OpenVSP is a parametric aircraft geometry tool originally developed by NASA starting in the early 1990’s. I have set the development direction since 2006 and have lead the open source project since the first open release was secured in 2012.
The most complete treatment of OpenVSP’s history and capabilities is contained in the 2022 overview paper.
What It Does
OpenVSP allows engineers to quickly construct and modify three-dimensional parametric models of aircraft and other vehicles. From a geometry model, it can:
- Perform low-fidelity aerodynamic analysis (potential flow, wave drag, drag buildup)
- Compute configurator centric geometric metrics (mass prop., wetted areas, tipback angle)
- Generate surface meshes and watertight solids for CFD and FEA
- Export to dozens of formats: STEP, IGES, STL, OBJ, Cart3D, and more
- Run via GUI or scripted via a full Python or AngelScript API
Why It Exists
The efficacy of any creative process (from sculpture to aircraft design) is directly related to the time between making a change and seeing its effect; imagine if a painter had to wait hours or days to see each brushstroke on the canvas. OpenVSP exists to make this feedback loop as fast as possible. This involves both the geometry and also the analysis based on that geometry.
Rapid time between updates is necessacary but insufficient for aircraft design; conceptual design teams may study hundreds of concepts for each one that makes it to first flight. Minimizing the time, effort, and cost to the first model and analysis result is also critical to enable conceptual design studies that actually consider more than one concept.
OpenVSP is a domain specific tool. It gives up the generality of CAD and other 3D modeling techniques and analysis tools to unlock large gains in ease of use, time to first model, time to first analysis, and time between model and analysis updates. Most people (even most aerospace engineers) don’t need OpenVSP, but it is an essential tool for those who do.
Links
- Fun with OpenVSP
- openvsp.org — official home, documentation, downloads
- GitHub — source code
- Forum — user community