Here are tips and tricks on the use of all versions of RDS, including answers to FAQ's. If you have questions or tips to suggest, send them to Conceptual Research Corporation Installing & Starting RDS RDS Shortcut for Windows(tm) Running RDS under 64-bit Windows If RDS or a Module won't run Recovering Design Layout Module files after abnormal termination Running RDS on a MAC (yes, it can be done!) How to capture RDS graphs and drawings How do you get the color fills on the aircraft drawings in this website? Using Print-to-File to capture RDS graph data for other applications RDS Units Conversion No-Lateral-Symmetry Designs (like Rutan's Boomerang) How do I input an airfoil in the new Design Layout Module? New DLM starts without any menus New DLM just sits there until I press something New RDS-DLM acts strange when I change geometry type I designed an airplane in MKS when I thought DLM was in FPS units Old DLM Calculates Wrong Airfoil Thickness (t/c) Does RDS make drawings for me to build my design? Proper use of "Design Lift Coefficient" in Aerodynamics Module Propeller Analysis - Thrust Correction Tricks Windows Explorer thinks my Aircraft Data Files are Returned e-Mail! Raymer's Secret RDS Hacks RDS Bug Alerts

To simplify installation, RDS comes with a utility program (INSTALL.EXE) that sets up a new directory and copies the RDS program files to that directory. This does not make any changes to your Windows setup other than creating a new directory, and its use is optional.

To run RDS in Windows, you must next set up a Windows Shortcut as described below (see next Tip) then click on it to start RDS. Do not run RDS just by clicking on RDS.EXE - it will probably run, but not in a full screen display and without proper settings for memory and the mouse.

To run RDS in DOS, simply enter RDS from the DOS prompt. You can also start RDS in most versions of Windows by calling up the DOS prompt but it is more cumbersome than using a shortcut, and may not allow full screen operation.

The first time you run RDS it will ask a few questions about your computer to confirm the directories and to set printer usage. If you are running RDS through Windows, unfortunately you will not be able to directly print to a printer (this is a Windows-DOS problem, and only Microsoft knows why). Therefore, select NONE when printer options are given. When you are running RDS and wish to print out results, select Print to File and open the resulting file in Word, Wordpad, Excel, or some other program, and print from there.

If you are installing RDS-Professional, the first time you run it a message will appear with an alphanumeric code generated from parameters in your computer system. Email this to the address provided and an unlock code will be sent to you. This must be entered only one time.

If you wish you can change the Icon to the RDS Icon (right-click here). Download it into your Windows directory then select right-click on your RDS Shortcut and select Change Icon. This option may be in an Advanced tab or button.

My apologies for the extra trouble, but really - it isn't too much effort and you only have to do it once. An RDS user says "I Googled DOSBOX and was directed to their website and was able to download it for free. The DOSBOX website says that it is meant for legacy games and that it will be slow, but it has not been a problem."

Only Aircraft Data File Works: If RDS will start, and the AIRCRAFT DATA FILE module runs, but all other modules won't run, you probably have a bad RDSCONFG file. This often happens when someone copies RDS from one computer to another (no stealing, please!). RDS can't "find itself" because that file indicates what directory to look in to find the other modules. The solution is simple - exit RDS and delete the file RDSCONFG from your RDS directory, then restart RDS. A new file will be created. For a sneaky way to fix this, see Raymer's Secret RDS Hacks below.

RDS Won't Run, or Strange Termination Errors Occur: If RDS will not run or you get strange termination errors when saving or going from one module to another, one possibility is that Windows has mysteriously set the attributes of some needed RDS files to Read-Only. Go to Windows Explorer and highlight all the files in your RDS program directory. Right-click, select Properties, and make sure that Read-Only, Archive, and Hidden are not checked. Another way to fix this - open the command box (Start-Run) and enter C: attrib -a -r -h RDS (assuming your RDS program directory is C:\RDS as recommended).

If RDS or a module still will not run, you may not have sufficient free DOS memory. First, if you are running RDS under Windows, doublecheck that your Shortcut has EMS and XMS set to NONE (right-click on the RDS shortcut icon and select MEMORY). Next, check your free memory using the Windows System utilities or the DOS MEM command. You need about 550k free memory to run RDS. You can free up memory using the DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS driver, and by setting memory as shown in the sample CONFIG.NT file below (CONFIG.SYS in older versions of Windows). These settings may not work for all computers, so ask an expert if you can't fix this yourself. You may want to try running the DOS MEMMAKER command, and if that still doesn't free up enough memory, you may try some aftermarket memory management program. Removing terminate-and-stay-resident programs will also free up memory. Most modern computers will not have such problems unless they are chock-full of memory-hogging software - or spyware.

