COM/COT Alignment

[funk]

I'm searching for a method or mod to be sure, that center of trust is aligned with center of mass.

It should show the differences between the CoT vector and position of CoM. It would be awesome if it calculates limited trust/trustratio between several engines to reach CoT/CoM alignment. Also if it consideres capabilities of RCS/SAS.

I'm coming up with this, because when i design spaceplanes, it's hard to see if CoT/CoM is 100% aligned. During flight, there's mostly no problem. But in space small misalignment has significant effect. Spinning, consumption of monopropellant and so on...

P.S. I know DavonTCsmod, but my purpose is to minimize its use during phase of design

Edited August 30, 2014 by funk

[kujuman]

I've never needed any external tools when I follow a few guidelines:

1) make sure engines have gimbal ability

2) place more powerful engines further back from CoM to improve performance of gimbals

3) when in VAB, play with tweakables on fuel tanks to see how CoM will shift in flight

4) look down the CoT indicator a lot. It is pretty good if you take time with it (set tweakable engine thrust to 0 for atmo engines and the like)

5) add small ballast fuel tanks around CoM that you can add and remove fuel from in flight to better balance craft (can be useful for cargo carriers)

I hope these help

[Wanderfound]

I'm searching for a method or mod to be sure, that center of trust is aligned with center of mass.

It should show the differences between the CoT vector and position of CoM. It would be awesome if it calculates limited trust/trustratio between several engines to reach CoT/CoM alignment. Also if it consideres capabilities of RCS/SAS.

I'm coming up with this, because when i design spaceplanes, it's hard to see if CoT/CoM is 100% aligned. During flight, there's mostly no problem. But in space small misalignment has significant effect. Spinning, consumption of monopropellant and so on...

P.S. I know DavonTCsmod, but my purpose is to minimize its use during phase of design

RCS Build Aid. It does thrust alignment as well as RCS. Also allows simultaneous viewing of fuelled vs unfuelled CoM and measures the distance between the two.

[funk]

@kujuman

thx for the tips... I think I use them in design already. Except the small tanks around COM. I will test it.

@Wanderfound

thx ... downloaded!