Advanced flight simulation

Plot flight data, configure wind and launch conditions, use aerodynamic lookup tables, and export simulation results to CSV.

Once you’ve run a basic simulation, OpenRocket gives you a full suite of tools for deeper analysis: multi-parameter plots, wind and atmospheric modeling, custom aerodynamic data from CSV lookup tables, and flexible CSV export.

Plotting your rocket’s flight

To open the plotting and export interface, select a simulation in the Flight Simulations window and click the Plot / Export button.

This opens the Edit simulation panel, which contains two tabs: Plot data and Export data.

Choosing what to plot

The Plot data tab lets you fully configure the chart. Start with one of the built-in standard plot configurations from the drop-down at the top of the panel — these cover the most common combinations such as altitude and velocity, or stability margin over time.

If you need something more specific, configure the axes manually:

• X axis — typically Time, though any single variable can be used
• Y axes — add as many variables as you need using New Y-axis plot type; assign each to the left or right axis scale using its drop-down
• Remove a Y-axis variable with its X button

Available variable categories

Over 50 variables are available, organized into the following groups:

Time

Variables related to simulation time.

Position and motion

Altitude, altitude above sea level, vertical velocity, total velocity, vertical acceleration, total acceleration, lateral position (East and North of launch), lateral distance, lateral direction, lateral velocity, lateral acceleration, latitude, and longitude.

Orientation

Angle of attack, roll rate, pitch rate, yaw rate, vertical orientation (zenith), and lateral orientation (azimuth).

Mass and inertia

Total mass, motor mass, longitudinal moment of inertia, rotational moment of inertia, and gravity.

Stability

CP location, CG location, stability margin (in calibers), damping ratio, and natural frequency.

Thrust and drag

Thrust force, thrust-to-weight ratio, drag force, drag coefficient (Cd), friction drag coefficient, pressure drag coefficient, base drag coefficient, and axial drag coefficient.

Coefficients

Normal force coefficient, CNα, pitch moment coefficient, yaw moment coefficient, side force coefficient, roll moment coefficient, roll forcing coefficient, roll damping coefficient, pitch damping coefficient, yaw damping coefficient, and damping moment coefficient.

Atmospheric conditions

Air pressure, air temperature, air density, speed of sound, wind velocity (East and North components), and total wind velocity.

Characteristic numbers

Mach number and Reynolds number.

Reference values

Reference area and reference length.

Simulation information

Simulation time step.

Custom

User-defined expressions created in the Custom Expressions tool. See Custom expressions.

To find a variable quickly, click the variable drop-down and type in the search box. You can also scroll through the category groups.

Marking flight events on the plot

Below the Y-axis configuration, you can select any combination of flight events to be called out as vertical markers on the chart. Available events include:

• Motor ignition
• Motor burnout
• Apogee
• Recovery device deployment (drogue and/or main)
• Ground hit

For complex rockets with airstarts or dual-deploy, multiple events appear on the same chart — such as separate airstart ignitions, drogue deployment, and main deployment.

Reading the plot

The chart renders after you click Plot. Lines for each Y-axis variable appear in different colors. Flight event markers appear as vertical lines with labels.

For rockets with airstart motors, look at the velocity curve before and after the airstart event. If the rocket is already losing velocity when the upper stage ignites, the airstart may be too late — try an earlier airstart delay in a new simulation.

Launch conditions and simulation options

Before plotting, click the << Edit button in the plot window to return to the simulation configuration. This gives access to the Launch conditions and Simulation options tabs.

Launch conditions

The Launch conditions tab sets the physical environment for the simulation.

Wind

Set average wind speed, standard deviation (gustiness), and direction. Wind affects both the rocket’s trajectory and its lateral drift downrange.

Launch site

Set the latitude, longitude, and altitude of the launch site. Altitude affects air density and speed of sound.

Atmospheric conditions

Set local temperature and barometric pressure. These affect air density, which in turn affects ascent velocity and the local speed of sound.

Launch rod or rail

Set the length of your launch rod or rail. This determines whether the simulation passes or fails the minimum speed check — the rocket must reach a stable velocity before leaving the rod.

