Description of TrajectoWare Drive

Features of TrajectoWare Drive

Horizontal (hook and slice) as well as vertical trajectory. TrajectoWare Drive accounts for sidespin as well as backspin, face angle as well as loft. Three views of the trajectory. You can look at the usual side view that trajectory programs give you, also a top view to see the effect of sidespin, and finally a table of numbers. Each has its uses. As users ourselves, we would not want to be without any of these views.

Input both launch conditions and impact conditions. Most trajectory programs allow either launch conditions (ball speed, launch angle, backspin, etc) or impact conditions (clubhead speed, loft, etc) as input. TrajectoWare Drive allows you to input launch conditions, impact conditions, or even a mixture to set up the trajectory. Moreover... Impact conditions are deduced from launch conditions. No other trajectory program will calculate the effect on the impact conditions as you enter launch conditions -- and vice versa. TrajectoWare Drive not only does this, it shows the changes in real time. For instance, with TrajectoWare Drive, if you change the launch angle without changing ball speed or backspin, you will immediately see the changes in clubhead speed, loft, and angle of attack that must have occurred to cause that change in launch angle.

Watch changes in real time. No need to hit "Run" and then try again. Use the cursor up/down keys or your scroll wheel to "animate" the trajectory changes due to any variable. Want to see how backspin affects the trajectory? Go to the backspin control and move the scroll wheel on the mouse, or hold the cursor key, and watch the trajectory change shape.

You can save both "live" and formatted versions of your work. You can save your work as a "project", in a form that can later be opened and modified further. That's a unique capability. Of course you can export the table view for use in a report, as other programs do. And you can also export the graphics views to illustrate the report.

Don't like the trajectory colors that come with it? Configure your own. You can change the order of the colors for the trajectory views, or even the set of colors used. Don't want yellow against the white background? Get rid of yellow. Prefer gray scale? You can do that. Choose the columns you  want recorded for the table view. Almost every input and output can be a column in the table view. Can  be, not must be. You can choose any columns in any order. Makes it easier to see patterns in the data, or to prepare the table for use in a report.

Choose your units. Like ounces instead of grams? Prefer meters to yards? Farenheit or Celsius? Have it your way.

Illustrated online manual in the form of Help. The Help facility was written as an online manual. It includes a getting-started section, a full user guide, and a reference manual. Need to find something? We paid a lot of attention to the index, and Help has a clickable image of the user interface that takes you right to the help page for the control you clicked.

Limitations of TrajectoWare Drive:

Drivers and long woods only. The program loses accuracy at spin rates above 4000rpm, so it does not do a good job with irons.

Carry distance only. We are working on bounce and roll, but that must wait for a future version.

Windows only. The program is not designed to work on Macintosh, Linux, or other non-Windows operating systems.

• Todd Kos (the creator of the OptimalFlight program) for providing us with real-world data to test our program, and
• John C. Adams for allowing us to use the programming algorithms from his trajectory spreadsheets.