ENH: Enabling the creation of Rail Buttons separately (adding the roc…

…ket_radius attribute to the RailButtons class). Improvement of the Railbuttons class.

rocketpy/rocket/aero_surface/rail_buttons.py

@@ -17,7 +17,13 @@ class RailButtons(AeroSurface):
         relative to one of the other principal axis.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, buttons_distance, angular_position=45, name="Rail Buttons"):
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        buttons_distance,
+        angular_position=45,
+        name="Rail Buttons",
+        rocket_radius=None,
+    ):
         """Initializes RailButtons Class.
 
         Parameters
@@ -40,7 +46,7 @@ def __init__(self, buttons_distance, angular_position=45, name="Rail Buttons"):
         self.buttons_distance = buttons_distance
         self.angular_position = angular_position
         self.name = name
-
+        self.rocket_radius = rocket_radius
         self.evaluate_lift_coefficient()
         self.evaluate_center_of_pressure()
 

rocketpy/rocket/rocket.py

@@ -956,9 +956,18 @@ def add_surfaces(self, surfaces, positions):
         -------
         None
         """
+        if isinstance(surfaces, list) is False:
+            if isinstance(surfaces, RailButtons):
+                surfaces = [surfaces]
+                positions = [positions]
         try:
             for surface, position in zip(surfaces, positions):
                 self.aerodynamic_surfaces.add(surface, position)
+                if isinstance(surface, RailButtons):
+                    try:
+                        self.rail_buttons.add(surface, position)
+                    except TypeError:
+                        self.rail_buttons.add(surface, positions)
         except TypeError:
             self.aerodynamic_surfaces.add(surfaces, positions)
 

rocketpy/simulation/flight.py

@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
 import simplekml
 from scipy import integrate
 
+from rocketpy.rocket.aero_surface import RailButtons
+
 from ..mathutils.function import Function, funcify_method
 from ..mathutils.vector_matrix import Matrix, Vector
 from ..plots.flight_plots import _FlightPlots
@@ -1723,6 +1725,8 @@ def u_dot_generalized(
         velocity_in_body_frame = Kt @ v
         # Calculate lift and moment for each component of the rocket
         for aero_surface, position in self.rocket.aerodynamic_surfaces:
+            if isinstance(aero_surface, RailButtons):
+                continue
             comp_cpz = (
                 position - self.rocket.center_of_dry_mass_position
             ) * self.rocket._csys - aero_surface.cpz