Simulation options

The Simulation options tab controls lower-level aspects of how the simulation runs:

• Earth geometry — choose between a spherical or WGS84 ellipsoid Earth model. This does not affect the background in Photo Studio, only the physics.
• Time step — set the time resolution of the simulation. Smaller steps increase accuracy but take longer to compute.
• Simulation extensions — add, configure, or remove extensions that modify simulation behavior. See Simulation extensions for details.

Aerodynamic lookup tables

By default, OpenRocket calculates aerodynamic forces using the Extended Barrowman method based on your rocket’s geometry. You can override these calculations with custom data — for example, from wind tunnel tests or CFD simulations — by providing CSV lookup tables.

To configure lookup tables, edit a simulation, go to Simulation options, and click Configure… in the Aerodynamic data section.

When lookup tables are active, they completely replace the Barrowman calculations for drag and/or stability. You cannot mix lookup table data with Barrowman calculations. Individual component forces are set to zero; only total forces from the table are used.

Drag lookup tables

Drag lookup tables specify the drag coefficient (Cd) as a function of Mach number and, optionally, angle of attack (AoA).

Required columns:

Column	Required	Description
Mach	Yes	Mach number
AoA	No	Angle of attack in degrees
Cd	Yes	Drag coefficient

With AoA

Mach,AoA,Cd
0.0,0,0.25
0.0,5,0.30
0.0,10,0.35
0.5,0,0.30
0.5,5,0.36
0.5,10,0.42
1.0,0,0.35
1.0,5,0.40
1.0,10,0.45

Mach only

Mach,Cd
0.0,0.25
0.5,0.30
1.0,0.35

Stability lookup tables

Stability lookup tables specify stability coefficients as a function of Mach number and, optionally, angle of attack.

Required columns:

Column	Required	Description
Mach	Yes	Mach number
AoA	No	Angle of attack in degrees
Cn	Yes	Normal force coefficient
Cm	Yes	Pitching moment coefficient
Cp	Yes	Center of pressure position (meters from nose)

Mach,AoA,Cn,Cm,Cp
0.0,0,0.10,0.01,0.50
0.0,5,0.15,0.02,0.52
0.5,0,0.12,0.015,0.51
0.5,5,0.18,0.025,0.53
1.0,0,0.15,0.02,0.52
1.0,5,0.22,0.03,0.54

CSV file format rules

• The first non-empty, non-comment line must be the header row with column names
• Column names are case-insensitive; spaces and underscores are ignored (Angle of Attack and AoA both work)
• Lines starting with # are treated as comments and ignored during parsing
• Default separator is comma (,); semicolon, tab, and space are also supported
• Values are linearly interpolated between table points in both Mach and AoA dimensions
• Values outside the table range are clamped to the nearest edge value

Editing table data in OpenRocket

Once you load a CSV file, you can edit the data directly in the configuration dialog. Changes are embedded into the .ork file — your rocket design is self-contained and portable. Use the Refresh button (↻) next to Load from file… to reload the original CSV if it still exists on disk.

When to use lookup tables

Lookup tables are most useful when:

• You have wind tunnel test data for your specific rocket design
• You have CFD simulation results to validate against Barrowman calculations
• Your rocket has complex aerodynamic behavior not well-captured by the Barrowman method
• You need angle-of-attack dependent coefficients beyond what Barrowman provides

Exporting simulation data

The Export data tab (in the same Plot / Export panel) sets up a CSV export of your simulation results.

1. Select variables to export

   Check any combination of the 50+ available variables. The list matches the variables available for plotting, plus Coriolis acceleration.

2. Configure optional comments

   Enable Comments to prepend a header block listing flight events (such as apogee time), simulation description, and column descriptions to the CSV file.

3. Choose a separator

   Select comma (default), semicolon, space, or TAB as the field separator to match your target analysis tool.

4. Click Export

   Click the Export button and choose a filename and directory in the file dialog.

Exported CSV files can be opened directly in Excel, LibreOffice Calc, MATLAB, Python/pandas, or any other data analysis tool for further post-processing and charting.