Autostrut with new robotic parts

[Goody1981]

Does anyone know if the new robotic parts have some restriction with auto-strutting? 

I’m trying to make a VTOL craft, with the layout shown below. Imagine you’re positioned above the plane, and looking from left to right:

w—fs—e—s—FUS—s—e—fs—w

key: 

w = wing

fs = freewheeling servo

e = engine

s = powered servo

FUS = main fuselage/cockpit/tail

 

The idea is that the powered servo (s) is attached to the main fuselage (FUS) and can rotate the engine (e) around. The freewheeling servo (fs) allows the wing (w) to stay stationary while the engine rotates.

Without strutting the wing it will just be spinning randomly around on the freewheeling servo (moving with aero forces etc), so I want to autostrut the wing to the cockpit (root part). However, it doesn’t seem autostrut is “allowed” past the freewheeling servo. Setting the wing to autostrut to the root part shows the orange line terminating at the freewheeling servo. And the same thing happens with ‘heaviest’ or ‘grandparent’ - it always just autostruts to the freewheeling servo, and can’t seem to go beyond it.

This design works really nicely if I use a regular strut from the wing to the cockpit, but that doesn’t look very good haha.

Any light that can be shed here would be greatly appreciated

Edited June 17, 2019 by Goody1981

[Majorjim!]

SomeOne correct me if I'm wrong but I think when the robotic parts where released you could apply auto struts but they stopped the parts from moving. In the patch recently I think squad removed the auto struts 'strut' action but left the option to apply them as you can turn them on for moving parts but they do not make the parts stiffer. 

[Epicdreamer]

You could use a powered servo instead of the free wheeling one, and set it to turn the same amount, but in the opposite direction of the powered servo between FUS and E...

[pincushionman]

2 hours ago, Goody1981 said:

…The freewheeling servo (fs) allows the wing (w) to stay stationary while the engine rotates.…

So you want the wing to stay fixed to the fuselage, and the engine to rotate? It sounds to me like the solution is to attach the wing to the fuselage instead of the engine, and create space for the engine by offsetting the wing along the beam.

[Snark]

Moving to Breaking Ground Discussion.

2 hours ago, Goody1981 said:

Without strutting the wing it will just be spinning randomly around on the freewheeling servo (moving with aero forces etc), so I want to autostrut the wing to the cockpit (root part). However, it doesn’t seem autostrut is “allowed” past the freewheeling servo. Setting the wing to autostrut to the root part shows the orange line terminating at the freewheeling servo. And the same thing happens with ‘heaviest’ or ‘grandparent’ - it always just autostruts to the freewheeling servo, and can’t seem to go beyond it.

Correct.  What you want isn't possible, and your intended design won't work as described.  Autostruts, by design, cannot traverse a robotic part unless it is locked.

So you'll have to come up with some design that doesn't rely on autostrutting.  You could mount another powered servo between engine and wing, to counter-rotate and cancel out the engine's rotation (as @Epicdreamer suggests)... though, given the mechanical stresses on wings from aerodynamic forces, and the large number of joints involved, I rather suspect that your design will end up so floppy as to make flying problematic.

Just speaking for myself, I've found that I've had the most success with VTOL designs when I mount the wings rigidly to the fuselage, and do the same with the engines.  Here's an example.

[Goody1981]

7 hours ago, Epicdreamer said:

You could use a powered servo instead of the free wheeling one, and set it to turn the same amount, but in the opposite direction of the powered servo between FUS and E...

Thanks @Epicdreamer - didn’t think of that, clever idea  

6 hours ago, pincushionman said:

So you want the wing to stay fixed to the fuselage, and the engine to rotate? It sounds to me like the solution is to attach the wing to the fuselage instead of the engine, and create space for the engine by offsetting the wing along the beam.

....and offsetting never occurred to me either - cheers @pincushionman  ... another clever idea! 

Gonna try both these next time I’m playing, and will report back.

Cheers Snark and Majorjim for your contributions too - such great help available on this forum!

Edited June 17, 2019 by Goody1981

[bcqJC]

Maybe useful to someone other than me...

I use "Visualize Autostruts" in the Physics section of the console, to display all autostruts. That way, I can at a glance, tell if I enabled Autostrut on any Robotic part or part connected as a child to a Robotic part.

[Goody1981]

@pincushionman @Epicdreamer @Snark

Thanks for the assistance guys I found offsetting as @pincushionman suggested to work wonderfully. Here are some pics of my VTOL - it handles like a dream! Easy to go and do a coastguard rescue (from GAP contract pack) and even land on the helipad (with a bit of practice  )

Prior to take-off

Taking off vertically and enjoying the morning views

And away we go (can reach up to 500 ms-1 ...eek!)

 

Thanks again for the suggestions