Symmetry on/off toggle for part tweaking

[KerikBalm]

Currently I find it very limiting that when I tweak a setting on one part that was placed with symmetry (in this case, I'm thinking of mirror symmetry and wheel brakes), the symmetric part on the other side is tweaked in the same way. In many cases this is useful for things such as control surfaces... but if I just want to apply brakes on one side to assist with turning on the ground, its horrible.

I seem to recall (but need to check with the recent update) that parachutes placed with radial symmetry don't behave like this, If I want to tweak the opening conditions for the chutes during flight (ie after leaving the VAB), I needed to click on each and every one... which can be annoying. Other times, I'd want to actually have each one tweaked for slightly different opening conditions (for example, to stagger opening for less opening shock, but opening shock is much less of an issue now).

So basically I want a toggle to apply part tweaks to just the individual part, or to the part and its symmetric parts.

I think this would be really nice and give me much more control over my craft.

Mainly this issue came to frustrat me when trying to turn a larger SSTO that lacked steerable gear (because there are no larger sized steerable gear)... I wanted to put the brakes to full(200) on for my right rear landing gear(and 0 on the left) to help it turn right while it was rolling, but it just applied brakes to both gears.

I tried again after stopping, intending to fire up an engine on the left, with the right brakes on... the engine worked fine, but the brakes toggles were stuck symmetrically and the turning radius was horrible as a result.

[Alshain]

Any change you make, all parts in symmetry will change.  It's the same for all part types.  Your best solution right now is a mod called StripSymmetry.  There is a recompile at the end of the thread.

 

[KerikBalm]

Well, thats not exactly true.

While I can accept that for tweaking the brake strengths... I can activate/shutdown an engine without activating/shutting down its twin(s)

I want to be able to activate the brakes on one wheel without putting the brakes on for opposite wheel as well... this would very much help with ground handling of my larger crafts.

[Alshain]

14 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

Well, thats not exactly true.

While I can accept that for tweaking the brake strengths... I can activate/shutdown an engine without activating/shutting down its twin(s)

I want to be able to activate the brakes on one wheel without putting the brakes on for opposite wheel as well... this would very much help with ground handling of my larger crafts.

You are talking about outside the editor vs in the editor.    Outside the editor there is an option to shut down the engine, there is not an option to turn on the brakes.  Apples and oranges.

You can still do this without symmetry, you just have to reassign the brake action group elsewhere.

[KerikBalm]

i'm pretty sure the action groups are done symmetrically too in the editor.

I guess it would require text-file editing, which is BS.

If you've launched your craft, you have no in-game way to activate one brake but not its twin. When building a craft, you have no in-game way to allow you to activate one brake but not its twin.

Placing each one withouth symmetry is just asking for trouble, especially with the new wheel changes.

The features of that mod should have been incorporated into stock when they were going over the editor and adding the rotate and translate widgets..

[Ser]

 

Have you tried this? Doesn't interact with keys but at least it has a little yellow button at the window bottom that brakes symmetry.

 

[Alshain]

22 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

i'm pretty sure the action groups are done symmetrically too in the editor.

I guess it would require text-file editing, which is BS.

If you've launched your craft, you have no in-game way to activate one brake but not its twin. When building a craft, you have no in-game way to allow you to activate one brake but not its twin.

Placing each one withouth symmetry is just asking for trouble, especially with the new wheel changes.

The features of that mod should have been incorporated into stock when they were going over the editor and adding the rotate and translate widgets..

Not if you use the mod I suggested to strip the symmetry away.  As far as incorporating it into stock, that I can agree.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Alshain

[KerikBalm]

For that matter, I wonder why activating the brakes on a part are not even available by the right click menu... I could swear they used to be. Using that mod to strip the symmetry is a good solution for now... but using up 2 action groups for right and left brakes... thats a bit silly that this would be required