Drela´s Qprop and Qmil ,How to?????

[chichisport]

Hi , I´m trying to design a prop for maximum efficiency and after surfing the net I found Drela´s and Youngren code Qprop:
http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/qprop/

I have some problems running the code, I´m a complete noob about Msdos and only opening the Qmil was entertaining ,it opens calculates and shut down inmediately....any one knows why?
After opening it from the cmd command I´m unable to figure where to put the input file. The file itself is easy to make in a txt but I´m unable to read it with Qmil.exe

Any help will be greatly apprecciated.

Juan Martin

[Brandano]

Assuming you are using win32 (2000, XP, Vista):
Let's say the exe is in c:\Program Files\qprop\
open the start menu, on 2000 or XP you have a "run" entry, select that and type "cmd" in the input box. This will open a command prompt. type "c" and hit return (this makes sure you are on drive c: ) , then type "cd \" and hit return (this brings you to "c:\" from whatever path you are in). Then type: cd "Program Files\qprop" and return so that you are in the same folder as the application. Note the use of the " symbol to enter a path that has a space in it. From here you can just run the program typing its name, qprop.exe or qmil.exe and hitting return. The program will run and probably exit immediately telling you what is missing. I have never really run either, so I don't really know their behavior, but this should give you a quick primer on moving through the dos prompt. You can get help on most commands by typing help before it, like "help cd". Still, never as good as manpages on Linux...

[chichisport]

Thanks ,
I have been able to run the program but I´m unable to go further (enter data), I greatly appreciate your help.

[markdrela]

Thanks ,
I have been able to run the program but I´m unable to go further (enter data), I greatly appreciate your help. You do not "enter data" into QMIL and QPROP, as they do not have the usual user interface. They are run with input files and command-line parameters, and the tabular output goes to either the screen or to a file. For example:

qprop propfile motorfile 0.0,8.0,1.0 0.0 12.0

or

qprop propfile motorfile 0.0,8.0,1.0 0.0 12.0 > outputfile

This will generate a table listing of all the prop and motor operating parameters over the range of airspeeds 0-8 m/s, at 12 V motor voltage. The table goes to the screen or to the output file. It's all described in the user's manual.

You can run QPROP manually, as in the example above. But its main intent is to be run by some external driver script for doing optimization or aircraft performance calculations.

[chichisport]

Thanks for answering , I have to say that I have no idea how to enter those datas :

I can´t imagine how to run the file I have created in text format for Qmil.Do you have to enter the data line by line ,how??

Please realize that I came from Windows and never really did any calculation appart from playing with windows or java appletts , I always run X foil from Profili ....you can imagine the situation......

Best regards.

[chichisport]

I have managed to "imagine" how to run Qmil as I´m a computer inept :D

Typing:

C:\qmil\qmil.exe c:\qmil\qmilexample.txt [c:qprop\qpropexample.txt]

and voila finally Qmil does its magic. I´m unable to write in the qpropexample.txt but al least I´m progressing.

Latest update:

The [ ] was only an indication of the next thing to do .Removed and now is writting OK.

C:\qmil\qmil.exe c:\qmil\qmilexample.txt c:qprop\qpropexample.txt

Now I have to figure a ton more things :)

[chichisport]

I ´m running qmil and qprop and understand most of it but still I´m unable to put a different air values .I have made a qcon.def archive but I can´t find where to put in the command line.A typical line is :

C:\qprop\qprop.exe C:\qprop\exampleqprop.txt C:\qprop\examplemotor.txt C:\qprop\examplerun.txt C:\qprop\qcon.def

This line provide the same result as without the qcon.def file.

Thanks for answering.