   Sample CONFIG.NT to provide more memory
     dos=high, umb
     device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys
     files=100

   Sample CONFIG.SYS to provide more memory
     DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
     DOS=HIGH,UMB
     DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 4096 ram512 /x=B000-B7FF /x=C800-CBFF /i=E000-EFFF m9
     DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
     INSTALL=C:\MOUSE.COM
     FILES=30
     BUFFERS=20
     SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\  /p
     STACKS=9,256

Graphs and Design Layout Module Don't Work: If all the text-mode portions of RDS work fine, but attempting to create graphs or enter the Design Layout Module just produces a blank screen, your computer may be using some non-standard graphics driver that isn't supported by the compiler. Try disabling it using the Windows Control Panel as follows:
{Control Panel /Appearance and Themes /Display /Settings /Advanced /Adapter /Properties / Disable Device}
Then reboot and see if that fixes it.

Startup & Run Problems With Newer Versions of RDS (Version 5+):
RDS Student 5.1 Installation Program Produces Only Blue Screen of Death: On the first print run of the RDS-Student Version 5.1 CD-ROM, the INSTALL program won't work because the program files were inadvertently put into a subdirectory named "RDS-Stud51" which has more than the 8 characters permitted for a DOS-based program. My apologies, and for now please use the copy-it-yourself method described above.

Design Layout Module Starts but No Menus are Shown: The last person who used DLM exited in Menuless Operation Mode - press Alt-M to return to Menu Operation.

DLM always starts in FPS units: Another minor bug - the new DLM always starts in FPS units even if you work in MKS. A fixed version will be posted here

Startup & Run Problems With Older Versions of RDS (Versions 1-4):
Old DLM Crashes Way Too Often: Older versions of RDS use an entirely different Design Layout Module (DLM) which had several bugs, some fixable and some unfixable. This is one of the reasons it was replaced in Version 5 with an all-new and far superior DLM. When using the old DLM, you are advised to save often - about every 5 minutes! If it crashes and you've lost some work, see Recovering Design Layout Module files after abnormal termination.

Old DLM will not run: If ONLY the old Design Layout Module (DLM) will not run you may be experiencing a CPU timing problem in the Borland TurboPascal compiler that the old DLM was written with - a modern CPU is just too fast. Several fixes are available. A site at the University of Freiburg has a complete explanation of the problem, and has a download for TpPatch. Another site has MoSlo, a commercial program, but you can download a free limited version.

Better yet - get the new Design Layout Module. It is so much better!

In the old DLM recovery was possible but more complicated. Go to Windows Explorer or DOS and find the file named (yourfilename).BK~ . Rename it (yourfilename).DSN and return to the Design Layout Module. The lost working file is now there - maybe!

In Menuless Operation you can get rid of the prompts at the top of the screen by pressing the "~" symbol just before pressing "B", then press "~" again to restore the prompts.

Once you've made an RDS bitmap you can directly copy it into an application program. However, RDS bitmaps are very large (~1 mB) and may not have the colors you desire. You can open and improve them in an image/photo manipulation program such as Photoshop, IrfanView, or the Paint program that comes with Windows. Once in such an application program, RDS illustrations can be cropped, scaled, sized, colored, color inverted, contrast enhanced, and finally stored in a more compact file format such as JPG or GIF.

Prior to making a bitmap from an RDS graph, you may wish to change its colors by pressing `C' when the graph is on the screen. This also works in the new Design Layout Module when in Menuless Operation, otherwise select colors from the ViewOptions menu. For most applications, the white background with blue or black lines seems best. Don't leave the background black on graphs - it looks terrible and uses a lot of ink! Switch it either in RDS or in your image/photo manipulation program (Invert Colors).

In older versions of Windows you can copy an RDS screen image directly into the Windows Clipboard by pressing Alt-PrntScrn, where it can be pasted into other application programs including Paint. This doesn't work in WinXP and later versions of Windows.

