thanks for the quick feedback. after reading thru this tread further, i noticed that i had included several non-supported parts in the weld, (multiple engines, landing gear and a probe core). i went ahead and forced quit, then removed the welded part from the Gamedata folder. since then i've reloaded and tested with other welded parts, so far no problems loading at all. guessing it was something in that particular weld. i'll take it slow, and try to experiment a bit before throwing a huge monstrosity of a ship at it. thanks for all the support, if i run into it again, i'll definitely get a log for further study.