The first tip is - buy the new Windows version! More than just a Windows conversion, it has hundreds of new capabilities to makes aircraft design easier and more fun. However, the old tips for RDS-DOS are provided below for those who are still waiting for their copy of RDSwin, or who just love that classic clunky DOS look. Installing & Starting RDS-DOS RDS-DOS Shortcut for Windows(tm) Running RDS-DOS under 64-bit Windows Running RDS-DOS under Linux If RDS-DOS or a Module won't run Error Type 53 in Design Layout Module Recovering Design Layout Module files after abnormal termination Running RDS-DOS on a MAC (yes, it can be done!) How to capture RDS-DOS graphs and drawings RDS-DOS won't Print anything Using Print-to-File to capture RDS-DOS graph data for other applications RDS-DOS Units Conversion No-Lateral-Symmetry Designs (like Rutan's Boomerang) How do I input an airfoil in the RDS-DOS Design Layout Module? DLM starts without any menus DLM just sits there until I press something DLM acts strange when I change geometry type I designed an airplane in MKS when I thought DLM was in FPS units 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! RDS-DOS 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."

It is probably best to set up a shortcut for running RDS in DOSBox as follows:
Create a file called "RDS.bat", with these contents:
MOUNT C C:\RDS
C:\
RDS
Then create a Windows desktop shortcut with target:
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.73\dosbox.exe" "C:\RDS\RDS.bat"
This will start RDS in one step.

Main Menu Page Opens but Mouse Doesn't Work and/or Cursor Blinks Insanely: This is most likely a problem with your mouse driver or the mouse itself, or maybe your mouse driver isn’t exactly the right one for the mouse you have. The Windows default mouse driver may not work as RDS expects for a given mouse. As a result, the mouse driver may not be returning anything when queried, or it may be returning a mouse motion even if none exists. Test this using a simple little DOS program called MiceTest (click here to download it). This uses the actual RDS mouse routines and prints the returned codes as you move the mouse. If this shows the returned codes are not changing as you move the mouse, or it shows them changing when you haven't moved the mouse, the problem is very likely to be in your mouse, mouse driver, or mouse-related Windows setup. Try re-installing the mouse driver from the original installation disk that came with your mouse. BTW, I use a Logtitech trackball rather than a mouse, and RDS works just fine.

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-DOS 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 RDS-DOS 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 in V5.1 - the DLM always starts in FPS units even if you work in MKS. A fixed version will be posted here

Startup & Run Problems With Old Versions of RDS-DOS (Versions 1-4):
Old DLM Crashes Way Too Often: Older versions of RDS-DOS 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 (the new Windows version was based on this). 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.

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!

However, it is not certain if the software protection system that RDS-Pro uses is always compatible with a Mac emulating a PC. Here's a better idea - purchase a cheap low-end PC just for RDS.

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.

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 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 RDS-Pro 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

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.

BUG ALERT 3: Another minor bug in the first release of V5 - the DLM always starts in FPS units even if you work in MKS. Press # to switch to metric.

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.

These bugs are fixed in a free download - click here.

updated 9-2012

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