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key to replay the previous slide.
The upper part of the screen consists of a set of component editors. The Airplane Editor is currently selected.
The last tab on the right, ADMIN, is for administrative functions. This is the only tab that is not an editor.
Each component editor is independent of every other component editor. They each have a currently selected component and a set of Knobs. There are graphs associated with each component editor that use these Inputs and Knobs to graph the data.
Click the continue button or hit the to advance the tutorial to the next step.
The bottom of the screen is for the graphs. Which graph is currently displayed is independent of which editor tab is selected.
For example, you can be editing a battery while displaying a graph for a power system that uses that battery. Since graphs are updated in real time, you will be able to instantly see what effect changes to the battery pack will have on the power system.
However, the graphs use the Inputs and Knobs of their corresponding editor to determine which data to display.
The left side of every component editor is the Inputs area. This is where you enter the data for each component. The field values in the Inputs area is the only data that is saved with each component.
Most of the input fields are marked with a red asterisk. This means that the value is required. In some cases the calculator is able to compute an estimate for a missing field value.
The first input field is always the component name. This must always be unique for components of the same type. In other words, the name of every airplane component must be different from the name of every other airplane component.
The name input field is used to select a component to edit or to create a new one.
To select a different component to edit, click on the square at the right end of the field with the downward pointing triangle. This will open up a list of components.
The list of components shown will be restricted by the filter if it is turned on.
To create a new component, click on the component name, type in the new name, and then press . The filter will be turned off automatically when a new component is created.
Text comparisons are always case insensitive. Therefore, a component called "Kadet" will overwrite a component called "KADET".
In the upper right of every component editor are the Knobs. The Knobs are additional inputs into the analysis that help control the Results. The values of the Knobs are not saved with the components.
The Knobs control the Results and the graphs for this editor. Use them for 'what if' scenarios.
The bottom right of every editor is the Results area. These are the simulation results for the current set of Inputs and Knobs settings. The values cannot be edited.
The Results and currently displayed graph are updated with every change to the Inputs or Knobs. In other words, the displayed Results and graph are never out of date.
The Administrative tab is the only tab that is not a component editor. It is used to review user and system information, change global settings, and execute commands.
The Information area contains your username, where your data will be stored, and the build timestamp of the calculator.
If the Username field contains "Anonymous", it means that you are not logged into the website. Login first, then run the calculator.
The data locations are either us=United States or europe=Europe. Choose the location that is closest to you geographically. The calculator will also be loaded from the selected location to speed up the load process.
The calculator build is useful as a quick check to see if a new version of the calculator has been released since the last time you used it.
The Settings are toggles that can be changed back and forth as desired.
Currently, English is the only language supported. In the future, you will be able to use this list box to select a different language.
Press the English or Metric buttons to change the unit system. When pressed, the currently selected unit for every field throughout the calculator will be updated.
The commands execute file-oriented actions.
The airfoil database contains hundreds of pre-analyzed airfoils and is about 1MB in size. This button need only be clicked once per session to load this database.
The Save User Data button is used to manually trigger a user data save. There is an autosave feature that quietly saves your data every couple of minutes as you work. When you are done using the calculator, it's a good idea to manually save your data before exiting.
Every Input, Knob and Result field in every editor has ToolTip help. To display it, hover your mouse cursor over it.
Input fields can also display error messages and advice. The border of the field is highlighted in red when one of these messages is available. These messages have higher priority than the help ToolTips. Before the help ToolTip can be displayed again, all the error and advice messages need to be corrected.
Pay attention to the advice! It gives you very important clues as to why the performance is not as good as it should be. It also tells you why you may be failing to get results.
Most fields have units associated with them. The unit drop down lists are used to convert field values into more familiar units of measure.
Selected units are not saved with components or across calculator sessions. The calculator defaults to English units when it starts up. If you prefer Metric units, go to the Administrative tab and press the Metric button.
Which graph is currently displayed is independent of which component editor is currently displayed. For example, you can display an airplane-related graph while you are editing the power system for that airplane.
Like Results, graphs are always up to date. They are redrawn automatically as needed.
There are many predefined graphs. The graphs have been carefully constructed so that important trends can be discovered at a glance.
The graphs are tied to specific component editors. For example, the motor graphs use the currently selected motor component and the Knob settings from the motor editor.
Graphs consist of a set of plotted points connected by a curved line. Move your mouse over the graphed line to see the values for the plotted points.
On certain graphs, the maximum value is highlighted with a red dot. Hover over this point to see the actual numeric values for the maximum.
Similarly, certain graphs use a green dot to highlight the minimum value.
The units used by a graph match the selected unit in the knob or result field in the related component editor.
In this Airplane graph, the left vertical axis is thrust. The unit used is picked up from the thrust result field in the Airplane component editor.
In this case, the right axis is drag. To make comparisons more meaningful, the same unit was automatically chosen for it. In this graph, the range of both vertical axes was made the same.
There is a very important point that can be seen at a glance in this graph: the maximum level flight speed for this throttle setting and location. That is the point where both lines intersect. That is about 36MPH in this example.
Filters are used to re-sort and restrict the visible list of components. They can be used to identify components with a specific set of characteristics. Filters also work in conjunction with the Power System Optimizer to limit the set of components considered.
The filter button displays either Off or On, depending on whether a filter is in effect. Off means that all components are visible and that they are sorted in ascending order by name. Filter text sorts are always case insensitive.
When a new component is created, the filter in that editor is automatically cleared.
The Sort Order and Filter windows define a filter for each component editor.
The default sort order is ascending by component name. Text sorts are always case insensitive. You can select any input field as defining the sort order, either ascending or descending.
The filter condition rows work against either input fields or result fields. All of the conditions must be satisfied for a component to be included in the filtered set.
If result fields are used in conditions, then the results need to be evaluated using the current knob settings for each component. This will slow down the filtering process somewhat. A warning will be triggered to make you aware of this side effect.
The Power System Optimizer is a very powerful feature. It finds the best set of power system components for flying the airplane with the given set of constraints. When you press the button, these are the steps it carries out:
Retrieve the filtered lists of power system components. These are the batteries, motors, propellers, etc.
Try out every single combination of these power system components. If there are only 4 batteries and 3 motors, that is already 12 combinations. The number of combinations examined is easily in the millions.
For each power system component combination, evaluate the power system using the knob settings from the airplane.
Reject the candidate power system if it weighs more than 50% of the flying weight of the airplane. This is an arbitrary but practical limit.
Reject it also if it produces less thrust than the drag on the airplane at the given airspeed. In other words, reject it if it doesn't have enough power to fly the airplane.
Reject it also if it would be filtered out by the current power system filter. This is a handy way to add additional constraints.
Keep the power system found with the longest flight duration.
A new Power System will be created if needed with the same name as the airplane. It will also be made the current power system component in the power system editor.
You may abort the Power System Optimizer at any point by pressing the Stop button. This will save the best power system combination found so far.
The Power System Optimizer uses advanced artificial intelligence to eliminate candidate power system combinations as quickly as possible. It is common for the progress bar to jump forward - the power of AI at work!
