Downloading & Installing

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The current User's Guide is very much a work in progress, any help would be greatly appreciated! If you'd like to contribute something, just hit the 'Edit' tab at the top.

Installers Overview

OpenRocket is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. The easiest way to get OpenRocket up and running is to download and install one of the packaged installers. The Packaged Installers for OpenRocket come with everything needed. You don't need to install, update or downgrade Java on your machine to run them.

Windows

Download and run the installer for the version of OpenRocket that you want, much like other Windows installers.

2022 Beta Release

OpenRocket 22.00.beta.01 Installer for Windows (INACTIVE UNTIL RELEASE DATE)

Special notice: At the present time, this installer does not create a shortcut on the desktop or the start menu. After installing, the executable file for the application (OpenRocket.exe) is located in the "C:\ProgramFiles\OpenRocket” folder. For easy access to OpenRocket in the future, you can open that folder in Windows Explorer, right click the "OpenRocket.exe" file (NOT “OpenRocket.jar”), and create a shortcut, pin it to the taskbar, and/or pin it to the start menu, as you wish.

Version 15.03

OpenRocket 15.03 Installer for Windows

Please note: This installer does not provide a shortcut on the desktop or the Start menu. After installing, the actual executable file for the application is installed into your user/AppData/Local/OpenRocket folder. Open that folder in Windows Explorer, right click the "OpenRocket.exe" file (NOT the “OpenRocket.jar” file), and create a shortcut, pin it to the taskbar and/or pin it in the start menu, as you desire, for easy access to it in the future.

macOS

OpenRocket 15.03 Application DiskImage for macOS

Download the DiskImage, open it, and you'll see a big icon for OpenRocket, and a shortcut to your Application folder. Drag OpenRocket to the Application Folder, let it finish copying, and you're done.

Linux

OpenRocket 15.03 AppImage for Linux

You will need to have the FUSE filesystem installed; most distributions have it installed by default. Download the AppImage file, make it executable and you can run it by double-clicking, or from the command line.

Java "jar" file

Java is a programming language and computing platform that powers a large share of today’s digital world by providing a reliable platform upon which services and applications can be built. OpenRocket is one of these, and it will not function unless you have Java installed.

Java is enhanced to improve performance, stability and security of the Java applications that run on your machine, and a new feature-release is issued every six months. And, every three years, an issued release is designated as Long-Term Support (LTS) and receives quarterly security, stability, and performance updates only, meaning the version does not changed when updated. To ensure the broadest possible compatibility and stability of the application, OpenRocket is intended to be used with Java LTS versions.

The OpenRocket installers package the correct version of Java for the OpenRocket version being installed so that everything that OpenRocket needs to function is provided at the time of installation; the Java version installed on your device is ignored.

The easiest and most reliable approach to using OpenRocket is to skip the .jar installation , and instead use the packaged installers for your device. The use of a .jar version is not recommended.

2022 Beta Release

Although Java 17 (LTS) was released in September of 2021, beta development had progressed too far to provide for its compatibility. The 2022 beta release of OpenRocket requires the Java 11 (LTS) platform; OpenRocket 2022 beta releases are not intended to run with any other version of Java at this time.

1. Download the OpenRocket 22.00.beta.01.jar (INACTIVE UNTIL RELEASE DATE) application.
2. Copy it to a convenient folder.
3. Make the .jar file executable (if needed).
4. Start OpenRocket by either double-clicking the .jar file, or right-clicking the .jar file, and selecting "Open".

Alternatively you may start OpenRocket from the command line:

java -jar OpenRocket-22.00.beta.01.jar

Or, if you are not currently in the same directory as the .jar file, replace '/path_to/' by the appropriate path on your system:

java -jar /path_to/OpenRocket-22.00.beta.01.jar

Version 15.03

OpenRocket 15.03 requires the Java 8 (LTS) platform; OpenRocket 15.03 may not function correctly using any other version of Java.

1. Download the OpenRocket-15.03.jar application.
2. Copy it to a convenient folder.
3. Make the .jar file executable (right-click on .jar file, select "Properties", go to the Permissions tab and check the "Allow executing file as program" box).
4. Start OpenRocket by either double-clicking the .jar file, or right-clicking the .jar file, and selecting "Open with Sun Java6 Runtime".

If the default is set to open with the Archive Manager, then right-click, select "Open with other application", then select "Open with Sun Java6 Runtime", and check the box to make that the default. In future, it should be possible to just double-click to start OpenRocket.

Alternatively you may start OpenRocket from the command line:

java -jar OpenRocket-15.03.jar

Or, if you are not currently in the same directory as the .jar file, replace '/path_to/' by the appropriate path on your system:

java -jar /path_to/OpenRocket-15.03.jar

Linux Users

AppImage

The AppImage is the preferred way to obtain OpenRocket for Linux at this time, as OpenRocket 15.03 requires an old version of Java (Java 8) which is not installed by default in most distributions.

Ubuntu/Debian Repository

Note that if you install OpenRocket from a repository as in the following instructions, it will likely not work since it requires an older version of Java than is commonly distributed today. Our next release is targeting newer versions of Java, and hopefully this will become a useful approach to installing again at that time.

If you are running a recent version of Ubuntu or Debian, then OpenRocket can be easily installed using the Ubuntu Software Center or Synaptic (etc.). Please note that the version in the distribution repository may not be the latest version. Alternatively you may install OpenRocket from the command line:

sudo apt-get install openrocket

or

sudo apt install openrocket

To start OpenRocket, simply select it from the Applications menu.

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