How to draw your own satelite ?

[Bib60]

Hi

How to draw your own satelitte and import to KSP ?

Wich programs to use ?

Thanks

Laurent

[Vanamonde]

Sorry, I don't understand what you're asking. I am not aware of anything that would allow you to design a craft outside of the game and bring it into the game. 

[Triop]

Welcome to the forum

Edited April 12, 2018 by Triop

[Bib60]

Hi

Thank you for your draw :-)

But now, how to draw it ? Solidworks, Catia ? 

I'm working at Ariane Group and would like to use existing communication satellite in the game.

And how to import in KSP to use it if possible ? 

Thanks 

[Snark]

45 minutes ago, Bib60 said:

And how to import in KSP to use it if possible ?

Ah.  You want to model a thing and then bring it into the game.  ("Draw" means "take a pencil or pen and draw a picture on paper", that sort of thing.)  Moving your question to Modeling & Texturing Discussion.

I suspect that KSP isn't really what you want, unless you want to put a large amount of work into it.

First... bear in mind that KSP is not really designed to model spacecraft, it's oriented around spacecraft parts.  Of course, you can, if you want, model a whole spacecraft as one single special-purpose part, but that's generally not how most people will enjoy playing the game.  However, depending on what you want to do with it, this may suit your needs, so perhaps not so much of an issue for you.  It's up to you.

Anyway:  Here's how you model a part in KSP:

1. Install Blender.
2. Install the KSP import/export plugin for Blender.  Instructions here.
3. Design your part in Blender. This requires not only designing the visible part of the model (i.e. how it looks), but also providing the collider geometry that the game needs so it can interact with other objects in the game.
4. Export the part to a KSP .mu file, along with the .dds texture map for the model.
5. Author a config file for the part.  This is a text file, in the KSP configuraiton language, which sets all the in-game properties of the part (e.g. mass, thermal properties, aerodynamic characteristics, what actions it can perform, all sorts of things).
6. Put them all together and copy them into a folder somewhere in your GameData folder in your KSP install.

Note that this is just a quick summary of the process.  It takes a lot of time and knowledge to do, so you'll need to spend quite a bit of time learning lots of technical detail in order to do this, if it's how you want to proceed.

The other option, if you don't need something that looks exactly like the satellite you have in mind, is that you could simply build your spacecraft from existing parts in-game.  A whole lot less work.  KSP already has quite a variety of parts to choose from, and if you get creative, you can achieve quite a lot of artistic effect. 

Anyway, it's up to you-- this is just to (hopefully) get you pointed in approximately the right direction.

[Bib60]

Thanks Snark, this is what i wanted to explain and to do

I've tried to use stock parts to build it but i can't find big deployable antenna, so perhaps i will nedd to only build antenna and import it to stock parts.

Thanks a lot for your help, now i must learn how to use the software

[Snark]

12 hours ago, Bib60 said:

big deployable antenna

...Out of curiosity, could you post a screenshot of what the satellite looks like that you want to model?

There are a lot of part mods out there, many of which are just frickin' gorgeous, and there's a huge variety of parts in them.  So if you post a screenshot of the craft, you might get lucky-- maybe somebody will chime in with "Oh hey, yeah, just install <some mod>, it has an antenna in it that looks a lot like that."

Or if you know of a part that looks like what you want but happens to be the wrong size for you... it's pretty easy to tweak config with ModuleManager to make a super-sized version.  For example, if what you need is just a big deployable umbrella dish, KSP already has a deployable umbrella antenna, the Communotron 88-88.  If, for example, that one (or some other existing antenna, either in stock or from a mod) looks like what you want but is the wrong size, it can be rescaled in a very simple process that just requires editing a text file.

So you may be able to do this without having to mod something yourself.

[Bib60]

Hi

Of course

You can see on this picture one of the 4 big antenna that is not deployed, solar panel too are not deployed, generaly there are four big antenna, its telecom satelitte and after when all four antenna are deployed, i'm working to build theses antenna in real life   ;-)

 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Bib60

[artwhaley]

I just want to say that I love the irony that you got a snarky reply from a random user, then a straight and helpful reply from @Snark

[Snark]

On 4/15/2018 at 5:13 AM, Bib60 said:

You can see on this picture one of the 4 big antenna that is not deployed, solar panel too are not deployed, generaly there are four big antenna, its telecom satelitte and after when all four antenna are deployed, i'm working to build theses antenna in real life   ;-)

Okay.  So, one of the things that you're up against here is that clearly this is a satellite that's designed to unfold, i.e. it's launched in a very compact, folded-up configuration and then when it gets to space it will unfurl and extend arms and antennas and things, right?

KSP supports animated parts (e.g. individual parts that extend-retract)... but it doesn't support animation of parts themselves as part of the ship.  For example, you can make  a part which is a leg that extends and retracts-- but you can't mount another part (such as an antenna) on the end of the leg, so that the antenna is moved when the leg moves.  Doesn't work that way.  It's a basic limitation of the game.  It's why there's no "hinge" part in the game.

(There are mods that add this ability-- the main one that most folks use for this purpose is called Infernal Robotics, in case you want to go looking for it.  But I've never used it myself and therefore can't attest to what it can or can't do.)

For example:  Looks like those antennas are basically big dishes, and as such, are not all that different from the Communotron 88-88.  So I suspect you could cobble together a satellite out of stock parts, using Communotron 88-88s as the antennas, mounted on arms sticking out.  But that would be the constant shape of the satellite, i.e. it would be shaped like that on the launchpad, too.  The antennas themselves could fold up into their retracted positions, but (unless you can use some mod like Infernal Robotics) the arms themselves wouldn't be retractable, which means you'd have this huge ungainly awkward-to-launch thing sitting on the pad.  You could use the cheat menu to just put it into orbit, of course, but then you'd miss the fun of launching it to space.

So, essentially what you're up against here is that you're wanting to do something that KSP doesn't really support.  I'm not saying it's impossible, just that you're kinda swimming against the stream.  KSP wasn't really designed with the idea of mimicking specific arbitrary spacecraft in mind, especially when those spacecraft involve complicated moving parts.

So, you've got a few choices here:

1. Model the satellite as a single KSP part (or as a collection of a few parts).
   • Advantage:  Gives you something that looks and acts exactly the way you want.
   • Disadvantage:  Huge investment of time and effort on your part. This will likely take many hours of your time, and require you to develop specialized KSP part-modeling skills.
2. Approximately model the satellite by building it out of stock parts, and/or any mod parts that look more like what you're interested in.
   • Advantage:  Easy, doesn't take too much of your time, doesn't require any specialized skills or knowledge.
   • Disadvantage:  Will look only approximately like your satellite (don't know how much you care about that).
   • Disadvantage:  Won't have the extendable/retractable arms feature, which means it will be an awkward mess on the pad to launch.
3. Same as #2 above, but use a mod like Infernal Robotics to model the extending/retracting arms that the antennas are mounted on.
   • Advantage:  Still lots easier than option #1.  Can unfold/retract.
   • Disadvantage:  Still looks only approximately like your satellite.
   • Disadvantage:  Have to learn how to use and design the Infernal Robotics mod (or whatever).  Like I said, I've never used the mod myself, don't know much about its limitations or how hard it is to use.

[artwhaley]

Infernal robotics is quite easy, as far as mod making skills go.  If you find your way through all of the other steps, making a part work as an infernal robotics hinge will be simple.  A quick look at the .cfg file for the IR parts will show you that you can essentially copy the module from that file and insert the names of your two mesh pieces, as they've been labeled in blender or unity, and set the axis and call it good.   If you get everything else working and want help with that part, feel free to shout!