KAS: Object that I moved before is now too heavy

[maddog59]

Earlier in my game, I was able to use an engineer to grab/detach a docking port from one vehicle, attach it to another, move to a third vehicle, and attach it. Now, I want to move the same docking port, using the same engineer, in the same mission, to another location on the vehicle. But when I try to grab the docking port, I get a 'too heavy' message, as it seems to think that I'm trying to grab the entire vehicle. Restarting the game didn't change anything, and I'm trying to figure out what is different, and (most importantly) if there's a way to 'fix' it so I can detach the docking port and move it. Any suggestions/explanations will be welcome.  

[Superfluous J]

Is the docking port in use? you need to undock before you grab it, or it tries to grab everything "away from" the root part of the craft you're interacting with.

The only other thing I can think of is that maybe you had other Kerbals around before, and now your engineer's alone. But this sounds more like the first thing.

[maddog59]

11 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

Is the docking port in use? you need to undock before you grab it, or it tries to grab everything "away from" the root part of the craft you're interacting with.

The only other thing I can think of is that maybe you had other Kerbals around before, and now your engineer's alone. But this sounds more like the first thing.

No, I undocked from the port, and all of the previous times I worked on it (disconnecting from the original, attaching it to the transport vehicle, then reattaching to the new vehicle) had only the one Kerbal to move it. When I try to grab the port, even though I have only the port highlighted in green, when I hit 'G' to grab, the entire ship it's now connected to lights up in green. 

[Superfluous J]

19 minutes ago, maddog59 said:

No, I undocked from the port, and all of the previous times I worked on it (disconnecting from the original, attaching it to the transport vehicle, then reattaching to the new vehicle) had only the one Kerbal to move it. When I try to grab the port, even though I have only the port highlighted in green, when I hit 'G' to grab, the entire ship it's now connected to lights up in green. 

I think maybe the docking port became the root part of the craft. I don't know the rules on when and why things happen but it makes sense.

Try instead grabbing the thing the docking port is on. I don't know if KIS allows you to detach it if you can't carry it, but if so that should work. If not... Uh you may need to find a way to re-route outside of the VAB, something I don't know has ever been modded.

EDIT: I found this very old thread. Maybe the final post's suggestion would work.

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by Superfluous J

[jimmymcgoochie]

Does the entire vessel highlight when you hold G or H and hover the cursor over the docking port? Do you get an error when holding H and hovering over the port saying the part is a root part.

If Yes to either of those: hold H, hover over the part the port is attached to and then ‘detach’ the whole vessel from the port. That should cause the port to detach and it should then behave as expected.

[maddog59]

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve been offline for several days so I’ve just now seen your posts. I’m still a day or two out before I can give them a try. I’ll post the results. Many thanks!

[maddog59]

On 9/24/2020 at 9:19 AM, jimmymcgoochie said:

Does the entire vessel highlight when you hold G or H and hover the cursor over the docking port? Do you get an error when holding H and hovering over the port saying the part is a root part.

If Yes to either of those: hold H, hover over the part the port is attached to and then ‘detach’ the whole vessel from the port. That should cause the port to detach and it should then behave as expected.

Your solution worked perfectly. I'd attached the the docking port to what normally would have been debris - it was just a bunch of fuel tanks and an engine that I'd decoupled earlier, and had no command part associated with it. I figure the port became the root part when I docked a vessel to it. Thank you very much for your assistance!

[jimmymcgoochie]

1 hour ago, maddog59 said:

Your solution worked perfectly. I'd attached the the docking port to what normally would have been debris - it was just a bunch of fuel tanks and an engine that I'd decoupled earlier, and had no command part associated with it. I figure the port became the root part when I docked a vessel to it. Thank you very much for your assistance!

Glad I could help  something similar happened to me recently so it was fresh in my memory.