CoL issue, or CoL indicator issue?

[Oafman]

So I built an SSTO, and noticed that the CoL was slightly off centre.

I removed every lifting surface, and the CoL was exactly in the centre of the fuselage. So i started methodically adding lifting surfaces one by one, ensuring that mirrored symmetry was activated. And each time I added another wing, the CoL shifted slightly towards the left wing. I tried with various types of wing (stock and mods) in various configurations. But whatever I did, it seemed that more lifting surfaces just pushed the CoL more off-centre.

Also, is the smaller CoL indicator - in comparison to the CoM marker - a new thing in 1.02?

I'm using FAR, and pretty much every other mod available.

Anyone got any ideas?

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Edited May 21, 2015 by Oafman

[Crzyrndm]

I'm using FAR

Ferram seems to be having a few issues getting the marker to behave with FAR v15.x (probably related to the fact that he considers it of very little use because of how FAR works.)

FAR provides multiple analysis tools that are more reliable and give you much more detailed information about how your craft will behave in different conditions than the location of the CoL indicator ever will. You can find more information about those tools here in the "design analysis" spoiler.

[Oafman]

I'm long overdue getting to grips with FAR's building tools. Probably about time I did so.

And for some reason I have neglected to add RCS Build Aid to this install, which might give me a better idea.

I'll try doing both

[Chaos_Klaus]

Some times mirror symmetry is bugged. It sometimes places three wings, with two of them clipped into each other. You can see this when one Wing is brighter than the other. Maybe it's that.

I think it gets confused if the parent part was also placed in symmetry.

The fix is to press Shift+X to decrease symmetry until it places only one part and then press X again to have two-times-symmetry.

[Juicy]

Could it be that one or more of the parts gets mirrored upside down? It doesn't look like a big difference, so it's probably a smaller piece. On some rare occasions, usually when a plane contains rocket parts, I find mirroring doesn't work quite as I'd expect.

[Oafman]

Some times mirror symmetry is bugged. It sometimes places three wings, with two of them clipped into each other. You can see this when one Wing is brighter than the other. Maybe it's that.

I think it gets confused if the parent part was also placed in symmetry.

The fix is to press Shift+X to decrease symmetry until it places only one part and then press X again to have two-times-symmetry.

I wondered that too, but I was very careful when I readded each lifting surface, and could not see any difference on each side. And the CoM never moved, though it would be hard to spot as the mass of a rogue extra wing would make very little difference

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Could it be that one or more of the parts gets mirrored upside down? It doesn't look like a big difference, so it's probably a smaller piece. On some rare occasions, usually when a plane contains rocket parts, I find mirroring doesn't work quite as I'd expect.

I checked that I had mirror rather than radial symmetry, and could not see any difference on each side. If something was upside down I think I would have been able to see it, especially given that I tried with a wide range of lifting surfaces.

I think Crzyrndm is right and this is a FAR issue, and I should start using the proper aero tools from FAR, rather than being lazy