Fathoming the "root tool"

[Hotel26]

(This is not a question; hopefully, it is an answer.)

tl;dr: summary:

• activate the root tool
• it doesn't operate on anything transparent
• the first node you click will become the "connection" node
• the second node you click will become the new "root" node

This tool (counter-intuitively combining two separate functions(?)) allows you to a) set the root node in an assembly of vehicles and b ) set some other part as a "connection" part, which makes it eligible (little, green, spherical marker) to have new (transparent) parts or sub-assemblies attached there.  After you've operated with the root tool on an assembly, you'll likely have to save it as a sub-assembly and then manifest it in a subsequent edit to use it but then it will have the attachment point you need...

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(This forum has been very helpful to me and I am very grateful.  So I'd like to feed back something I've learned.  Feel free to critique the above as it may be misleading or incorrect!)

I had to edit a craft that is actually an assembly of several craft.  You know the deal: a transfer vehicle delivers a lander into the destination orbit; the lander undocks and then deorbits to drop a rover on the surface but then land separately or re-orbit...

I wanted to pull the vehicles apart to edit some and then reassemble them.  (I use common components across a family of vehicles.)

I needed the root tool but -- as has been remarked in this forum -- it isn't intuitive.  (Which is pretty much inline with the whole "philosophy" of the VAB.  )

There is some talk in this forum about cookbook step-by-step use of the root tool and some consensus that nobody knows how it works or how it is supposed to be used.  Forgive me if there are some definitive articles about it, as I didn't find it.

Hope this helps someone else.  And, as always, I stand ready to learn from the more knowledgeable.

 

Edited January 2, 2016 by Hotel26
grammar

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Thanks for this! It's still mysterious to me, but now I think I know how to use that first click at least!

[Jimbodiah]

It just lets you reassign the first component of the craft, nothing mysterious about the function.It's a way to make subassemblies of your entire craft by adding an extra parts and making that the main part. Depending on which end you place it on, that end will be the node which will attach to the new parts.

[sal_vager]

Nice post, oh it turns out you can use the root tool on transparent (non-connected) parts as well, just pick them up first then press 4.

We're supposed to be able to activate the root tool then click the craft (or ghost of a craft) we want to re-root, not sure if that got fixed, but normally I just pick up my craft with shift+click then press 4 anyway.

[Stone Blue]

Wow... Clear as mud...

I just continue to use the SelectRoot mod, which has been "reborn" in THIS mod by linuxgurugamer. Its MUCH more intuitive than stock:

Editor Extensions Redux

 

[Hotel26]

10 hours ago, sal_vager said:

Nice post, oh it turns out you can use the root tool on transparent (non-connected) parts as well, just pick them up first then press 4.

We're supposed to be able to activate the root tool then click the craft (or ghost of a craft) we want to re-root, not sure if that got fixed, but normally I just pick up my craft with shift+click then press 4 anyway.

Excellent; thank you.

[Hotel26]

17 hours ago, Jimbodiah said:

It just lets you reassign the first component of the craft, nothing mysterious about the function.It's a way to make subassemblies of your entire craft by adding an extra parts and making that the main part. Depending on which end you place it on, that end will be the node which will attach to the new parts.

If the root tool performs just one function, you have to ask why it provides two clicks.  I think it's possible that in splitting two craft apart, designating the root node will specify the direction in which the connection part splits away.  But even so, a one-click solution would set the root node and then detaching would work as normal.  You would still need a second tool to make a connection node in some cases where the editor prefers the opposite end.  It's when these two use cases are combined that things quickly get muddy.

This post was the most helpful I had found: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/128626-editor-transparent-parts/#comment-2336425

Edited January 3, 2016 by Hotel26
typo

[Plusck]

Yeah, great non-questioning-but-answering post.

I'm sure a 40-page pdf "how to use the VAB" would be welcome. The problem is clearly that the VAB is generally intuitive, until you start trying to do more than very basic work in it. Then you slowly discover that it can indeed do everything that you wanted it to do, but in a far-from-intuitive manner.

I certainly don't want to see the VAB dumbed down to the purely intuitive level, but I'm constantly thinking "damn, wish I'd known that earlier".