Why is it do hard to place elevons

[davidpsummers]

So I'm building a space plane. I put some elevons on the back of the wing so I can control it. So far so good. When I want to put them on, they always try and go on perpendicular or whatever and I have to rotate them in place. And swept wings or worse. They are deterined to embed themselves in the wing part and it looks I have to use the rotate and offset functions to move them carefully in place?

Is it suppose to be this hard?

Edited April 25, 2015 by davidpsummers

[Alshain]

You get used to it. But also, angle snap does strange things, try turning it off.

[Venusgate]

Because that is how Kerbal Swampboat Program was meant to be...

[Octa]

If "pressing the wrong rotate buttons when placing control surfaces" would be part of a drinking game, i wouldn't be ably to fly the plane after i finish building it...

[h4didact]

I basically always fine tune the elevons with the Rotation gismoz (with angle snap on so it will be straight)

[Wanderfound]

1) Angle snap off, place elevons but don't release the part.

2) Tap the ASDW keys a couple of times to rotate it, release the part.

3) Alt-click to clone.

or

1) Angle snap off, place elevons.

2) Angle snap on, rotation tool selected, rotate elevons.

3) Alt-click to clone.

Method #1 is generally faster; it's done in seconds once you're used to it.

You'll also find that some wings allow you to place elevons with angle snap on, while some don't; it's generally easier to just get in the habit of assuming that it needs to be off. And if you're planning on having wings with anhedral/dihedral, place the wings level first, attach the control surfaces, then angle the wing.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Wanderfound

[Crzyrndm]

And if you're planning on having wings with anhedral/dihedral, place the wings level first, attach the control surfaces, then angle the wing.

Anhedral/Dihedral should always be the last thing to add to a wing (not only ^^, but sometimes KSP decides to attach parts where the end of the wing *was* instead of where it is. Most annoying bug ever. Work inwards if you want to add multiple different sections of *hedral)

[thadisjones]

"pressing the wrong rotate buttons when placing ANY ROTATED DAMN THING" would be part of a drinking game

Then I'd be able to get drunk on alcohol free beer.

[falloutaddict]

1) Angle snap off, place elevons but don't release the part.

2) Tap the ASDW keys a couple of times to rotate it, release the part.

3) Alt-click to clone.

or

1) Angle snap off, place elevons.

2) Angle snap on, rotation tool selected, rotate elevons.

3) Alt-click to clone.

Method #1 is generally faster; it's done in seconds once you're used to it.

You'll also find that some wings allow you to place elevons with angle snap on, while some don't; it's generally easier to just get in the habit of assuming that it needs to be off. And if you're planning on having wings with anhedral/dihedral, place the wings level first, attach the control surfaces, then angle the wing.

All this time and I never knew you could alt click to clone!

[monstah]

If "pressing the wrong rotate buttons when placing control surfaces" would be part of a drinking game, i wouldn't be ably to fly the plane after i finish building it...

www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2388

Know that feelin.

[davidpsummers]

Well, at least I guess I'm not missing something and that it is indeed that tricky...

One thing I tried was, rather than put down a bunch on a large plane, I took one wing segment, put them on it, and saved it as a subassembly.

The main problem I have now is I was using the swept elevon (elevon 5) with the swept wing segment. The problem is that when I went to launch, I found they go the wrong way (pitch up when they should pitch down, etc.). I can't just flip them because then the slant won't line up right?

[Alshain]

Well, at least I guess I'm not missing something and that it is indeed that tricky...

One thing I tried was, rather than put down a bunch on a large plane, I took one wing segment, put them on it, and saved it as a subassembly.

The main problem I have now is I was using the swept elevon (elevon 5) with the swept wing segment. The problem is that when I went to launch, I found they go the wrong way (pitch up when they should pitch down, etc.). I can't just flip them because then the slant won't line up right?

That shouldn't be possible. There is no up or down, they are smarter than that. They decide up or down by themselves.

Are you sure they are supposed to be going the other direction? If you place them in front of the center of mass, they will turn in the opposite direction from those placed behind the center of mass, because that is what they should do.

Here is an example from a much earlier conversation in picture form. The Blue arrows represent airflow, the yellow arrows represent pitch action.

[davidpsummers]

They definitely go the wrong way. But for a weird reason. Compare the elevons with the fin mounted laterally on the engine in this photo...

But if you look from above, you can see the wings extrapolate to just before the center of mass. (The back part is actually attached to the radial engine, but it seems the game extrapolates the line to the center....