set them =1.0, you get uniform sp… Read more

A little late for New Years, but just in time for SciTech! I hope to see you in San Diego next week.

OpenVSP 3.5.0 has a bunch of features across the board that should improve usability for a lot of you. High on the list is the ability to import files from OpenVSP v2. This import isn’t perfect*, but it should do the lions share of moving a model from v2 to v3.

On the good looks side of things, this version adds support for Retina display on MacOS, PNG format screen shots, and also saving screen shots at greater than on-screen resolution. This should help improve publication quality figures from OpenVSP.

Features:

• v2 Import
• Retina display on MacOS
• Super-resolution screen shots
• PNG format screen shots
• Improved and quantitative view control (repeatable views)
• Geom Browse

… Read more

This bug fix release takes care of handful of problems that some users have hit. One recent bug, the others have been around a while.

Thanks to Jason Welstead for characterizing one bug and to Alex Gary for fixing it.

Bug fixes:

• Negative volume flag not working for Custom Geoms.
• Crash on minimize/restore of main window on MacOS.
• Mixed tolerances in CompGeom causing removal of watertight shapes.
• Force true closure of six-series airfoils.

… Read more

CST for everyone!

OpenVSP 3.4.0 comes with native support for Brenda Kulfan’s CST Airfoil representation. This is an oft-requested and long awaited feature by those doing aero optimization.

CST support is limited to the airfoil class (N1=0.5, N2=1.0) and is only available for Wing-type components for now.

CST airfoils can be promoted exactly or demoted to the closest possible approximation of reduced order. Existing VSP airfoils can be converted to CST using a least squares fit of a specified order.

Airfoils may now be modified via scale, shift, and rotate. These mods are used by the CST fitting to allow the CST curve to be defined on x=[0,1] with start/end at y=0.

These modifications will also allow some interesting alternative uses. With great power comes g… Read more

OpenVSP 3.3.2

This is a quick release to fix a bug with 6-Series airfoils on Windows introduced by 3.3.1.

Bug fix:

• Fix problem indexing past end of vector in 6-Series. Thanks James Haley.

… Read more