HENFOIL, XFLR5 and QBlade: which job each one owns

Three tools, three jobs

XFLR5 is where a lot of model and UAV teams draw a wing, a tail, and a vortex-lattice or panel model of the whole airplane, and where they store the XFOIL polars that feed it. QBlade is where a wind-turbine or propeller team builds a blade and needs a polar that covers the full angle range the blade element will see, including post-stall. HENFOIL is the section tool in front of both: make or import the airfoil, check the geometry, run the engine, and write a file the other program already understands.

None of these replaces the other. A wing polar from a vortex lattice and a section polar from a viscous solver answer different questions. This note is about the handoff, and about why the section work is worth doing in HENFOIL before the airplane or the rotor is locked.

What you already get on the Polars page

• A solved angle sweep, with failed points left visible.
• An extrapolated 360° curve from that solved polar. Points that were extended, rather than solved, stay marked. The extension is a model for rotor decks. It is not a wind-tunnel polar past stall.
• Export of that table as AeroDyn .dat, QBlade .afl, XFOIL .pol, CSV, and the other rotor and plotting formats on the same page. The engine also writes an XFLR5 polar when the export format is xflr5.
• Coordinate export from Geometry, including a Selig .dat and an XFOIL / XFLR5 coordinate file, so the section you analysed is the section you loft.

Why the section workspace is the reason to pay

XFLR5 and QBlade expect you to arrive with a trustworthy section. The expensive mistakes happen before that: a trailing-edge gap you did not notice, a thickness that is not the one in the name, a polar at the wrong Reynolds number, or a 360° table whose extrapolated points were pasted in as if they had been solved. HENFOIL keeps those steps on one active section. Geometry reports the shape. The polar names its method. The 360° export keeps the solved points and the extended points apart. The design-review PDF and the datasheet carry the same limits.

A script can run the same loop. Every plan has an automation key. Calls made with the key have their own monthly budget, separate from polars and compute credits, and the response warns you when that budget is nearly gone. The browser session does not spend the automation budget.

What this is not

HENFOIL does not draw the XFLR5 airplane, and it does not run a QBlade turbine. The 3-D wing in HENFOIL is a loft of the active section — taper, sweep, twist, station Reynolds numbers, STEP and IGES — not a full aircraft model and not a blade-element rotor. Use XFLR5 or QBlade for that assembly. Use HENFOIL so the section you hand them has a method, a geometry check, and a file they can read.

There is not yet a one-click “repair this failed point and rerun” button, and there is not yet a public tunnel-benchmark board. Validation compares a polar you supply with the prediction, and it will read an XFOIL or XFLR5 polar header. Bring the measured or external curve. The page will say how comparable the two are.

In simple words: what this page is for

XFLR5 is the airplane workbench. QBlade is the rotor workbench. HENFOIL is the section workspace that feeds both, with a marked 360° polar and the same files those tools already read.

This lesson exists because section decisions fail when geometry, method labels and selection reasons are scattered. HENFOIL, XFLR5 and QBlade: which job each one owns helps you keep a clean trail from shape to polar to choice.

Why the topic matters

Engineers lose time when a title sounds clear but the page only sketches the idea. This article expands HENFOIL, XFLR5 and QBlade: which job each one owns so you can answer three questions without jargon: what is the idea, when do you use it, and how do you check it in a HENDOI product.

Read the sections above for the core definitions. Use the steps below to move from reading into a real project trail you can share with a teammate.

How to apply this in HENDOI

In practice: create a HENDOI account or log in, open HENFOIL, bring a section in (create, import DAT, or digitize), pass the geometry gate, climb the analysis ladder only as far as the decision needs, then compare and archive. Every calculated number should keep its method label.

When the section choice is ready for the aircraft, continue in HENSYNTH for mission, compliance and trades. Same account. Same plans.

What this page will not claim: a teaching polar or geometry note is not a flight-Re certificate. HENFOIL labels methods so you know what you bought. Tunnel data and professional judgement still sit outside any single software run.

Checklist before you leave this page

• Can you state the idea of HENFOIL, XFLR5 and QBlade: which job each one owns in one sentence?
• Do you know which product owns the next action — HENFOIL or HENSYNTH?
• Will every number you keep carry a method label or a stored-run source?
• If you are new here, have you opened Register or Login?

Related reading on this site

• Airfoil selection with a documented why-#1
• The HENFOIL analysis ladder: when to escalate
• Create airfoil fields: NACA, analytic and CST — what each digit means
• Digitize field-by-field: every control, why fill it, what you get
• All HENDOI blog articles
• HENFOIL product page
• HENSYNTH product page
• Pricing — Student, Professional & Team
• FAQ
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