About removing parts

[Midnight Jade]

A technical question on how KSP works: if I delete only the cfg file of a part, will that part's model and textures still be loaded into memory? Or is the cfg solely responsible for telling KSP what to load?

The intention here is trying to save up memory by removing parts I don't like or don't need.

[Gargamel]

Moved to Add-on Discussion, you'll get better answers there. 

[4x4cheesecake]

3 hours ago, Midnight Jade said:

if I delete only the cfg file of a part, will that part's model and textures still be loaded into memory?

Yes.
Model, texture and configs are loaded separately and put together after all components are present.

I would suggest to rename the files instead of deleting them, so if you actually need one of them, they can be easily restored. You can also use Janitors Closet to prune parts ingame. In this case, Janitors Closet will rename the model and the config so these files are not loaded on the next game launch but  it will not touch the textures (you have to rename them manually).

To prune parts with JC, hold down alt and right click on a part in the editor part list. Put the part on the block list and repeat this until you've removed all the parts you don't want. Then, click on the mod button in the toolbar, choose "perma prune" and JC will prune every part which is currently on the block list.

Keep in mind, that some mods (for example Missing History) may require some of the stock parts to work properly.

[Midnight Jade]

I see. Thank you for the Janitor's Closet suggestion, I'll try it out.

I was aware that some parts share models and/or textures so I'll be careful.