Ballistic Trajectory Calculator (6DOF)

A detailed and accurate external ballistic calculator implementing a comprehensive 6-degree-of-freedom physics model.

NOTE: This project is still in an ALPHA phase, and is not near production level. Things might break or be incomplete.

📖 Overview

This project is a powerful yet user-friendly external ballistic trajectory calculator capable of modeling detailed projectile flight behavior using a sophisticated physics engine. Whether you're a marksman, physicist, engineer, or hobbyist, this calculator gives deep insights into the science of projectile motion, environmental factors, and quaternion-based rotational dynamics. Currently under development and nowhere near production level. May have bugs or inconsistencies, so be aware of that

🚀 Key Features

• 6 Degrees-of-Freedom (6DOF) Solver

  • Precise quaternion-based rotations.
  • Robust RK4 numerical integration method.
  • Dynamic computation of translational and rotational motion.

• Detailed Environmental Modeling

  • Atmospheric effects (pressure, temperature, humidity).
  • Wind, Coriolis, Eötvös, and Magnus effects.
  • Real-time environmental parameter updates.

• Advanced Drag Models

  • Supports multiple drag models: G1, G2, G5, G6, G7, G8, GI, GL, RA4.
  • User-selectable drag function interpolation from provided CSV tables.

• Cross-Platform Compatibility

  • Written in portable C23 standard code.
  • Buildable and runnable on Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS) and Windows (via WSL as of now, but hopefully native in the future).

• Detailed Command-Line Interface (CLI)

  • Extensive user customization options.
  • Full control over simulation parameters.

• Comprehensive Documentation

  • Rich LaTeX-rendered documentation via Doxygen.
  • Extensive theory vs. implementation explanations.
  • Easy-to-follow mathematical derivations included.

🔧 Build Instructions

Ensure these dependencies are installed on your system:

• GNU Compiler Collection (gcc)
• GNU Make (make)
• Doxygen (doxygen) (for documentation)
• LaTeX distribution (recommended: TeX Live)

Quick build steps:

Clone this repository and build:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/BallisticTrajectoryCalculator.git
cd BallisticTrajectoryCalculator
make

Generate documentation (optional but highly recommended):

make docs
make doc-pdf
make view

🎮 How to Use

Here's how to run a basic simulation example with custom parameters:

./BBTC --velocity 850 --angle 2 --mass 0.0095 --magnus --coriolis --yawRepose

(Refer to the detailed documentation (refman.pdf) for more CLI options.)

##‍🔬 Documentation

The PDF file that is generated through Doxygen is essential to learning what this program is all about. It is named "refman.pdf"in the repo. To generate and open the PDF documentation:

make docs
xdg-open doxyDocs/latex/refman.pdf

Please Note: Doxygen and LaTeX have been an ABSOLUTE BITCH to work with, so don't try to fiddle around with how the PDF is generated in the Makefile, and try not to touch the Doxyfile much at all. It took me a while to get it all to work. Also, you may make an HTML webpage with it as well, but the math formulas and other things won't look as nice, as I made the documentation custom-tailored to make PDFs.

📜 License

This project is licensed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license

• Non-commercial: Personal, educational, and non-commercial use allowed;
• Attribution required: Credit this repository clearly in derivative works;
• Commercial use: Requires explicit approval—contact repo owner;
• Please view LICENSE.md for more information.

🖥️ Contributing

• Fork this repository.
• Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/coolNewFeature).
• Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add coolNewFeature').
• Push to your branch (git push origin feature/coolNewFeature).
• Open a Pull Request.

💬 Contact

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or suggestions! This is my first piece of software that I started during my sophomore year as a CS student, so I am certain that there are things in here that I can change, improve, or otherwise make better, especially when it comes to GitHub---I barely have an idea on how to use Git XD.

• GitHub: BMAGS6
• Email: brandonmagoni111@gmail.com