Space station explodes when I try to use an engineer to add new parts

[chrisuk83]

This has happened a few times now, so I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. I have a few parts docked in orbit, and an engineer on board with a cargo container of parts to add to my space station. Sometimes, when I add the part, the entire thing just explodes. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[Anonymous49]

Any pics?

[steuben]

might also be an auto-strut issue. how are they set?

[Guest]

Check your engineer isn't grabbing parts from the box labelled TNT. Alternatively might just be a kraken attack or bug with the attachment system or parts are getting clipped when attached. What part are you attaching and to what? 

[Zhetaan]

15 hours ago, chrisuk83 said:

This has happened a few times now, so I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. I have a few parts docked in orbit, and an engineer on board with a cargo container of parts to add to my space station. Sometimes, when I add the part, the entire thing just explodes. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

These sorts of problems are difficult to diagnose without a picture of both the craft and of exactly what you're trying to do.  However, the usual suspects in these sorts of cases, as @steuben and @FruitGoose have already mentioned, are autostrut and part clipping issues.  Does everything explode at once, or does it tear itself apart over a few seconds?

The autostrut problems normally occur when you have an autostrut set to the heaviest part, and the identity of that part changes mid-flight, or when you have them set to the root part and you change that part (usually when you undock something).  Limit your use of autostruts to what is needed and no more, and set them to the grandparent part whenever possible.

The part clipping issues are essentially what it says on the tin:  you attach a part that intersects with another part in a way that they don't like.

Given that EVA part attachment is a fairly new stock feature, it's also possible that you're encountering a new sort of bug and the reference to 'the usual suspects' needs a bit of recalibration.