Note: I think this PR will become very useful in conjunction with the RASAero export feature, because RASAero has a feature called "Aero Plots" which basically does the same as this PR's Component Analysis Plot. So, we could compare the results and see where OR differs.

For instance, OR's result:

RASAero's result:

I don't know if this is comparing apples to oranges (the reference area is the same for OR and RASAero though), but there is already a noticeable difference between the two programs.

CP comparison:

RASAero:

This is a major tentpole feature for the next release. Very impressive.

I confess I've never really needed this for my own use, so I'm not entirely sure how to exercise it well. I was curious about one thing, though: I have a sim from someone else that is very large and complex. Opening up the plot tab yields this:

Two things here:

1. Choosing from the very large list of components is pretty unwieldy. I'm guessing they're in component tree order, but the end result in this particular case is that it would be virtually impossible to pick out what you want. It is probably true that the people who use this feature will do so with much simpler models, so this might not be an issue that really needs to be addressed, at least not yet.

2. I enlarged the dialog as much as I good to spread out the list.... the bottom section (below the scrolling window) expanded as I enlarged the window. That section should be fixed size, and all the expansion should go to the scrolling window. Just a layout tweak I think.

1. Choosing from the very large list of components is pretty unwieldy. I'm guessing they're in component tree order, but the end result in this particular case is that it would be virtually impossible to pick out what you want. It is probably true that the people who use this feature will do so with much simpler models, so this might not be an issue that really needs to be addressed, at least not yet.

Wow, it never even occurred to me to have that many components. :) I guess in the future we could change it to a button "Select Components" and a label underneath showing the already selected components. The button would open a new dialog with the component tree, where you can select which components to add. I would grey out and disable components in the component tree that are not relevant for the data type (e.g. only fins have roll characteristics), and have a click behavior where clicking once will toggle the component selection, instead of having to hold Ctrl/Cmd to do multi-component selection.

We could also change the component combobox in the plot panel with a button "Select Component" which has similar behavior, but with only single-component selection. (Or we can change the behavior to have multi-component selection in the plot panel instead of having to add a new Y axis type for each component, and then have the component series be split up automatically; don't know).

2. I enlarged the dialog as much as I good to spread out the list.... the bottom section (below the scrolling window) expanded as I enlarged the window. That section should be fixed size, and all the expansion should go to the scrolling window. Just a layout tweak I think.

I'll see what I can do.

2. I enlarged the dialog as much as I good to spread out the list.... the bottom section (below the scrolling window) expanded as I enlarged the window. That section should be fixed size, and all the expansion should go to the scrolling window. Just a layout tweak I think.

Fixed.

1. Choosing from the very large list of components is pretty unwieldy. I'm guessing they're in component tree order, but the end result in this particular case is that it would be virtually impossible to pick out what you want. It is probably true that the people who use this feature will do so with much simpler models, so this might not be an issue that really needs to be addressed, at least not yet.

Wow, it never even occurred to me to have that many components. :) I guess in the future we could change it to a button "Select Components" and a label underneath showing the already selected components. The button would open a new dialog with the component tree, where you can select which components to add. I would grey out and disable components in the component tree that are not relevant for the data type (e.g. only fins have roll characteristics), and have a click behavior where clicking once will toggle the component selection, instead of having to hold Ctrl/Cmd to do multi-component selection.

Yeah that's not a normal or typical sim. :)

I think what you have right now is probably good for initial release, and we can enhance in the future as needed.

Oh, this is great. As always!