The solid-model images shown here were created using an output DXF file from RDS-Pro which was then surfaced and displayed in a high-end CAD code (CATIA, AutoCAD, or Pro-E). Others were output by RDS-Pro as Rhino script then displayed in Rhino-3D. Note that the free demo of Rhino-3D allows you to import and display 3-D data scripts from RDS, rotate and shade the image, and copy the image to the Windows clipboard (Alt-PrtScn), for as many times as you want. However, you only have a limited number of "saves" of any changes you might make.

RDS-Professional has an additional capability to save an ASCII data file of the aircraft's lift, drag, thrust, and fuel consumption for input into simulation programs such as TAC BRAWLER. This is selected from the OPTIONS menu in the AIRCRAFT DATA FILE EDIT Module.

You can enter inputs in MKS or FPS, and can switch at will between them by selecting units from the OPTIONS menu. Or, you can instantly switch units by pressing `#' (the pound sign) anytime RDS is waiting for a numerical input.

To facilitate such designs, the new Design Layout Module (Version 5+) allows wings and tails to reflect across their own root chord rather than across the aircraft centerline as is the usual practice. This allows a wing or tail which is laterally symmetric but is not centered on the aircraft's centerline.

For a truly wild design, completely different left-right wing panels can be separately created and placed. Create each separately, selecting "One Side of Global CL" when prompted for symmetry. Enter desired areas, aspect ratios, and taper ratios as if each wing panel would be reflected across the global centerline. In other words, if you are creating the left panel which is to have an area of 50 by itself, enter 100. When creating the wing panel for the right side of the aircraft, again enter double the area, but use a negative value when entering aspect ratio. This will invert that wing panel to the other side of the aircraft. You can instead use positive aspect ratio when creating the right-side wing panel then later scale it by X=-1. Another approach - create the left-side panel, copy it, scale it by X=-1, then make whatever other changes are needed.

The reason for treating these one-side wing panels as if they were part of a complete wing is simple - it allows converting from reflected to nonreflected and back again without changing the wing trapezoidal geometry.

For weights and aerodynamics analysis you must CAREFULLY review and revise the geometric inputs estimated by the Design Layout Module in the output TAB file. It is suggested that the wing geometric inputs be defined assuming an equivalent total trapezoidal planform based on the total wing area and total span, the total exposed wing area, and an averaged sweep, taper, and thickness.

In the new RDS-Pro Version 5.2 there is a point-by-point airfoil input capability which you can select instead of picking an airfoil. There is also a routine that will create NACA airfoils from a few simple inputs.

If you want to convert a SuperConic component to Points, use MiscCompOptions-Convert. There is currently no capability to convert a Point component to SuperConics - you have to build it that way from the start. And, why wouldn't you?

• Tip Mach correction (Eq. 13.19) can be shut off by setting blade t/c=-1 (if set to 0, RDS assumes .03)
• Nacelle Blockage correction (Eq. 13.18) can be shut off by setting Nacelle X-area=0
• D/q-Cooling correction (Eq. 13.21) and D/q-Misc correction (Eq. 13.22) can both be shut off by setting Fudge-Misc=0

• Entering the exclamation mark (!) from almost any menu or prompt will immediately terminate RDS, leaving temporary files in place so that you can restart later and have them offered as "continue...". However, this does not save what you are currently working on in the module you are in, so be careful! Also, the Aircraft Data File (.DAT) is treated differently so the last working version is not available after using (!). Save it first.
• When starting RDS, entering a question mark (?) when prompted to Press Y (yes) will delete the RDSCONFG file, restoring various RDS program defaults. This is especially useful when moving RDS to a new computer. But remember - no stealing!

BUG ALERT 1: On the first print run of the RDS-Student Version 5.1 CD-ROM, the INSTALL program won't work because the program files were inadvertently put into a subdirectory named "RDS-Stud51" which has more than the 8 characters permitted for a DOS-based program. My apologies, and for now please use the copy-it-yourself method described above.

BUG ALERT 2: There is a programming bug in the first release that makes problems if design layouts are saved in a subfolder. Until a fix is posted (watch this site) please create and store your design layouts in the RDS program folder (C:\RDS usually).

BUG ALERT 3: Another minor bug in the first release - the new DLM always starts in FPS units even if you work in MKS.

BUG ALERT 4: Don't turn off prompts in the DLM main menu options. It does turn off the top line of prompts in menuless viewing as it should, but when menus are being used it makes an error (#5) during various operations like moving a point.