View source for Feature wishlist

== Creating/printing a rocket design report ==

The ability to create a report containing the most important design information to present to a RSO at a launch event.  The structure of the report could be something like the following:

* Title
* Section describing the rocket in general without motors
** design name
** empty mass & CG
** CP position
** CP position at 5 degree AOA (or similar)
** number of stages
** parachute/streamer sizes
** max. diameter (caliber)
* Section for each motor configuration
** a summary of the motors, e.g. 3xC6-0; B4-6
** a list of the motors including the manufacturer, designation (maybe also info like burn time, grams of propellant, total impulse)
** total grams of propellant
** total impulse
** takeoff weight
** CG and CP position, stability margin
** predicted flight altitude, max. velocity and max. acceleration
** predicted velocity at chute deployment
** predicted descent rate
* Diagram of the rocket (positioned vertically on the right side of the first page)
** CP position
** CG position without motors and in each configuration (the labels should alternate on right and left sides to avoid being on top of each other)


The user flow could be something like the following:

* Select from menu Rocket -> Design report
* A dialog opens to ask which motor configurations to include in the report
** maybe ask paper size as well
* Simulations are run for each to get most up-to-date info
* Report is shown to user, allowing them to save or print it

Technical considerations:

* Predicted data readily available from OR (ask for details)
* The rocket plot can and should use the same rendering as the design window
* How to define launch conditions?  Should the user select simulations to include in the report instead of motor configurations?

One issue is also in what format and how to create the report.  Below are a few alternatives that have been considered, others are possible as well.

* Generate the report in HTML
** Pros:
*** easy to generate
*** can be displayed using a JTextPane
*** allows saving as HTML
*** easy to print from Java using JTextComponent.print()
** Cons:
*** including the plot might be problematic and requires a separate file when saving
*** rocket diagram needs to be in raster format
*** no support for smart pagination
* Use [http://itextpdf.com/ iText] or some other PDF generator
** Pros:
*** exported directly as PDF, only one file in output
*** more control, can produce more professional-looking output
*** rocket diagram can be in vector format
*** can be better paginated
** Cons:
*** may be more difficult to generate(?)
*** smart pagination may be challenging / require additional work
*** displaying and printing the report may need separate support (maybe using [http://pdfbox.apache.org/ PDFBox]?)
* Generate LaTeX document and figures for later compilation
** Pros:
*** Extremely high quality output
*** Equations, pagination, sections, hyperlinks and anything else you could want
*** Fully vectorised graphics
*** User can easily manually customise output file
*** Easy to program on the Java side as  just generating plain text
** Cons:
*** Requires an external LaTeX distribution
*** Not everyone knows LaTeX.