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Rotate sr. Docking port in space


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So I was foolish enough to not pay attention to the way my docking ports are oriented and i'm too far along in the building of my massive ship to redo them with the correctly oriented docking ports. So I figured I'd go into my save file and change it there. However, I don't quite understand how the rotation coordinates work

These are some examples I encountered


name = dockingPortLarge
uid = 4166428604
mid = 1609767404
parent = 0
position = 0,0.190000534057617,0
rotation = 0,0,0,1
mirror = 1,1,1


name = dockingPortLarge
uid = 847882949
mid = 3803078805
parent = 234
position = -0.000184585573151708,7.42258644104004,-0.000642582890577614
rotation = 0.6668333,7.284768E-05,0.745207,3.523691E-05
mirror = 1,1,1

So I have several of these kind of parts in my quicksave file. My guess would be to change the rotation value of 0,0,0,1 to 0,0,0,-1 but i'm not quite sure. What is the last coordinate anyway? XYZ and what? In the last block I haven o idea how to flip it.. Any help would be welcome! :)

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I'm not sure what you mean by Rotating the docking port. Did you put it on upside down, or do you want to align your ship a certain way? IF you put it on upside down you might as well start over, but if you are trying to align your ship all you need to do is undock and rotate the piece to the desired angle, then redock. As far as save file editing, I believe it is x,y,z and relation (As it seems that the last digit is optional)

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... I figured I'd go into my save file and change it there. However, I don't quite understand how the rotation coordinates work ...

It can be done, but it's not as simple as you might think. Several lines need to be changed, exactly how depends on the way that the part was oriented in construction. I suggest if you want to go down that route, you make a pair of test assemblies of just an RC-L01 probe core and the docking port, one with the port correct and one with it inverted, and compare the save files. Once you've identified the lines that need editing, you'll need to do some math on the figures in the 'position = x,y,z' lines to get the rotated port correctly located. As it's obviously not yet connected on one side, if you get the figures wrong it will just look out of place, unless you position it within the space of other parts, which could result in rapid unplanned disassembly. So long as you take a backup of the save file before playing, there's nothing to lose, and it's a learning experience. Good luck :)

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If all you're doing is rotating the port 180o you shouldn't have to change the position. Just change the rotation values, though I'm not sure which one needs to be changed, just edit the quicksave file so that you can change one and quickload to check.

But this will only make the part look correct, the "top" of the port, the part that's meant to dock will still technically be connected to the part below it. You need to change the attach node lines, and alter the docking port state.

The attach node lines are "attN = bottom, 0" and "attN = top, 2", or something like that. For your first docking port example the lines will probably say "attN = top, 0" which means the "top" of your docking port is attached to the parent part ("parent = 0"), while the bottom is either free (it should say "attN = None, -1" if it's free) or attached to something else.

You'll need to switch these, make the bottom attached to the parent part # and the top attach node free. Then you have to go down a bit to the docking port state line and set that to ready (I think the line will say "state = preattached" for you, change it to "state = ready").

And if you screw anything up your ship will probably be totally ruined, parts sticking out at odd angles, big gaps in the construction, and maybe parts spawning inside of other parts. So make backups and be careful.

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Hmm yeah this kind of sucks. I think it's easier to start over then.. I'll give it a shot and if I can't get it to work, i'll start over.

But to clarify, my docking ports are upside down, meaning the actual docking port is not facing into space but into the ship -_- fml. I'll leave this unanswered for now. If i figure it out, i'll post results and mark it as resolved. Thanks for the help!

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You could also Hyperedit your correctly-built ship into orbit, seeing as you've already done the hard work. No one has to know! :)

This is actually easier than you think. Just replace the orbit parameter of the new ship with the old, and then change the old one just a tad (To avoid rapid unplanned disassembly) and there you have it!

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It has sorta been said before with hyper editing, etc, but I will rephrase in my own terms how I would do it.

First, I would fix the error in the errored station bit. Second, I would undock the modules and have them hover just a slight bit off the module.

Next can be done in two ways. One, you can deploy on launch pad, just the module. Give it a unique name, same with your bit in space. Find the one in space and copy it's co-ordinates etc onto the new part, delete the old (make sure no crew in it). It the new one should be in place of old one, and re-dock.

Second way would be if you are not comfortable editing parts. De-orbit old one, and bring up the new one and dock stuff to it.

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  • 2 months later...

I had a drill flipped the wrong way on one of my ore probes. rotation and part placement have to be changed. I fiddled with my quick save until the part was correct. Thanks for the pointers!

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Had a similar problem with a kethane drill too - it was upside down - as I built it as a sub-assembly it was probably upside down when I built it.

To solve it I opened up the saved craft file in the VAB - rotated the drill gave the craft a unique name and then launched the craft itself. Seached for the new craft in the persistance file and just copied the part settings over to the faulty craft (don't copy the entire craft unless you keep an eye out for its position, settings, fuel levels etc.)

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  • 9 years later...
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