How to place tanks radially in 0.18.4+ and the 0.18.3 Demo.

[sal_vager]

How to place tanks radially in 0.18.4+ and the 0.18.3 Demo.

The new game and demo have a little issue with placing fuel tanks radially, and is the same issue the old aerospike used to have, KSP just assumes it is an invalid placement and doesn't let you fit them.

This is very easy to work around though, as with the old aerospike all you have to do is fit the tank in a valid place first:

Then attach the tank radially as normal:

And it will click into place just as you'd expect!

Another way to get around this is to enable part clipping in the VAB with Alt+shift+control+D, this only works in the main game though, and is not available in the demo.

Have fun and fly safe!

Edited April 18, 2013 by sal_vager

[chumad]

Hmm, I'm running into this problem as well, but your little guide hasn't helped me get any closer. I'm trying to attach tanks radially to a TT-70 Radial Decoupler... holy cow it's frustrating! Any other tips or perhaps more details to your approach?

[sal_vager]

I can be tricky, as if you are using more than 2x symmetry the tanks only want to attach when exactly in-line with the decoupler.

The trick here usually works, but if you continue to have difficulty you can enable art clipping with the debug menu (alt+f12)

[Colonel_Panic]

I find I have better luck if I'm viewing the decoupler from a steep angle from above (when attaching the tanks near the top of the decoupler) or below *when attaching them from the bottom) so that your cursor is over the decoupler, but NOT over the tank behind it. If you have issues attaching the tanks at the point on the decoupler you're aiming for, try dropping the tank somewhere free-floating, then picking it back up again from another point, effectively 'grabbing' it from a point higher up or lower down its length, allowing you to reposition your cursor for better placement. As always use symmetry to place as many tanks at once to avoid balance issues. Deal with the staging issues later.

[Hatsune_Neko]

I find I have better luck if I'm viewing the decoupler from a steep angle from above (when attaching the tanks near the top of the decoupler) or below *when attaching them from the bottom) so that your cursor is over the decoupler, but NOT over the tank behind it. If you have issues attaching the tanks at the point on the decoupler you're aiming for, try dropping the tank somewhere free-floating, then picking it back up again from another point, effectively 'grabbing' it from a point higher up or lower down its length, allowing you to reposition your cursor for better placement. As always use symmetry to place as many tanks at once to avoid balance issues. Deal with the staging issues later.

and i thought i was the only one, but i tend to look down and into the tank when i attach the extra tanks. zooming in close untill you get that green you can attach now go ahead. allows me finer control of how high or low to place the tanks in question. works best on the low profile decouple-rs ones i have found out.